Photo via AP

Here’s the New York Giants’ schedule for the 2015-16 season. Notice which two games are not like the others?


Well you read the headline of the blog so you know, but the Giants used nicknames for every opponent except for Washington and this definitely feels intentional. I wonder what made them stop? Was it the rock-dumb fake grassroots campaign they ran? