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Chuck the Commanders…..A majority of Washington sports fans (54 percent) either dislike or hate the Commanders name of their National Football League franchise, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll. Only 31 percent like it.
Under pressure from sponsors, former team owner Dan Snyder in July 2020 agreed to ax the controversial Redskins name and launch a search for a new moniker.
The squad played as the Washington Football Team for 18 months before unveiling the Commanders name.
The Post poll found that only 16 percent of Commanders’ fans want to keep the name.
Seventeen percent would revert back to the Washington Football Team, and 16 percent want to see the return of the Redskins.
One Redskins supporter told the Post that Native American-themed names are still around in the NFL (Kansas City Chiefs) and Major League Baseball (Atlanta Braves).
“Commanders is okay, but it doesn’t reflect the historical value and things like that of a rich program or a team,” he said. "Commanders is a name, but it’s not an identity. Washington Redskins was an identity.”
An investment group led by Josh Harris bought the Commanders last July.
NFL rules say that a team can change its name, logo and uniform only once every five years. There is an exception, if a new owner takes over.
The ball is now in Harris’ court. His group has ruled out going back to the Redskins name.
The Washington Cherry Blossoms has a nice ring to it.
Will Cohen cash in his chips? Hedge fund king Steve Cohen’s New York Mets are tanking earlier than usual this baseball season.
The team with the highest payroll in Major League Baseball is ten games under .500, and heading for the cellar in the National League East.
Cohen’s plan to build the “Metropolitan Park” casino-anchored complex adjacent on the parking lots of Citi Field and adjacent land may also be heading for the cellar.
State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents the Citi Field area, announced her opposition to the plan on May 28, claiming that three-quarters of her constituents oppose having a casino in their backyard.
The 38-year-old politico is squaring off with an opponent with a net worth more than $18B.
Cohen, 67, says the $8B investment for Metropolitan Park will boost the local economy and generate 23K jobs.
His PR guy, Karl Rickett, implied that Team Cohen may do an end-run around Ramos. Rickett said though they respect Ramos’s point of view, New York State never granted the authority to any one person to stop a gaming project. The die has been cast.
Cohen’s ownership of the Mets didn’t turn out to be shot-in-the arm that fans anticipated.
In taking over the mismanaged and underfunded team in 2020, Cohen said he would be “slightly disappointed if the Mets did not win the World Series in three to five years.” Met fans have been disappointed again and again since 1962. It's part of being a fan. But when things are good, the Mets are magical.
A World Series championship flag flying over Citi Field isn’t going to happen any time soon. It was a pipe dream—just like Cohen’s plan to build a casino in Queens.
What has that have to do with the price of butter in Dublin? Joe Biden’s team complains that it doesn’t get credit for taming inflation. The inflation rate peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022 and is now at 3.4 percent. Kudos, Joe.
While Team Biden talks about sinking inflation, voters think along the lines of prices. Inflation may be sinking but prices for everyday items were lower when Donald Trump left office.
A former O’Dwyer salesman would use that line about Dublin whenever he considered a question irrelevant. He was referring to Ireland’s fair capital.
The question is very relevant today as US voters think about how much higher the price of butter is in the Dublins of Ohio, California, George, Kentucky, Virginia, New Hampshire, Texas, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Joe is not going to like the answer.
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