Hello, and welcome back to the Week's Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis. I'm here with Connor Or and it is July in the NFL calendar, which is normally pretty quiet, but yet again we have another news break this week to talk about. Last week, at this time we were talking about cam Newton. Now we're talking about Washington undergoing a thorough review of its team nickname that is a racial slur, and it seems imminent or inevitable is perhaps a better word, that they will change at the name at this point, Snyder has been dug in for years, but finally mounting pressure from corporate sponsors as everything in America, Connor Money Talks money has finally pushed this to the precipice. Actually, we were talking about this a little bit on last week's week Side pod to the second episode of the week. We we said that it would have to be a financial push for him, and then shortly thereafter we have fed x this. One of the minority owners and also the naming rights holder of the stadium spoke up wanting the names to be changed. Nike has taken down merchandise from its website until there is a name change, so what we're going to talk about today is something that Connor wrote for the MMQB potential new names. What direction will Washington go from here? And you had a lot of good ideas, Connor. Um, shall we go through them one by one or do you want to talk about your favorite one first? Yeah, let's go through the one by one, because I think it's like I lumped them into like a couple of different categories, and I think what um, Washington is going to end up doing here is well, to be clear, here's what I think they should do, and then we'll get into what they will probably will do. What they should do is take the year off right, Um, I referenced on Twitter, Um, you know, I'm often go up to West Point to visit the coaching staff there and um, you know, have learned a lot from Army and Navy football over the years. And every year they take an entire calendar year to come up with their uniform designs for the Army Navy game. And it's always, you know, um, some kind of battalion or you know, group of people that were instrumental in a war that don't get a lot that that don't get talked about, and its research, and it's talking to people and it's learning. And I feel like this is what Washington can do. Right. You take you don't have a nickname for this year, You just are Washington and you maybe play without a logo or whatever you want to do. But you don't do anything this year, and you learn, You learn about why people were upset. You listen, you come up with an idea that maybe you don't have to change a whole lot in the end, you know, I mean, they've already been some suggestions from some tribes that you wouldn't even have to change. It would fit into the fight song still, you know what I mean. This is not really asking you to move a mile. But in this time, I think that it's most responsible that we all sort of sit down and listen. And this is a great opportunity for Washington to sit down, listen and honestly probably come up with something ten times cooler. And I'm not saying what they had was cool to begin with, but like maybe actually something that a lot more people could get on board with. Yeah, I think that's a really smart idea. Connor to give them the time to actually do the work and actually to learn coming out of this experience all along. That has been the great failure of the Washington team. They never met with name change activists in Fritz Polar Alliance tried to broker a meeting between Washington leadership and change the Name activists. That meeting was never set up. They Washington never agreed to that meeting. Snyder did do a tour of some Native American communities across the nation. Um But in terms of entertaining the verstation about changing the name and actually appreciating the perspective of those who have been pushing for the name to be changed, he's never acknowledged that as a valid perspective. It's essentially any work that he's done has been to instead validate his continued use of the name. So I think for this to actually be a meaningful step rather than a reaction to his pocketbook, I think he does need to put in the learning and have those meetings that he has declined to have in the past, Which is why I think your idea is a really great one. And I think you know, people have said, you know, there are lots of different names that we could be reconsidering now, and I think the Washington name has always in my view been the worst because it's in itself a racial slur. The Cleveland Indians also is has been problematic too, especially when they had the caricature of a Native American as their logo, which they had changed. But I think those two have always it out as the worst. Um, but just any appropriation of Native American imagery or names outside of the context of how it's meant to be used in the Native American community, right, headdresses that aren't um serving. You know, headdresses are earned in the Native American community, right, so when you see people wearing them at football games, they're not earned, and so they're just like, there's a whole spectrum of things. But it starts with changing the name. And then also if you do want to uh maintain a tie to Native American communities, figuring out a way to do it that actually involves Native Americans and that includes talking to change the name activists. Yeah. Um, but like you said, this dovetails nicely into our first group of suggestions. Snyder is Sneider, and so in lieu of learning something or having meetings, Um, what's the most likely scenario, right is to go fully in the opposite direction and call your team, the Americans or the Warriors, and rape them in camouflage, your red, white and blue or really sort of cow too to the um the people that you're worried about losing in the first place, right, Um, Because let's be honest, I mean, there is a segment of the population that is upset um with the name change. They align fairly politically with what's going on right now. And you know what would Snyder do? Right? Call them the warriors? Make this all about? Ron Rivera had referenced the military for some reason in Washington statement, Um about changing reviewing the name changing process. So make this team just steeped in this sort of strangely hard to define Trumpian