Edmonton Eskimos Name Change

Edmonton Eskimos

I have long been a Canadian Football League fan and in a league which really has no imagination to naming team names, as an example having Ottawa and Saskatchewan each being called the Roughriders, the Eskimos was always one of my favorite team names.

Now if you read the article link above the clincher for me is the Edmonton Football team has actually gone out and asked the Inuit people if they took offense to the club being called the Eskimos. Most didn't care but back in 2015 an Inuit spokesperson thought it disturbing that Eskimo would refer to the colonization of their people in the name of reconciliation that the moniker "eskimo" would be used at all. I paraphrased this badly so you have to read the article for what exactly the Inuit spokesperson stated.

 I haven't been living under a rock. Some sports teams in the States such as the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians will soon have a name change. The hockey team Chicago Black Hawks will not change their name but give money to help indigenous people showing support. I understand that has been a long simmering issue for these teams so just change the name.

But the thing with Edmonton  was not until a big sponsor of the football team threatens to pull out that they really have to change the name to pretty much save the team. Teams barely scrape by and a loss of a sponsor can be a catastrophe.

So if this big company sponsor thought the name of the team was what some people call a slur why did it sponsor them in the first place? Because today everything is on the table.

Perhaps I have been ignorant all my life but never once did I watch the Edmonton Eskimos play the past 55 years and thought to myself,  the "eskimo" name is how we control the Inuit people and we have this power over them because we colonized and have power over them etc. In fact I thought the name was given because come playoff time it was so blinking cold there that only an eskimo could survive in those freezing conditions.

Here is what I think. If you have to change the name to save a sponsor go right ahead. It would not have mattered if they were ever called the Eskimos 55 years ago. I  watched the game because of the game not because of any logos or names. If  from what I can see the disinterested Inuit people want the name changed go ahead and change it.

I am sure Normie Kwong when he played for the Edmonton Eskimos couldn't care either what the team name meant. He was the first Chinese CFL player. His story is about pulling through all the racism he faces and winning. Quite inspirational.