The Cleveland Indians were pressured by journalists and activists into changing the team’s name. As a result, the team is now being sued by another Cleveland sports club over trademark infringement.
The Cleveland Guardians roller derby team registered its name with the Ohio secretary of state and has been selling team merchandise since 2017, according to the team’s lawsuit. The roller derby team claims that the Indians, who are changing their name to the Guardians, reached out to them in June and went on to file trademarks in July. Negotiations between the two clubs broke down on Tuesday.
Whether or not this becomes a real hurdle for the Indians, it is another reminder that this entire process was ridiculous from start to finish. The Indians only agreed to change their name after corporate sponsors pushed the Washington Redskins into doing the same, even though polls of Native Americans repeatedly showed that they did not find the team name offensive.
Between this and the rather farcical “Washington Football Team” name, the train wrecks that follow renaming are entirely unnecessary because the names never needed to change in the first place. Outside a small group of journalists, activists, and college professors, no one cared about these team names. But corporate sponsors and professional teams, extremely sensitive to activist opinion in the wake of George Floyd’s death, demanded that they be changed in the name of racial justice — or rather, in order to avoid the ire of very angry people capable of doing their brands great harm. So here we are.
The Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Chiefs, and Chicago Blackhawks should all take note. The mob will inevitably come for them (as they have once again for the Atlanta Braves). They will be forced to jump through hoop after hoop to please the mob if they fold. These teams and their sponsors need to understand that a few angry journalists aren’t going to affect their bottom line. No one will care if they tell the whiners to pound sand and opt not to change their names.