military aesthetic. And you know, call them the Americans, call them the Warriors, and you're basically thumbing your nose at everybody that forced you to change your name in the first place. Yeah, And I guess this kind of fits into what Ron Rivera's comments were saying to honor the military, which was sort of head scratcher when I saw the statement. He talked a little bit further to the Washington Post over the weekend, and he said that many Native Americans serve in the military, so that was what he was referencing. I think it's a strange connection to make though it's sort of it just didn't seem to fit into the conversation. But yes, since Ron Rivera has apparently seen a couple of the name options Connor, I think it's a fair bet to assume that something along these lines is being considered very disappointing I think show or performance by him in general. I mean, we had talked about this two weeks ago on the show when he was asked about the name change, and he said that this wasn't a discussion for right now, and then all of a sudden, when the press release came out, it was apparently a very deep issue for him and his family, like you know, and and I just feel like we need to start cutting the ship, like you know, like desperately cut the ship and be honest about what your thoughts are and what your opinions are, because who is this serving to this double talk and to try to get out of the question and then to come back ten minutes later when it's a pressing issue. This is like, I mean, coaches have always been politician one oh one, but this is not serving anybody at this time. I mean, this is just a ridiculous way too. And we've seen it with the Kaepernick stuff too. You and I've talked about this too. It's like everybody is so aggressively straddling both sides of the line. But you don't have to anymore. I mean, the everything's broken wide open. You don't get punished for having controversial opinions anymore apparently, So just say what you feel. If you think that that should be your team name, at least be honest about it, and don't say it's important to you one minute and then it's not important to you the next minute. Has been a strange year, but my great hope for this year is that we can come out of it with exactly what you just said. Just cut the ship. That's really what I would like to see. Yeah, that would be a great outcome of If or ventis cut the ship, we would be a viable third part pready candidacy. I think with that just sounds like we'd have to go up against Kanye. But point all right onto our next name suggestion, the Red Tails, red Clouds. I like both of these because, um, the Red Tails was a runner up in a renamed Washington contest. I think it was six years ago. Um, and you know, someone went outside the box. It wasn't even one of the pre determined nicknames that you could use, UM, but this person thought it would be a good idea, UM to honor the Tusky yarman um. And I think that that's a really cool idea. They had the red tails on the back of their planes and well a lot of this was based out of Alabama where the training was done. This was a super diverse group of colored Americans, mostly African American, but Haitian, American, Caribbean, American, UM, Latino UM, American soldiers UM that fought in World War Two. And I think that would be really cool. I mean because that yes, I mean, is it based somewhat in Tuskegee in Alabama. But that's a very American story that um. You know, for whatever reason, we tend to overlook when we like to bring up our you know, fairy tales of history and all this kind of stuff. But this is something I think that people could get behind and it it involves a lot of different components and elements and I don't know, you know, and as the user who created it said, you wouldn't even have to change the fight song. Red Tales fits in just the same, you know, I don't know, you wouldn't have to change the color scheme. I think it would be uh, you know, I think that would be a neat name, um, just like Red Clouds. You know, Red cloud was famous Native American UM military chief war hero, someone who's actually brought to Washington and celebrated for his exploits on the battlefield, um, you know. And again would not have to change a whole lot. And I think that now I don't want to speak for the Native American community, but I think maybe naming the team after someone like that would least be more agreeable than what they have now, where you're at least kind of showing some sort of a deference for the history of their culture a little bit. Yeah, that seems to fit in a lot of different levels connor either of those two options. And as you mentioned, it would be a somewhat seamless transition, which could be a priority if they're trying to roll out a new name and everything for the season. It seems like something that would kind of uh be easily um fit into where they're at right now, which you know, maybe perhaps keeping the color scheme, um and so, and as you mentioned, you know, the wording and it fits into the fight song and everything. So that is a is a really good idea. I think, um onto option number three, some kind of iteration of hogs. You just do the hogs, the battle hogs, the war hogs. You could do the drain the swamp hogs if you want whatever. You know, Um, Joe, that's good. I'm sorry I had a laugh. Joe Bugle, the team's legendary offensive line coach, Um, you know, passed away earlier this year and was really the architect of that. Joe Jacoby, Mark may Russ Grim, Jeff Bostick. You know that that big, powerful offensive line in the late eighties, early nineties, Um, that propelled them to those Super Bowl wins. You know, that is half the team. That's sort of their secondary mascot anyway, Right, everybody wears the pig masks, everybody has the shirts with the hogs on them anyway, And this is a way to sort of just I mean, if you're I think this would be the easiest way to just move on without any sort of pushback from the fan base. You're basically adopting your secondary mascot as your primary mascot, right, Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. As you mentioned, you know, there's there's Hogs Haven, there's all these fan sites that are built around this Hogs secondary mascot, so um, that could fit in pretty well. Your next option is in the Washington Vain Senators, Presidents, Federals founders be a little