With all the controversy going on in professional and collegiate sports with team names, you’d think the fact that the National Football League and NCAA football use of the term “football” would have been among those considered controversial in sports.

There is a lot of discussion going on right now about teams that have affiliations with Native American tribes or some kind of reference to Native Americans. Some are worse than others. Teams named after tribes may not be as bad as slander or specific negative terms given to them when the founders of the country invaded their land. Some of these names are very slanderous, and some aren’t as bad. The Utes, Braves and Chiefs are among the names that, in my opinion, aren’t as bad as teams with slanderous or politically incorrect terms like the Indians or Redskins. However, they can all be considered bad in different regards.

The University of Utah uses the Utes as their mascot. Is this a slap in the face to the culture and lives of those who were driven out of this area as our ancestors inhabited it, or is this just a tribute to a tribe that lived in the area where the university is now? That is a great question, and there is much debate.

My two cents on this subject is that if it is a tribe, that name belongs to the tribe and you should get their permission, like a trademark. If the name is slanderous, poorly reflective or negative of Native Americans or their culture, then get rid of the names. There is no place in society for teams to use terms like Indians or Redskins as their mascot. That is pretty messed up.

Switching gears now, why is the NFL or NCAA even allowed to use the term “football”? Real football, known as soccer in the United States, existed all over the world for centuries before football as we know it even started. All over the world, except for in the United States, it’s called football. Why? Because you kick the ball! You use your feet. Somehow the United States started calling the sport with the brown oval ball football, and now it is accepted in our culture as football, and real football is called soccer. WOW! Have I confused you yet?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the U.S. version of football, but soccer is so huge worldwide, why wouldn’t the founders of football have chosen a more appropriate name for the sport? Like concussion ball, orthopedic surgery ball or paralyze ball? I guess some realistic alternatives to the names would be throw ball or touchdown ball. I don’t know.

Don’t even get me started on what these “footballs” are made of. That’s a whole other sick and twisted topic of discussion.

I love American football a lot, but there are a lot of things wrong with it. Don’t name your team slanderous or negative terms relative to Native Americans. I wouldn’t recommend having anyone name their team Whiteskins, Yellowskins, Brownskins or Blackskins. Why would it be OK to name them Redskins? It’s disgusting and should’ve been changed years ago.

While they are at it, the NFL should seriously reconsider calling it football. It’s not football; soccer is football. Just ask anyone from anywhere else in the world.

If you need me, I’ll just be out and about playing concussion ball.