Mike Ditka: 'Political Correct Idiots' Fueling Washington Football Team Name Change Talk

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 20, 2014 2:20PM

We weren’t sitting around wondering what former Chicago Bears coach and current pitchman and ESPN NFL analyst Mike Ditka thought on the ongoing debate to change the name of Washington’s pro football team, but Da Coach weighed in on the situation, anyway. And he did so in his own peculiar way.

Ditka, in an interview at RedskinsHistorian.com, minced no words.

“What’s all the stink over the Redskin name? It’s so much [expletive] it’s incredible. We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them, a Brownskin? This is so stupid it’s appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of an American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins. That’s the way it is.”

Ditka blamed the debate on “all the political correct idiots in America” because of course, while saying he admired the Potomac River Basin Indigenous Peoples’ Football Club owner Dan Snyder fight to keep the nickname in place.

Hey listen, I went through it in the 60s, too. I mean, come on. Everybody lined up, did this. It’s fine to protest. That’s your right, if you don’t like it, protest. You have a right to do that, but to change the name, that’s ridiculous. Change the Constitution — we’ve got people trying to do that, too, and they’re doing a pretty good job.”

In case you couldn’t tell from the quotes, Ditka’s political leanings are conservative, and his outspoken nature has proven to be quite profitable on the public speaking circuit. Ditka has stepped in the muck before; last October he said at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a North Dakota oil company he regretted not running for Senate against Barack Obama in 2004. “Biggest mistake I’ve ever made,” Ditka said. “Not that I would have won, but I probably would have and he wouldn’t be in the White House.”

Here we thought Ditka’s biggest mistake was not winning multiple Super Bowls with a Bears squad with the talent to at least three-peat. Ditka eventually backed ultra-conservative crackpot Alan Keyes against Obama 10 years ago, and the rest is history.

As for the debate over the Washington football team’s nickname, opponents of the name argue it’s offensive to Native Americans, while supporters of the name claim it’s a nod to the team’s first coach, William Henry “Lone Star” Dietz, who ostensibly had Sioux Indian heritage—a claim that’s been disputed over the years.

Several publications, including our sister site DCist, have refused to use the current team nickname in articles, and the U.S. Patent Office canceled the team’s trademark registration of the name in June, saying it was “disparaging to Native Americans." The team filed a lawsuit last week to overturn the Patent Office’s ruling.

As for Ditka, he has a right to his opinion and to voice it in public. But we encourage him to dig deeper into the story, instead of reacting. Because if he’s looking to find a real redskin, all he needs to do is look in a mirror.