bit tougher to do right now, it's going to say, and especially too, I mean, because now there's like, now we're find like we're finally talking about American history in the right context, right the fact that many of our country's founders were slaveholders, that the words of the Declaration of Independence didn't apply to all. Like we're finally putting history in the accurate context. And so I think there is certainly less of a romantization of American history. Yeah, and you know, we saw the Washington Nationals that the baseball team, I mean, there was a Senators team back then. But I think it's harder to romanticizes the perfect word, that's the perfect way to put it, what is happening in that area of the country right now, and say oh it's cool, because you know, It's not like San Francisco and the forty Niners, right, or you know, any of these other sort of very unique regional nicknames. It's more like, Okay, we can't agree on anything politically right now, So it would be very hard to call the team the President's or the founders or anything like that, because I don't know. We're just in a place where I don't think anybody can agree on anything in that sphere, but the inclination will be there because there's always that knee jerk to go um uh, to go in that direction. Um. But yeah, I don't know. I think if I had to put my money on anything, I think those would be way down the line at this point, right. Yeah. And also in the context of having conversations with Native Americans, I think that would also be a tough sell because the founders of the country are the ones who took away Native American land, and you know, I think that's that would be inconsistent with the idea that you would want Native American input and you would want, um, some kind of rebranding that would make them feel valued. Um, if that's even possible at this point. I mean, you know, I am a little bit skeptical, And you know, I think I am curious if Snyder will meet with people who have been active in pushing for the change of the name. As we've said, that has been the one step he hasn't been willing to take. UM. So I am skeptical that he will seek that input. But yes, if he did, you know. And it also just struck me to Connors that over this all came up over July fourth weekend, and this was a July four when I really thought a lot about the fact that it doesn't represent some time of celebration for so many parts of our country, and that includes the Native Americans. So it was just sort of interesting timing that this was bubbling to the surface and was happening over a holiday weekend that is not a holiday for so many Yeah. Absolutely, the top of the show, we talked about taking year off from having a nickname at all um in doing the homework. If that's impossible, then just don't have a nickname, UM. And I I think that while it sounds crazy, I mean football, European football, UM, but you know a lot of these teams they have Okay, so I'm gonna get destroyed for this, UM, But I need to make sure I have my soccer uh knowledge in a line here, but if I'm not mistaken, like like Manchester United are like the Red Devil's right, that's like a name, a nickname that they have, UM, but they're mostly everyone just calls the Manchester United, right, I mean, just like I don't know, um, Like Chelsea Chelsea is the Blues, I believe, but everyone just calls them Chelsea, you know. And so if you're Washington, you know, the soccer team there in Washington is already d C United, But you could do you know, the Washington FC, Washington in Football club, or you could be you know, anything like that that just says, hey, we're Washington and and that's it and uh. Or you could go super vague and governmental and call yourself like the Department of Defense, you know, or something like that. You know, where you'd be like Washington slash the Department of Defense and then you build your identity around a great defense or something like that, like like like a Rex Ryan team you just never draft on offense at all. I really like this Connor because I think it's sort of Mascots are kind of silly to begin with. I mean, and certainly in this conversation, we're talking about a mascot that is deeply offensive and hurtful to so many. So just go totally the other way, say hey, we don't we don't need a mascot. I know, I think soccer is a good precedent. Again, we've talked openly on the show that our soccer knowledge is somewhat lacking. But I think the examples that you provided are correct. You don't really hear a lot of soccer teams being referred to as their mascot, even you know, in the NWSL. I have gone to the club that Megan Rpedo plays for last year when we're doing the sports person story and their Rain FC. I think they were bought by I have a partnership with the club in France now, so they're now O L Rain. But certainly there isn't like a mascot that's prominent, like in terms of how you refer to the team, it's just rain FC or O L Rain. So I mean, and I kind of like those like just kind of department of defense. I really like that, Connor. I mean, I think that could be catchy and um, I think that could really work. Well, maybe you never know. UM. I just think and someone had tweeted us UM about Now I didn't read too deeply into this, but the Potomacs would be an interesting nickname that is a local tribe. UM. You know that that the Potomac River was named after UM. And so you know there's an example. But again, it's like you don't want to put words in anybody's mouth because maybe a tribe does not want to be quote unquote honored by a football team. Maybe they want have nothing to do with a football team, you know. UM. And again that's a conversation that Daniel Snyder is going to have to have UM, which you know is UM. Remains to be seen whether or not that will happen. I mean, you know, the conversations that he will be having. I mean, let's be real about what's gonna go on here in the next few weeks. You we all saw the uniform change wave this year, UM and especially the RAMS gave us a little bit of a peek behind the curtain. You have no idea how many branding experts focus group people. You know, the sheer magnitude of what has to happen here UM is staggering. I think, and I think that those are the people that Snyder is probably more likely to listen to at this point, and they're the ones that kind of control the