Quebec City Jumping Frogs

Leave it to the marketing folks of the ABA to walk headlong into a controversy. Apparently some genius decided it would be a great idea to name the new franchise in Quebec City the Jumping Frogs. As we’ve seen in the comments of this very blog, the term “frog” is used as a derogatory term for French speakers. In this era of political correctness, why would anyone think this was a good idea? It would be similar to putting a sports franchise in the heart of Manhattan’s Little Italy and calling them the WOPs. No one would stand for that.

So tell me, what’s the difference between the use of Jumping Frogs and, say, the Washington Redskins? Both are derogatory terms used for a group of people, though I would think that the Redskins moniker is a lot more offensive, given that the term is a racial slur versus an ethnic slur. I know I’m splitting hairs here, since both are offensive to people. I can’t really defend the use of either name for the franchises, regardless of the fact that Washington’s team has been around for decades and has a strong tradition attached to it.

When choosing the name of a sports franchise or mascot, franchises would often take on names that would represent characteristics with which they wanted to be associated. So I suppose that, in the case of Redskins, they were going for the “noble warrior” angle or perhaps “savage ferocity.” Maybe I’ll look into that at some point. For me, I think less about the fact that Redskin is a term for a Native American and more about the fact that their jerseys are red.

I really don’t care, one way or the other, about the use of the name Jumping Frogs, but it seems to me that, from a business standpoint, someone’s got their head buried firmly in their ass. This is a new franchise so one would hope that the owners were trying to attract a fanbase to the product. Surely there has to be a better way to do that than insulting the target market. So now it’s time for another round of audience participation. Please feel free to sound off aboutsports teams using racially or ethnically questionable terms. Til next time…