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NFL Dos and Don'ts: The Washington Redskins

The team from Washington is essentially one big Don't, but we found a do or two from 2014.

As we prepare for another year of NFL football, let's take a look back at the highs and lows from 2014 for each team. Welcome to NFL Dos and Don'ts. If you missed one, you can read all our recaps right here.

Do

Ah, the team from Washington. Where to begin with the team from Washington. Let's start with the Do because it's the easiest to narrow down—[whispering] because there are so few of them. That is the joke being made, here—also because it's Dos and Don'ts, not Don'ts and Dos. Kirk Cousins to DeSean Jackson for a 60-yard touchdown is the best moment from Washington's season. It is literally the only Washington highlight on the site from last season.

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If we had a GIF of Jay Gruden arm wrestling with RGIII as Dan Snyder threw money at everyone involved, we would go with that GIF. Instead, we have Kirk Cousins to DeSean Jackson. Cousins rolls out of the pocket and hits DeSean Jackson who made a nice, lunging catch. In the [voice becoming increasingly and ridiculously more baritone] National. Football. League. good touchdowns are something you should always do.

Don't

We are here for The Don'ts, though, and Washington does not disappoint, because they are the worst. That should probably just be the new nickname: the Washington Worsts. Then they could create some fantastical origin story about how the owner wanted to honor his own courage and dignity, and, being both illiterate and a fan of alliteration, he stumbled upon Washington Worsts. It keeps expectations low and, seriously, alliteration is wonderful and whimsical. See??

Annnnnywho, Washington finished the season 4-12 in part because they are Washington, and in part because they can't seem to keep their quarterbacks healthy. They backed up an injury-prone quarterback with Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy. but that's not The Worst of Washington. The Worst is and always will be the owner. This, right here, is the worst:

This ad was produced by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and aired during the NBA Finals last year because Dan Snyder is a sack of shit. This ad is incredibly powerful, the crux of which is: "we call ourselves a lot of things, but we definitely do not call ourselves a racist slur." That advertisement had to be made. A script was written and a narrator read it over moving images of Native Americans doing every day human things. All of these things happened because Dan Snyder wants you to believe that his team's name is not racist, and that even Native Americans think it's a great way to honor their people.

When the people you say you are trying to honor tell you that you are not honoring them, that you are in fact insulting them, that means you are wrong. Full stop. What Snyder is doing is like that old joke about the guy who goes to the doctor and says "Hey doc, it hurts when I go like this," and the doctor responds "Then don't do that." The only difference is, here the patient is saying "This hurts," and the doctor says "No, it doesn't."

It is borderline insane that it needs to be said but: don't do this.