steering wheel at this point. You know what kind of uniforms are going to sell? U? Do we have to change the colors? You know? Do we have to do a B, C, D, E F G. I think all of that is going to have to take precedent in his mind, um above. You know, Wow, I I really heard some people's feelings here over the last thirty years. Let me see what I can do about it, you know. Yeah, And of course one of the conversations will be how can we make the most money off the rebrand in terms of marketing the new merchandise and having a whole new set of uniforms, a team apparel, et cetera to sell. You know, there is one kind of cognitive dissonance here between what Snyder has always said. Remember there was one account of when Snyder went on one of his trips to a Native American community. He visited the pueblo of Zuni, and he had a conversation with a museum director that I remember. The museum director wrote an essay about several years ago, and he said at the end of their visit, he expressed his displeasure with the name, and Snyder said something along the lines of like, hey, we're a football team, so if they turn around now and are basically like, oh yeah, we want to incorporate Native American culture, we want to honor it. Like it's just so this whole thing just smacks me. Is so frustrating name Connor, because he had the chance to do the right thing, right, He's had multiple opportunities to the right thing, even just meet with Native American change the name activists, you know, and so I'm just so reluctant to give them any credit. While I'm happy that we're here and I'm happy that this awful name is changing, and I'm happy that, um there, it seems inevitable at this point. I'm one, I'm sort of unbelieve it when I see it. Mode, Like I'm not so sure that there won't be some kind of I don't know, last minute curveball because I'm a skeptic, but to you know, when it happens, it's like, all right, he's basically forced into it for business reasons, and just it just doesn't feel good, you know, it doesn't feel good. Connor, No, I'm waiting. You know, it's been a while. I need we need something, um, you know, to leave us with a good taste in our mouth. It's been uh, it's been a little bit of time, you know, And and this was never going to be the thing, you know. I think that that's the difficulty of this all is when push comes to shove, and there's so much great advocacy being done for you know, uh, putting history in its correct perspective and it's correct light, but it's still so frustrating to see the motivation, the ultimate motivation behind all the decisions, you know what I mean, And so it just doesn't leave you feeling good in the moment. That said, for better or worse, there's I would say at this point in chance that the Washington football team will not have a racial slur as a nickname in so hey, that's it's positive. The end results will be positive. And you know, I think there's future generations of kids who are going to grow up and not have to feel uncomfortable by this nickname. You know, there are Native Americans across the country who don't want their kids to have to face this uncomfortable nickname that they faced growing up. They don't want their kids to be called the R word, and this is a positive step in that direction. So, yes, you're right, Connor. It's it's a good outcome, despite the fact that it's just a reminder of the power of our capitol is dick society and that that can oftentimes just leave you feeling kind of about things. I agree, Um, what's something? Uh, holiday weekend had just passed. Um, while it was a little bit more somber in nature, certainly given what was going on. Anything, Uh a good highlight from the holiday weekend? That didn't give you the feeling something that can? I feel like we need that kick at the end of the little kick. Um, you know, I I don't have anything top of mind, Connor, how about you? We were we were driving home on the fourth We went to go visit my in laws, um at their cabin, and we took a little boat ride, which, by the way, residents of Lake Wall, Paul pack no social distancing out there, bad job on all of you. Um, a lot of partying on those boats. I hope everybody was, you know, a symptoma or had had their coronavirus tests before they got on those boats. I was watching every one of you, um as we were isolated in our own little section of the of the lake. But um, we're driving home and sort of lamenting the fact that, like, you know, our community canceled their fireworks, our town canceled their fireworks. Um, they canceled them where my in laws were. Um, but we're driving along Route fifteen on the way back to New Jersey, and all of a sudden we passed this field and this beautiful fireworks display starts, and so I said, I'm gonna be the best dad in the world. I pulled over, you know, woke her up, and I was like, look, you know, fireworks and she's kind of looking at them, never seen them before, didn't really know what to make of it. And after two or three she said, I want to go home. So I said, okay, we're we're gonna go home. But uh so that was we tried. We tried to fireworks, but you know, it is what it is, you know. Yeah, there was a lot of Central Park was pretty packed. I just went for a walk on on Saturday on the fourth and there were so many barbecues and gatherings. It was a little overwhelming, so I mean my walk pretty short, but we advise you as always to stay safe out there. Gang. We want you know, we want everybody to be listening to the week Side podcast twice a week every week in in perfect health, so you know, keep it up. We can do that. And uh and we haven't done a mail back in a couple of weeks, but I think we'll probably get to that next couple of weeks in July, so send those into week Side pot at gmail dot com. We will look for your answers and we'll read them in coming weeks. So thanks everyone for joining us this week. The MMQB week Side Podcast is Me, Jenny Rentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royston. A size executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody Ben Eagle as director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Mravik is a meritus executive director of the MMQB. Keep up with our entire line at podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify, Radio dot Com, Stitcher, a side dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Hello, and