WI: Washington Redskins kicked out of RFK Stadium

Let's say the POD is the early 1960's, with the American Football League looking for respect, and the National Football League having already started racially integrating their rosters since 1946, except for one team: the Washington Redskins, then owned by George Preston Marshall.

Let's say Marshall is still stubborn, and still refuses to sign one black player.

Let's say the owners of RFK Stadium, then known as DC Stadium until Bob Kennedy's assassination, throw the Redskins out of the then state of the art facility.

What happens to the Redskins next?

Do they fold?

Do they move to Kansas City, change their name to the Chiefs and force Lamar Hunt to move his Dallas Texans elsewhere?

Do they move to Indianapolis?

Do they move to Atlanta and become the Falcons?

Do they move to Miami and become the Dolphins?

Do they move to Seattle and become the Seahawks?

Do they move to Cincinnati, become the Bengals and hire Paul Brown as soon as Art Model fires him from the Browns?

If the Redskins are forced to leave DC, does the NFL return to the Nation's Capital in expansion?

Does Marshall sell the team?
 
Or do they move to Birmingham, Alabama, and call themselves the Crows?

On a more serious note, if the D.C. government boots the Redskins out of the stadium--and let's put aside contract issues for the sake of argument--what ramifications would that decision have on the city's home-rule status? In the early 1960s, key congressional committees were chaired by old-line southern Democrats.
 
Or do they move to Birmingham, Alabama, and call themselves the Crows?

On a more serious note, if the D.C. government boots the Redskins out of the stadium--and let's put aside contract issues for the sake of argument--what ramifications would that decision have on the city's home-rule status? In the early 1960s, key congressional committees were chaired by old-line southern Democrats.

There might be long legal battles, maybe until the southern Democrats either retire or are voted out.
 
Or do they move to Birmingham, Alabama, and call themselves the Crows?

On a more serious note, if the D.C. government boots the Redskins out of the stadium--and let's put aside contract issues for the sake of argument--what ramifications would that decision have on the city's home-rule status? In the early 1960s, key congressional committees were chaired by old-line southern Democrats.

I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but are you saying that if the DC government (i.e. the presidential appointees who ran the place in the early '60s) boots the Pigskins out it might jumpstart home rule?

I'm not sure it would have that affect. Home rule gained a lot of its momentum from the city's African American community, who have an ambivalent relationship (to say the least) with the Redskins for the very issue in question. Lot of black Cowboys fans here.

If you're saying something else...like perhaps you're saying DC had home rule and this would hurt that? No. DC had no home rule in the early 1960s.

I don't think DC goes without a team for long if the team moves. The market's just too big. A stadium outside the city is also possible.
 
I don't think DC goes without a team for long if the team moves. The market's just too big. A stadium outside the city is also possible.

Let's say the Redskins relocate to Kansas City in 1962, and let's say they rebrand themselves as the Chiefs. Would the rivalries with the Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals (dubbed "Gridbirds" in STL) be more intense?

With Kansas City no longer available in this TL, would Lamar Hunt move his Dallas Texans to New Orleans and become the Saints, or to Phoenix and become the Firebirds?

Washington could regain NFL football by 1966, but who would be the expansion team's founder? Jack Kent Cooke, Abe Pollin or Bob Short?
 
Assuming the Washington Redskins move to Kansas City and become the Chiefs, here's the structures of the AFL and NFL...

NFL East
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Kansas City Chiefs
New York Football Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
St. Louis Football Cardinals

NFL West
Baltimore Colts
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
San Francisco 49ers

AFL East
Boston Patriots
Buffalo Bills
Houston Oilers
New York Titans (soon to be the Jets)

AFL West
Dallas Texans
Denver Broncos
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
 
The Redskins had a lot of support from the southern states: before the 1960s expansions, and the AFL, I think they were the southernmost side (I'm as vague about US geography as anywhere else's). With this Dixie hinterland GPM probably thought he'd lose support with an integrated franchise.

AFAIK the new southern franchises - Dallas, Houston, and NO and Atlanta a bit later - were integrated right from the start: did this affect their support?
 
