Wednesday, January 31, 2018

ESPN Host Wants ‘Offensive’ Fighting Irish Mascot Changed

When does this madness end? It won't.

1.30.2018

Welcome to 2018 where everything is offensive and sports is made up of weak, coddled men.

Max Kellerman, who hosts First Take on ESPN, said it’s past time for Notre Dame to do away with its "offensive" leprechaun mascot and “Fighting Irish” moniker and replace it with something more PC-friendly.

Though he acknowledged that many Irish-Americans aren’t offended by the mascot in the least, Kellerman insisted, “Many are."

“And should that also change?" he asked rhetorically. "The answer is yes, unequivocally yes.”

"Pernicious, negative stereotypes of marginalized people that offend even some among them should be changed,” he added. “It's not that hard.”

Kellerman’s zeal was emboldened by the recent change in mascot for the Cleveland Indians, who have decided — or were pressured — to drop its Chief Wahoo logo from uniforms next year. Though most polls show a real lack of concern from Native Americans for such trivial matters as team names (Washington Redskins) and mascots, Kellerman claims he’s an expert and knows better:

"When I go to Native-American reservations around the country to call fights, I am approached — I've received feathers in honor and letters saying, ‘Thank you for your stance publicly, this is the way many of us feel.’”

Kellerman is bold enough to declare a Washington Post survey wrong even though it found 90% of Native Americans aren’t offended at all.

“So, The Washington Post — Do I believe that's a representative survey of the way Native-Americans actually feel about this? No, I do not,” he proclaimed.

In Kellerman’s view, it’s everyone’s job to “empathize” with different ethnic groups even if it’s only a minority of them that feel offended.

Kellerman brought up the one question that's on every thinking man's mind: When does this end? The shortest answer -- it doesn’t. This is the future of sports: kneeling players and wimpy mascots. Name them all the Care Bears and let them hug it out every game. No one will be watching anyway.