Chief Z

OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m a life-long Redskins fan. I’m not going to get mired into the argument of whether or not the name of the team is culturally insensitive/offensive (it is.) That being said, this list is about logos, not names. And as a visual representation of a sports team, this is one of my favorites.

Like I said in my Tampa Bay Buccaneers entry, I usually am not a fan of “character” logos—they’re overly-busy and don’t communicate visual information very quickly. There’s a lot more detail to take in, and when you’re talking about a high-energy sport like football, immediate impact is key.

First off, I love the colors. Burgundy and gold aren’t what you’d call a very intuitive pairing, but they work so well together. The gold circle and tail feathers create a beautiful frame around the Native American head, almost like a stylized dreamcatcher. The illustration of the Native American himself is a little problematic. While nowhere near as unrepentantly offensive, cartoonish, or poorly executed as the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo or the Chicago Blackhawks’ Native American mascot, it still makes liberal use of cartoonish visual cliches associated with Native Americans—the “red” skin, the large nose—and I can easily understand the indignity it foments. However, the facial expression of the Native American is, to my eyes, mesmerizing. Every time I look at this logo, I see this perfectly balanced, subtle combination of pride, dignity and sadness. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Maybe my (admittedly) overwhelming “white guilt” is creating visual signifiers that aren’t there as a way to rationalize my fandom. Maybe it’s just a logo. I just don’t know.

Ultimately, as much as I love my team, it’s the twenty-first century. Do we really want to continue marginalizing swaths of our “society” (no matter how steadfastly we tried to disenfranchise and/or eradicate this particular segment over the last 400 years), even if it’s disguised as innocuous sportsmanship? I think it’s long past time for a change. But please—don’t pussify it like you did to my beloved Bullets!