Hogs Haven Is Neither For Nor Against the Redskins Name--We Are For the Fans...Every Fan

We all know how this goes: the team stinks and we argue amongst ourselves. In years past, we argued about Vinny Cerrato, Devin Thomas, Antwaan Randle El, Clinton Portis...you name it. I recall screaming matches over the potential career of Dennis Morris. Jeez...

Lucky us---now we have a real divisive topic to discuss, and people are at their unbudging finest. It is bad enough we are at the beginning of yet another mud-flinging presidential election cycle. (Invariably, we are not spared from that debacle...even on a sports site like this.) When the name change subject comes up, it gets nasty quick. That is not what Hogs Haven is all about. Most of you have been coming to Hogs Haven for years because it is not the home of shouting and screaming at each other. There are plenty of sites for that. Here, we like to poke fun at ourselves and the disaster that is our favorite team. We don't need the added headache and heartache of becoming the home for one side of such a catastrophically divisive topic. We are happy to be opinionated, and so we will represent all the opinions that all of you have.

Here is the way we are moving forward on the name change: Hogs Haven is pro-fan. We are the Redskins fanbase and we represent people who love this team. We exist so that there is a place for people with opinions on both sides of the topic to bring those opinions. We exist so that people can feel that their opinions about their favorite team matter. That doesn't mean that writers on this site don't feel strongly one way or the other. I can assure you all that I would not fill out a writing staff full of people who all felt the same way on the topic.

We will not ignore the issue. We will not stay silent on the issue. What we will do going forward is ensure that when we bring it up, both sides of the argument are represented.

I am not afraid to offer my two cents here, because I owe you all at least that much (even if merely mentioning the idea of changing the name makes me "part of the problem" to some). To be clear, the side that matters most belongs to the Native Americans. There is no clear consensus on it coming from that community. There are representatives from that community who claim the name is offensive and there are representatives from that community who claim the name is a badge of honor. Let's not be naive and fail to recognize that contingents from each have an agenda. I don't support changing the name while there is such confusion amongst the only group whose opinion I genuinely care about. Let Phil Simms and Bob Costas grandstand all they want. They only come off looking like idiots, frantically staking claim to what they would consider is the moral high ground. I felt like the picture for this article was mostly directed at them. No, I do not know the man in the picture, and I don't know what his exact lineage is (that question was coming...let's face it).

Many of you have commented before on stories like this, "How about we just talk about football?" Fair enough, but not really how it works. We talk on Hogs Haven about the things that Redskins fans talk about everywhere else. That includes--from time to time--the name change topic. The best I can do is try to make it so that we don't end up hating each other over an issue that is not going to be resolved here.

Going forward, we will be revisiting the issue in Town Hall-style posts moderated by staff writers who have already eloquently stated their opinions on this matter. I am confident that we can be civil about this--as opposed to the matter of how terrible this team all of a sudden is...again.

Do me a favor and "Rec" this post to show that we all kind of understand that we are not at war with each other--we are united as fans of a football team and just want to talk about winning again...someday.