welcome back to the Week's Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis. I'm here with Connor Or and it is July in the NFL calendar, which is normally pretty quiet, but yet again we have another news break this week to talk about. Last week, at this time we were talking about cam Newton. Now we're talking about Washington undergoing a thorough review of its team nickname that is a racial slur, and it seems imminent or inevitable is perhaps a better word, that they will change at the name at this point, Snyder has been dug in for years, but finally mounting pressure from corporate sponsors as everything in America, Connor Money Talks money has finally pushed this to the precipice. Actually, we were talking about this a little bit on last week's week Side pod to the second episode of the week. We we said that it would have to be a financial push for him, and then shortly thereafter we have fed x this. One of the minority owners and also the naming rights holder of the stadium spoke up wanting the names to be changed. Nike has taken down merchandise from its website until there is a name change, so what we're going to talk about today is something that Connor wrote for the MMQB potential new names. What direction will Washington go from here? And you had a lot of good ideas, Connor. Um, shall we go through them one by one or do you want to talk about your favorite one first? Yeah, let's go through the one by one, because I think it's like I lumped them into like a couple of different categories, and I think what um, Washington is going to end up doing here is well, to be clear, here's what I think they should do, and then we'll get into what they will probably will do. What they should do is take the year off right, Um, I referenced on Twitter, Um, you know, I'm often go up to West Point to visit the coaching staff there and um, you know, have learned a lot from Army and Navy football over the years. And every year they take an entire calendar year to come up with their uniform designs for the Army Navy game. And it's always, you know, um, some kind of battalion or you know, group of people that were instrumental in a war that don't get a lot that that don't get talked about, and its research, and it's talking to people and it's learning. And I feel like this is what Washington can do. Right. You take you don't have a nickname for this year, You just are Washington and you maybe play without a logo or whatever you want to do. But you don't do anything this year, and you learn, You learn about why people were upset. You listen, you come up with an idea that maybe you don't have to change a whole lot in the end, you know, I mean, they've already been some suggestions from some tribes that you wouldn't even have to change. It would fit into the fight song still, you know what I mean. This is not really asking you to move a mile. But in this time, I think that it's most responsible that we all sort of sit down and listen. And this is a great opportunity for Washington to sit down, listen and honestly probably come up with something ten times cooler. And I'm not saying what they had was cool to begin with, but like maybe actually something that a lot more people could get on board with. Yeah, I think that's a really smart idea. Connor to give them the time to actually do the work and actually to learn coming out of this experience all along. That has been the great failure of the Washington team. They never met with name change activists in Fritz Polar Alliance tried to broker a meeting between Washington leadership and change the Name activists. That meeting was never set up. They Washington never agreed to that meeting. Snyder did do a tour of some Native American communities across the nation. Um But in terms of entertaining the verstation about changing the name and actually appreciating the perspective of those who have been pushing for the name to be changed, he's never acknowledged that as a valid perspective. It's essentially any work that he's done has been to instead validate his continued use of the name. So I think for this to actually be a meaningful step rather than a reaction to his pocketbook, I think he does need to put in the learning and have those meetings that he has declined to have in the past, Which is why I think your idea is a really great one. And I think you know, people have said, you know, there are lots of different names that we could be reconsidering now, and I think the Washington name has always in my view been the worst because it's in itself a racial slur. The Cleveland Indians also is has been problematic too, especially when they had the caricature of a Native American as their logo, which they had changed. But I think those two have always it out as the worst. Um, but just any appropriation of Native American imagery or names outside of the context of how it's meant to be used in the Native American community, right, headdresses that aren't um serving. You know, headdresses are earned in the Native American community, right, so when you see people wearing them at football games, they're not earned, and so they're just like, there's a whole spectrum of things. But it starts with changing the name. And then also if you do want to uh maintain a tie to Native American communities, figuring out a way to do it that actually involves Native Americans and that includes talking to change the name activists. Yeah. Um, but like you said, this dovetails nicely into our first group of suggestions. Snyder is Sneider, and so in lieu of learning something or having meetings, Um, what's the most likely scenario, right is to go fully in the opposite direction and call your team, the Americans or the Warriors, and rape them in camouflage, your red, white and blue or really sort of cow too to the um the people that you're worried about losing in the first place, right, Um, Because let's be honest, I mean, there is a segment of the population that is upset um with the name change. They align fairly politically with what's going on right now. And you know what would Snyder do? Right? Call them the warriors? Make this all about? Ron Rivera had referenced the military for some reason in Washington statement, Um about changing reviewing the name changing process. So make this team just steeped in this sort of strangely hard to define Trumpian military aesthetic. And you know, call them the Americans, call them the Warriors, and you're basically thumbing your nose at everybody that forced you to change your name in the first place. Yeah, And I guess this kind of fits into what Ron Rivera's comments were saying to honor the military, which was sort of head scratcher when I saw the statement. He talked a little bit further to the Washington Post over the weekend, and he said that many Native Americans serve in the military, so that was what he was referencing. I think it's a strange connection to make though it's sort of it just didn't seem to fit into the conversation. But yes, since Ron Rivera has apparently seen a couple of the name options Connor, I think it's a fair bet to assume that something along these lines is being considered very disappointing I think show or performance by him in general. I mean, we had talked about this two weeks ago on the show when he was asked about the name change, and he said that this wasn't a discussion for right now, and then all of a sudden, when the press release came out, it was apparently a very deep issue for him and his family, like you know, and and I just feel like we need to start cutting the ship, like you know, like desperately cut the ship and be honest about what your thoughts are and what your opinions are, because who is this serving to this double talk and to try to get out of the question and then to come back ten minutes later when it's a pressing issue. This is like, I mean, coaches have always been politician one oh one, but this is not serving anybody at this time. I mean, this is just a ridiculous way too. And we've seen it with the Kaepernick stuff too. You and I've talked about this too. It's like everybody is so aggressively straddling both sides of the line. But you don't have to anymore. I mean, the everything's broken wide open. You don't get punished for having controversial opinions anymore apparently, So just say what you feel. If you think that that should be your team name, at least be honest about it, and don't say it's important to you one minute and then it's not important to you the next minute. Has been a strange year, but my great hope for this year is that we can come out of it with exactly what you just said. Just cut the ship. That's really what I would like to see. Yeah, that would be a great outcome of If or ventis cut the ship, we would be a viable third part pready candidacy. I think with that just sounds like we'd have to go up against Kanye. But point all right onto our next name suggestion, the Red Tails, red Clouds. I like both of these because, um, the Red Tails was a runner up in a renamed Washington contest. I think it was six years ago. Um, and you know, someone went outside the box. It wasn't even one of the pre determined nicknames that you could use, UM, but this person thought it would be a good idea, UM to honor the Tusky yarman um. And I think that that's a really cool idea. They had the red tails on the back of their planes and well a lot of this was based out of Alabama where the training was done. This was a super diverse group of colored Americans, mostly African American, but Haitian, American, Caribbean, American, UM, Latino UM, American soldiers UM that fought in World War Two. And I think that would be really cool. I mean because that yes, I mean, is it based somewhat in Tuskegee in Alabama. But that's a very American story that um. You know, for whatever reason, we tend to overlook when we like to bring up our you know, fairy tales of history and all this kind of stuff. But this is something I think that people could get behind and it it involves a lot of different components and elements and I don't know, you know, and as the user who created it said, you wouldn't even have to change the fight song. Red Tales fits in just the same, you know, I don't know, you wouldn't have to change the color scheme. I think it would be uh, you know, I think that would be a neat name, um, just like Red Clouds. You know, Red cloud was famous Native American UM military chief war hero, someone who's actually brought to Washington and celebrated for his exploits on the battlefield, um, you know. And again would not have to change a whole lot. And I think that now I don't want to speak for the Native American community, but I think maybe naming the team after someone like that would least be more agreeable than what they have now, where you're at least kind of showing some sort of a deference for the history of their culture a little bit. Yeah, that seems to fit in a lot of different levels connor either of those two options. And as you mentioned, it would be a somewhat seamless transition, which could be a priority if they're trying to roll out a new name and everything for the season. It seems like something that would kind of uh be easily um fit into where they're at right now, which you know, maybe perhaps keeping the color scheme, um and so, and as you mentioned, you know, the wording and it fits into the fight song and everything. So that is a is a really good idea. I think, um onto option number three, some kind of iteration of hogs. You just do the hogs, the battle hogs, the war hogs. You could do the drain the swamp hogs if you want whatever. You know, Um, Joe, that's good. I'm sorry I had a laugh. Joe Bugle, the team's legendary offensive line coach, Um, you know, passed away earlier this year and was really the architect of that. Joe Jacoby, Mark may Russ Grim, Jeff Bostick. You know that that big, powerful offensive line in the late eighties, early nineties, Um, that propelled them to those Super Bowl wins. You know, that is half the team. That's sort of their secondary mascot anyway, Right, everybody wears the pig masks, everybody has the shirts with the hogs on them anyway, And this is a way to sort of just I mean, if you're I think this would be the easiest way to just move on without any sort of pushback from the fan base. You're basically adopting your secondary mascot as your primary mascot, right, Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. As you mentioned, you know, there's there's Hogs Haven, there's all these fan sites that are built around this Hogs secondary mascot, so um, that could fit in pretty well. Your next option is in the Washington Vain Senators, Presidents, Federals founders be a little