Indian watches Redskins

The football team, that is. Here's what he saw:

American Indian team mascots hit home hardIt was clear that I was descending rapidly into the inner circles of Native American Hell. Treading through the stadium underbelly in search of my section and seat, ominous sights abounded.

A woman with a painted face and a faux Indian headdress hurried past.

In Club Macanudo, a cigar-store Indian statue held a football aloft in his right hand and a clutch of cigars in his left. A rancid, half-smoked stogie was jammed into the statue's open mouth.And:It was shocking to behold a gigantic caricature of a Native American face emblazoned on the middle of the field. By my estimation, the face and feather were 30 feet wide. The same awful caricature vibrated garishly on huge digital billboards at both ends of the stadium.

There were sporadic chants of "Let's go, Redskins, let's go Redskins."

Any doubt that I was standing at ground zero of Native American Hell was dispelled when I saw what must be the largest and most blatant public display of a racial epithet anywhere in the world—the word REDSKINS painted in massive block letters across both end zones.For more on the Redskins, see Red·skin n.  Dated, Offensive, Taboo.