Smithsonian Museum - yet another thread on team name

[Leader In Sports]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

I wouldn't walk up to a fat man and call him Giant to his face or a gay man and call him a Packer. Does that mean those team names are offensive too?

Just because a word could bee twisted by a bad person to deride someone else, doesn't mean the word itself is inherently offensive. The word itself is not offensive, was not created to be offensive, and was not viewed as offensive when the name was chosen for the team. If it was, no one would have wanted to play for the team because the players would be associating themselves with something they looked down upon.

The difference with your examples and others are the Packers were named after meat packers. The Giants were named after mythical, larger than life figures. Redskins were always intended to represent Native Americans.