The Washington Redskins are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). They have played at FedEx Stadium in Landover, MD since 1997. The team colours are burgundy, gold and white.
George Preston Marshall was the original owner of the team. In 1932, he purchased a Duluth, Minnesota franchise and moved them to Boston. They became the Boston Braves. In 1933 the club moved to Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, and the name was changed to the Boston Redskins. This name change may have been related to their new coach, a Native American, named Lone Star Dietz. Dietz had once played with the legendary Jim Thorpe at an Indian school in Kansas. When Dietz joined the Redskins, he brought along half a dozen native players. For their 1933 season opener, the entire team posed in war paint and headdresses. In 1937 the Redskins moved from Boston to Washington D.C. because of poor attendance. They won their first league championship that year.
Since 1969, Indian activists have pressured teams to drop native names and mascots. The Redskins have been in and out of court over their name since 1992.
Marshall was talented but controversial. He was the first to see the potential of TV/radio broadcasts of games, and he started big half-time shows. In the 1960s, Marshall refused to integrate the team. Integrating the team would mean to allow African-American athletes. The Kennedy administration threatened civil rights legal action. Unless the team was integrated, the team could not play at D.C. Stadium because it was federal government property. In 1962, they became the final pro football team to integrate.
The Redskins have played more than 1,000 games since 1932; they have won twelve NFC division titles; five NFL Championships; and three Super Bowls in 1983, 1988, and 1992. In 1940, the Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins by the largest margin in NFL history, 73-0. On November 27th, 1966 the Washington Redskins and New York Giants played the highest scoring game in NFL history. The Redskins won the game 72-41. In 1984, the Redskins’ Fun Bunch’s celebrations in the end zone after a Redskin touchdown led to a league-wide ban of excessive celebration.
Answer the following questions
1 George Preston Marshall…
a did not want to integrate the Redskins
b invented football
c played football for the Redskins
d eventually moved the team away from Washington D.C.
2 The Washington Redskins….
a once beat the Chicago Bears 73-0
b have never won a Super Bowl
c were involved in the highest scoring game in NFL history.
d have won 3 NFC division titles
3 What does the following sentence imply?
They have played at FedEx Stadium in Landover, Maryland since 1997. The team colours are burgundy, gold and white.
a The team was formed in 1997.
b The team played somewhere else before 1997.
c The team has always played at FedEx Stadium.
d The team no longer plays at FedEx Stadium
4 The word “legendary” in the following sentence implies that Jim Thorpe was someone _.
Dietz had once played with the legendary Jim Thorpe at an Indian school in Kansas.
a unimportant
b real
c special
d imaginary
5 What happened the same year the Redskins moved to Washington?
a They won the league Championship.
b Lone Star Dietz joined the team
c The team posed in war paint and dressed up as Native Americans.
d People started pressuring the team to change its name.
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