Christopher Columbus gets absolutely no love from the NFL.
It’s fair to believe that because on the federal holiday honoring Christopher Columbus and his place in American history, not one NFL team nor the league itself recognized Columbus Day on social media.
It’s at least the second consecutive year that no NFL team mentioned Columbus Day even as non-essential federal offices, federal courts, mail delivery, most traditional banks and the U.S. bond market closed in recognition of the holiday.
And this is starting to feel like a statement for two reasons:
First, three teams picked the day to instead recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which is not an official federal holiday, while ignoring the guy whose 1492 landing in America marks the federally recognized holiday.
THE NFL’S MAIN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS REMAINED SILENT ABOUT PRIDE MONTH ON ITS FIRST DAY
Second, 29 teams that typically take the opportunity to celebrate just about any other holiday and some days that aren’t holidays at all decided to go dark on this holiday altogether.
That suggests teams recognize the day has become something of a political hot potato. And the NFL and most of its teams have decided not to get burned.
That didn’t apply to the Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Rams. All three paid tribute to Indigenous Peoples’ Day on their social media.
But that shout out came at a cost because the replies to each post came with significant backlash.
All three teams that posted about Indigenous Peoples’ Day were met with immediate corrections in their replies calling it Columbus Day.
And, frankly, that was too easy.
But there were other clever replies, particularly on the Vikings’ account, because it didn’t escape notice that the team is nicknamed for White, conquering outsiders.
“Vikings were known for pillaging, raping, slaughtering, burning and enslaving their victims,” one fan replied on the Minnesota post. “They terrorized innocent people in coastal communities including monasteries for centuries, even killed and enslaved women and children on a large scale.
“Better change your name, too.”
The post ended with a clown face emoji.
The Chiefs honored Indigenous Peoples’ Day to “show our gratitude for the work the America Indian Community Working Group puts in to make sure we remain educated and honor tribes with historic connection to our r
