Allen Barbre Refuses to Call the Washington Football Team by Their Name
It’s kinda died down recently, but there was a whole lot of noise being made for a long time about the Washington Football Team’s nickname and the racial connotations of it. They lose their trademark, there were protests, politicians got involved. It’s now little more than something used to mock the team, their shitty owner, and bad fans because we know they won’t change the name. All you can do is not use it.
And that’s what Allen Barbre does. The Eagles lineman is part Native American, and not in that Johnny Depp 1/32nds kinda way. Barbre’s great-great-grandfather was a Chief of the Tunica-Biloxi Native American Tribe, and his grandfather still lives on the reservation. And so, he doesn’t use the name:
“It’s probably offensive to some people, and I can see why. It’s certainly a derogatory term from back in the day, but I never put a lot into it. As a matter of fact, though, I just don’t say it. I don’t use the word. I call them Pigskins.”
Not a ton of zing on that one, Allen. He continues:
“We’ve never talked about with my grandfather, or any of the family, so I don’t really know how they feel about it. I’ve just never let it bother me. I don’t dislike them any more because of their name, or go out and play harder against them.
There really isn’t a lot of respect for Native Americans. I’m talking about the country as a whole. Native American history, I mean, there’s no month celebrated, there’s not even a day. We have Columbus Day, but there’s nothing to do with Native Americans. I feel there’s no respect given there.”
Barbre feels about the name the way many Americans probably do. He doesn’t like it, he thinks it’s stupid, but it’s not like it’s ruining his life or anything. Still, screw the…uh…Pigskins, I guess.