U. Of Minnesota Requests Washington Redskins Wear Logo-Less Throwbacks

The controversy concerning the Washington Redskins and their nickname continues to burn on, and this time, the hosts of one of their road games this season doesn’t want their logo or nickname to be displayed in and anywhere near the stadium. The Minnesota Vikings will be sharing TCF Bank Stadium with the University of Minnesota for the next 2 seasons while their new stadium gets built, which means that the University is doing their best to make sure that the name isn’t recognized on their campus.

From the article:

“They said they’d make that request of the Washington team, but were not sure how it would be received,” Katrice Albert, the school’s vice president in the office of equity and diversity, said about Vikings officials, whom she met with in late July. “The two Vikings officials said they are part of the NFL and don’t have the authority to force the hand to change the Washington name, but understand it’s offensive to some members of our community. The Vikings have a great working relationship with the tribal nations of Minnesota, and they’re very understanding of how this team name and logo impacts our community.”

In addition to the school mentioning that the Vikings have a “working relationship” with tribal nations there, the school itself has a pretty strong relationship as well. From the Washington Post’s article:

The university’s stadium features a Tribal Nations Plaza dedicated in honor of the 11 Native American tribes in Minnesota. It was built with a $10 million donation from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community — the largest private gift ever to Gophers athletics.
University officials said the use of the Redskins name at their stadium violates the institution’s affirmative action, diversity and equal opportunity policy. More than 1,100 students identify themselves as Native American throughout the University of Minnesota system.

This is in addition a protest that occurred when Washington visited the Vikings for a game last season. Around 700 people marched to the Metrodome in protest of Washington’s nickname. It appears that, once again, Minnesota will prove to be an inhospitable place towards Daniel Snyder’s franchise.

Washington Redskins throwback panthers sunday November retro leather helmets - players — Take the logo off of the sleeves and this would probably be what the University of Minnesota would want Washington to wear (with a blank burgundy helmet instead of a brown helmet)

As you read above, the people involved with this request have acknowledged that it’s highly unlikely that this ban would/would go all the way through to the point where Washington actually wears logo-less throwbacks. Knowing Daniel Synder, if he could draw up special alternate uniforms with the nickname and logo plastered all over the jerseys to the point where it’s covering the name and number, he probably would. But that’s just me being facetious. In all seriousness, Washington is probably still going to wear their regular unis, but the other facets of the “ban” (No Redskins gear sold, no logo on the scoreboard or program, and announcer refusing to say the nickname) could potentially happen.

So once again, the heat on Washington to drop their nickname just keeps on getting warmer and warmer.