Former Washington WR Gary Clark took part in a Comcast “alumni” special that aired Wednesday, and when the subject of the club’s widely-despised nickname, Clark insisted the controversy was entirely manufactured. From the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg :

“If it really bothered Native Americans, do you not think they would not be like blacks, gays, Hispanics, and march on Washington?” Clark asked at one point. “Of course they would. Of course they would. You say the word ‘Redskins,’ most people think of the Washington Redskins football team. You’re talking about 90 percent of the population does. The Washington Redskins is the only team in the National Football League whose name actually has meaning to it. And [that’s] why we played so hard to represent that brand.”

Clark had said something similar to me recently, that Washington’s team has “the only name in the National Football League that had substance and meaning behind it, besides the Minnesota Vikings.”

And in fact, Clark also mentioned the Vikings during the CSN program, when Hernandez asked what he would say to those Native Americans who are offended by the name.

“I know about equal rights,” Clark said. “I’m all about equal rights. So quite honestly, I wanted to go hear it from the horse’s mouth. So I went directly to the Native American Indians and I directly asked them, ‘the word Redskin, is it offensive to you, am I being disrespectful of you in in any way?’ And they were like no. Not at all.”