When McCarthy coerced a baseball name change

An avid baseball fan since 1951, my eight year old brain was puzzled when the '53 Cincinnati Reds changed their team name to the Redlegs. The Reds had been the Reds since their return to the National League in 1890, after having been kicked out in 1880 by NL owners furious at their selling beer on Sundays running them afoul of the blue noses who ruled the NL roost. During their subsequent ten years in the American Association they were known as the Red Stockings, akin to my beloved White Sox. To celebrate their return they shortened their name to Reds which adorned their glory years of several pennants and world series championships over the next 62 years. Enter the Death Vader of US politics Joe McCarthy, who spent his Senator's perch ferreting out communists under every bed using the shorthand 'Reds' to capture headlines. In '53 Reds owners pondered their own ominous headlines such as 

                     REDS POUND PITTSBURGH or REDS TOP YANKS FOR WORLD TITLE  

and decided to add some legs to run away from McCarthyism.  Introducing the Cincinnati Redlegs.

The sad cave in to McCarthyism lasted thru the '58 season. Next spring, with McCarthy dead for a couple of years and sanity returning to the Homeland, Redlegs owners chopped the legs off the Reds sayiing: "Let the Commies change their name...we were the Reds long before they were." 

Maybe the football Redskins can steal a page from their Cincinnati baseball brethren and peel the 'skins' off their name. Hey, there's no law against teams in different sports with the same name. And, what would be cooler than to poke ol' Tail Gunner Joe up in Xenophobia Heaven, forcing him to root for the Washington Reds?