Harry Reid: I Love to See the Redskins Lose

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has pontificated prolifically that the Washington Redskins should change their name, resorted to vindictiveness when interviewed by the Washington Post, blustering that he loved to see the team lose.

Reid stated:

I love sports, it’s an escape for me. But not football. The only time I turn football on during the week, because [49ers quarterback and former University of Nevada star Colin] Kaepernick is out, is when the Redskins play because I love to see them lose. And they’ve lost more than they’ve won this year. If they’re ahead, I turn it off. I check back later to see if they’re losing.

Reid’s hatred of the Redskins apparently derives from his fanatical desire for the team’s name change; last May, referring to Deflategate, he told the Senate:

I find it stunning that the National Football League is more concerned about how much air is in a football than with a racist franchise name that denigrates Native Americans across the country. The Redskins name is a racist name. So I wish the commissioner would act as swiftly and decisively in changing the name of the D.C. team as he did about not enough air in a football.

The same day he tweeted:

I find it stunning that the NFL cares more about how much air is in a football than it cares about a racist franchise name.

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) May 12, 2015

In September, Reid told CNN that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder had used bribery to keep the team’s name, asserting, “Don’t use the word Washington ‘bleep.’ The name of the Washington football team is disparaging to a large number of my constituents, and he demeans them every day. Snyder’s tried to bribe some of my folks, buy them little cars.”

The Redskins currently sit atop the NFC East, with a 6-7 record, tied with the Eagles and Giants. But their remaining schedule poses less of a problem than the Eagles’ or Giants’, giving them an easier road to the playoffs. And if the season ended today, the tiebreaker would award Washington a postseason berth.

Reid’s bitterness may have to eat at him longer than he suspected.