bit tougher to do right now, it's going to say, and especially too, I mean, because now there's like, now we're find like we're finally talking about American history in the right context, right the fact that many of our country's founders were slaveholders, that the words of the Declaration of Independence didn't apply to all. Like we're finally putting history in the accurate context. And so I think there is certainly less of a romantization of American history. Yeah, and you know, we saw the Washington Nationals that the baseball team, I mean, there was a Senators team back then. But I think it's harder to romanticizes the perfect word, that's the perfect way to put it, what is happening in that area of the country right now, and say oh it's cool, because you know, It's not like San Francisco and the forty Niners, right, or you know, any of these other sort of very unique regional nicknames. It's more like, Okay, we can't agree on anything politically right now, So it would be very hard to call the team the President's or the founders or anything like that, because I don't know. We're just in a place where I don't think anybody can agree on anything in that sphere, but the inclination will be there because there's always that knee jerk to go um uh, to go in that direction. Um. But yeah, I don't know. I think if I had to put my money on anything, I think those would be way down the line at this point, right. Yeah. And also in the context of having conversations with Native Americans, I think that would also be a tough sell because the founders of the country are the ones who took away Native American land, and you know, I think that's that would be inconsistent with the idea that you would want Native American input and you would want, um, some kind of rebranding that would make them feel valued. Um, if that's even possible at this point. I mean, you know, I am a little bit skeptical, And you know, I think I am curious if Snyder will meet with people who have been active in pushing for the change of the name. As we've said, that has been the one step he hasn't been willing to take. UM. So I am skeptical that he will seek that input. But yes, if he did, you know. And it also just struck me to Connors that over this all came up over July fourth weekend, and this was a July four when I really thought a lot about the fact that it doesn't represent some time of celebration for so many parts of our country, and that includes the Native Americans. So it was just sort of interesting timing that this was bubbling to the surface and was happening over a holiday weekend that is not a holiday for so many Yeah. Absolutely, the top of the show, we talked about taking year off from having a nickname at all um in doing the homework. If that's impossible, then just don't have a nickname, UM. And I I think that while it sounds crazy, I mean football, European football, UM, but you know a lot of these teams they have Okay, so I'm gonna get destroyed for this, UM, But I need to make sure I have my soccer uh knowledge in a line here, but if I'm not mistaken, like like Manchester United are like the Red Devil's right, that's like a name, a nickname that they have, UM, but they're mostly everyone just calls the Manchester United, right, I mean, just like I don't know, um, Like Chelsea Chelsea is the Blues, I believe, but everyone just calls them Chelsea, you know. And so if you're Washington, you know, the soccer team there in Washington is already d C United, But you could do you know, the Washington FC, Washington in Football club, or you could be you know, anything like that that just says, hey, we're Washington and and that's it and uh. Or you could go super vague and governmental and call yourself like the Department of Defense, you know, or something like that. You know, where you'd be like Washington slash the Department of Defense and then you build your identity around a great defense or something like that, like like like a Rex Ryan team you just never draft on offense at all. I really like this Connor because I think it's sort of Mascots are kind of silly to begin with. I mean, and certainly in this conversation, we're talking about a mascot that is deeply offensive and hurtful to so many. So just go totally the other way, say hey, we don't we don't need a mascot. I know, I think soccer is a good precedent. Again, we've talked openly on the show that our soccer knowledge is somewhat lacking. But I think the examples that you provided are correct. You don't really hear a lot of soccer teams being referred to as their mascot, even you know, in the NWSL. I have gone to the club that Megan Rpedo plays for last year when we're doing the sports person story and their Rain FC. I think they were bought by I have a partnership with the club in France now, so they're now O L Rain. But certainly there isn't like a mascot that's prominent, like in terms of how you refer to the team, it's just rain FC or O L Rain. So I mean, and I kind of like those like just kind of department of defense. I really like that, Connor. I mean, I think that could be catchy and um, I think that could really work. Well, maybe you never know. UM. I just think and someone had tweeted us UM about Now I didn't read too deeply into this, but the Potomacs would be an interesting nickname that is a local tribe. UM. You know that that the Potomac River was named after UM. And so you know there's an example. But again, it's like you don't want to put words in anybody's mouth because maybe a tribe does not want to be quote unquote honored by a football team. Maybe they want have nothing to do with a football team, you know. UM. And again that's a conversation that Daniel Snyder is going to have to have UM, which you know is UM. Remains to be seen whether or not that will happen. I mean, you know, the conversations that he will be having. I mean, let's be real about what's gonna go on here in the next few weeks. You we all saw the uniform change wave this year, UM and especially the RAMS gave us a little bit of a peek behind the curtain. You have no idea how many branding experts focus group people. You know, the sheer magnitude of what has to happen here UM is staggering. I think, and I think that those are the people that Snyder is probably more likely to listen to at this point, and they're the ones that kind of control the