NFL: Odds favor Redtails for
Washington football team's new name
Send a link to a friend
[July 14, 2020]
By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) - Moments after the NFL's
Washington team said on Monday it would retire the Redskins name and
logo, long criticized by Native American activists as a racist slur,
debate over the team's new identity lit up the internet.
Redtails, Generals and Presidents emerged as favorites to replace
the long-held Redskins name while Trumps, in a nod to U.S. President
Donald Trump, was a 500-1 longshot, according to sports betting
sites monitored by Oddshark.com.
The bookmakers' favorite at 3-1 was Redtails, which celebrates Red
Tail military pilots, considered the elite of the Tuskegee Airmen
who overcame racism and fought in World War Two.
They got their name from white combat pilots after the Black airmen,
whose job was to escort the combat pilots on bombing missions from
bases in Europe, painted the tails of their aircraft crimson.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jul/14/images/ads/current/rainbowgutter_sda_HG_2020.png)
The group's trials and exploits were recalled in "Red Tails," a
movie released in 2012 with a cast that included Terrence Howard,
Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston and Gerald McRaney.
Second on the list at 4-1 was Generals, a moniker long used by the
Washington exhibition basketball team created in 1952 and named in
honor of General Dwight Eisenhower, who had just been elected
president of the United States.
Third on the list, at 5-1, was Presidents given the U.S. capital
city is home to the country's president.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/071420PICS/sports49.jpg)
Redskins branded merchandise sits on display in a sports store as an
announcement was made that the Washington NFL team will be
abandoning its team name and logo that has widely been seen as a
racist slur against Native Americans after mounting pressure from
sponsors and the wider public, in Sterling, VA, U.S., July 13, 2020.
REUTERS/Leah Millis
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Mar/14/images/ads/current/tires250x300.gif)
Critics ramped up pressure on the team to rebrand amid the
nationwide reckoning on racism and police brutality triggered by the
May 25 death of a Black man named George Floyd in police custody in
Minneapolis.
The franchise, whose owner previously said he would never change the
team's name, announced on July 3 a "thorough review," a decision
made after sponsors stepped up pressure to scrap a moniker used by
the club since 1933.
In its Monday announcement, Washington did not offer a timeline for
when the new name would be revealed or say if it would be in place
by the time the team is due to kick off its 2020 season at home on
Sept. 13.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Howard Goller)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jul/14/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_062409.png) |