Kansas City Chiefs: Changing the team name would be a mistake

The Kansas City Chiefs are currently at the center of controversy again regarding the team’s name. Following the wave of other teams changing their names such as the Washington Football team and most recently baseball’s Cleveland Indians becoming the Cleveland Guardians, people have now turned their attention to the Chiefs as their next target to pressure into changing their name because of its origins.

It also has become apparent the Chiefs are taking steps that would cause some people to think the organization is trending towards changing the name. The team already banned headdresses and Indian like face paint last year. Another yesterday when team president Mark Donovan announced that the Chiefs are now retiring the “Warpaint” tradition before games.

"“We just feel like it’s time to retire Warpaint,” Donovan said. “Lots of reasons for that, but we just feel like it’s the right thing to do. So Warpaint won’t be running at Arrowhead anymore.”"

If the team is going to slowly start peeling away traditions that reflect Indian culture than it would only make sense that they go for changing the name that is the root of the activity.

However, changing the team name would be a huge mistake for many reasons.

The KC Chiefs should not change the team’s name

I want to start out with a disclaimer and say that I myself am not Indian, I can’t speak for all Indians when discussing the team name, and I am aware that some Indians may be offended by the team name and traditions. We also need to acknowledge that the Chiefs organization is still in contact with Indigenous people and a large contingent of them are not offended by the team name but I digress.

First of all, giving in to the mob by changing the name would be quite embarrassing. Let’s be honest, most of the people who are calling for the name change don’t seem to actually have any reason to be offended by it and are telling other people why they should be offended. A lot of the noise surrounding a name change comes from Twitter where news and narratives can spread quickly and it has become popular in a way to join the mob and be apart of the outrage. To me, that’s not right.

I don’t think the large portion of the fanbase that agrees with me on this topic will allow a name change to happen either. I promise that if the Chiefs ever announce plans to change the nickname there will be fans in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot the next morning with pitchforks and torches.

Secondly, it’s 2021. What doesn’t offend people? Who is to say whatever the Chiefs would hypothetically change their name to wouldn’t also offend people? We can’t continue to just go around changing names and cancelling things because a small group of people don’t like it. There are always going to be people that don’t like it and we’re never going to be able to satisfy everyone.

I also question the legitimacy of the outrage. The Kansas City Chiefs and their traditions have been around for many, many years. How did we get to the point where it all of a sudden became too offensive to display? This question goes for other teams who have since been forced to change their name as well.

Now, I can see why Indigenous people would be offended by the name and traditions, but I stand by the belief that it should be viewed as an honor and it always has been with good intentions. It’s not like the term “Chiefs” is derogatory either like “Redskins” was. “Chiefs” also has meaning beyond Indian heritage and symbolizes an authority figure or a leader.

Overall, I don’t think a name change is necessary. I believe the Chiefs will do their best to sand out the rough edges that are their references to Indian traditions surrounding the Chiefs name but owner Clark Hunt and the rest of the organization has too much history with the name and the team to be able to make a move like that.