steering wheel at this point. You know what kind of uniforms are going to sell? U? Do we have to change the colors? You know? Do we have to do a B, C, D, E F G. I think all of that is going to have to take precedent in his mind, um above. You know, Wow, I I really heard some people's feelings here over the last thirty years. Let me see what I can do about it, you know. Yeah, And of course one of the conversations will be how can we make the most money off the rebrand in terms of marketing the new merchandise and having a whole new set of uniforms, a team apparel, et cetera to sell. You know, there is one kind of cognitive dissonance here between what Snyder has always said. Remember there was one account of when Snyder went on one of his trips to a Native American community. He visited the pueblo of Zuni, and he had a conversation with a museum director that I remember. The museum director wrote an essay about several years ago, and he said at the end of their visit, he expressed his displeasure with the name, and Snyder said something along the lines of like, hey, we're a football team, so if they turn around now and are basically like, oh yeah, we want to incorporate Native American culture, we want to honor it. Like it's just so this whole thing just smacks me. Is so frustrating name Connor, because he had the chance to do the right thing, right, He's had multiple opportunities to the right thing, even just meet with Native American change the name activists, you know, and so I'm just so reluctant to give them any credit. While I'm happy that we're here and I'm happy that this awful name is changing, and I'm happy that, um there, it seems inevitable at this point. I'm one, I'm sort of unbelieve it when I see it. Mode, Like I'm not so sure that there won't be some kind of I don't know, last minute curveball because I'm a skeptic, but to you know, when it happens, it's like, all right, he's basically forced into it for business reasons, and just it just doesn't feel good, you know, it doesn't feel good. Connor, No, I'm waiting. You know, it's been a while. I need we need something, um, you know, to leave us with a good taste in our mouth. It's been uh, it's been a little bit of time, you know, And and this was never going to be the thing, you know. I think that that's the difficulty of this all is when push comes to shove, and there's so much great advocacy being done for you know, uh, putting history in its correct perspective and it's correct light, but it's still so frustrating to see the motivation, the ultimate motivation behind all the decisions, you know what I mean, And so it just doesn't leave you feeling good in the moment. That said, for better or worse, there's I would say at this point in chance that the Washington football team will not have a racial slur as a nickname in so hey, that's it's positive. The end results will be positive. And you know, I think there's future generations of kids who are going to grow up and not have to feel uncomfortable by this nickname. You know, there are Native Americans across the country who don't want their kids to have to face this uncomfortable nickname that they faced growing up. They don't want their kids to be called the R word, and this is a positive step in that direction. So, yes, you're right, Connor. It's it's a good outcome, despite the fact that it's just a reminder of the power of our capitol is dick society and that that can oftentimes just leave you feeling kind of about things. I agree, Um, what's something? Uh, holiday weekend had just passed. Um, while it was a little bit more somber in nature, certainly given what was going on. Anything, Uh a good highlight from the holiday weekend? That didn't give you the feeling something that can? I feel like we need that kick at the end of the little kick. Um, you know, I I don't have anything top of mind, Connor, how about you? We were we were driving home on the fourth We went to go visit my in laws, um at their cabin, and we took a little boat ride, which, by the way, residents of Lake Wall, Paul pack no social distancing out there, bad job on all of you. Um, a lot of partying on those boats. I hope everybody was, you know, a symptoma or had had their coronavirus tests before they got on those boats. I was watching every one of you, um as we were isolated in our own little section of the of the lake. But um, we're driving home and sort of lamenting the fact that, like, you know, our community canceled their fireworks, our town canceled their fireworks. Um, they canceled them where my in laws were. Um, but we're driving along Route fifteen on the way back to New Jersey, and all of a sudden we passed this field and this beautiful fireworks display starts, and so I said, I'm gonna be the best dad in the world. I pulled over, you know, woke her up, and I was like, look, you know, fireworks and she's kind of looking at them, never seen them before, didn't really know what to make of it. And after two or three she said, I want to go home. So I said, okay, we're we're gonna go home. But uh so that was we tried. We tried to fireworks, but you know, it is what it is, you know. Yeah, there was a lot of Central Park was pretty packed. I just went for a walk on on Saturday on the fourth and there were so many barbecues and gatherings. It was a little overwhelming, so I mean my walk pretty short, but we advise you as always to stay safe out there. Gang. We want you know, we want everybody to be listening to the week Side podcast twice a week every week in in perfect health, so you know, keep it up. We can do that. And uh and we haven't done a mail back in a couple of weeks, but I think we'll probably get to that next couple of weeks in July, so send those into week Side pot at gmail dot com. We will look for your answers and we'll read them in coming weeks. So thanks everyone for joining us this week. The MMQB week Side Podcast is Me, Jenny Rentis and Connor Or. We are produced by Shelby Royston. A size executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody Ben Eagle as director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Mravik is a meritus executive director of the MMQB. Keep up with our entire line at podcasts five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify, Radio dot Com, Stitcher, a side dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.