If it happens, does that mean the Texans relocate to ... Washington? After all, the stadium owners are going to want to replace that revenue stream
 
If it happens, does that mean the Texans relocate to ... Washington? After all, the stadium owners are going to want to replace that revenue stream

I think Washington would prefer an NFL team because the AFL was considered a lesser league until Namath beat the Colts IOTL.
 
If the owners of the stadium kicked the Skins out, I wonder if the NFL would move to get rid of Marshall as Redskin owner instead of having them relocate to another town.
 
If the owners of the stadium kicked the Skins out, I wonder if the NFL would move to get rid of Marshall as Redskin owner instead of having them relocate to another town.

I think Pete Rozelle would've needed the approval of 3/4 of the NFL owners to get the league to seize control of the Skins.
 
Good point, although it would have been something worth trying.

Let's say Pete Rozelle does get the go ahead from the owners to seize the Redskins from George Preston Marshall.

How many years before a new owner is found?

Who would buy the team from the league?

Would the new owner change the team's name when Native American mascots become less acceptable?
 
Let's say Pete Rozelle does get the go ahead from the owners to seize the Redskins from George Preston Marshall.

How many years before a new owner is found?

Who would buy the team from the league?

Would the new owner change the team's name when Native American mascots become less acceptable?

Rozelle might get that support with pressure from Northern congressmen and Senators - where most of the teams were. Washington is a big market, and there wsn't the concern that the team was taking much away from the Colts.

Not long, ISTR Jack Kent Cooke was older anyway when he finally bought them. I can see him getting involved, though I really think Marshall is more likely to move them before they are seized - someplace like Atlanta or New Orleans, since I'd suspect that he preferred the South, is my guess, opening up a new revenue stream.

If the city's blck community is strong enough and boycotts of the team hurt it enough, shuld the team stay in Washington, I can see it being rebranded in the '60s, in fact. Perhaps to something alliterative like the Washington Warriors.

If the team moves, you might get them renamed to something to fit the Southern city they move to, with the new team becoming the Washington Redskins, I'm not sure.
 
If the city's blck community is strong enough and boycotts of the team hurt it enough, shuld the team stay in Washington, I can see it being rebranded in the '60s, in fact. Perhaps to something alliterative like the Washington Warriors.

Join my fellow registrants at 506sports.com and check out http://506sports.com/forum/index.php?topic=15308.0 , a thread on the very topic of DC's NFL franchise's name. But don't start any "what if" threads on that site. JP (the owner) got tired of them.

ixnay
 
Wasn't DC Stadium being built by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior?

ixnay

It certainly was. That gave them the leverage to blackmail Marshall into integrating his team.

If Marshall does refuse to integrate, I don't see him getting kicked out of the league. The Old Line owners of the NFL were a tight group and Marshall had owned the team for nearly 30 years at that point.

If he had to move out of Washington in 1961-62, I'd say Atlanta would be a logical choice. It's a strong Southern city, still segregated and the only sticking point would be getting to use Grant Field at Georgia Tech until the city builds a new stadium. (Atlanta almost had an AFL team in 1960, but Georgia Tech wouldn't let them use the field).

On the other hand, that might push Atlanta to build Fulton County Stadium earlier than they did and might get baseball there a little earlier.
 
Assuming the Washington Redskins move to Kansas City and become the Chiefs, here's the structures of the AFL and NFL...

NFL East
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Kansas City Chiefs
New York Football Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
St. Louis Football Cardinals

NFL West
Baltimore Colts
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
San Francisco 49ers

AFL East
Boston Patriots
Buffalo Bills
Houston Oilers
New York Titans (soon to be the Jets)

AFL West
Dallas Texans
Denver Broncos
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers

I wonder if the NFL would switch divisions for Baltimore and Kansas City. I know Carroll Rosenbloom hated playing in the Western Conference because they had to travel half-way or all the way across the country to play their division games. That was a major factor in the Colts joining the AFC in 1970.
 
I wonder if the NFL would switch divisions for Baltimore and Kansas City. I know Carroll Rosenbloom hated playing in the Western Conference because they had to travel half-way or all the way across the country to play their division games. That was a major factor in the Colts joining the AFC in 1970.

NFL East
Baltimore
Cleveland
Detroit
NY Giants
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
St Louis

NFL West
Chicago
Dallas
Green Bay
Kansas City
LA Rams
Minnesota
San Francisco

Would this look better?
 
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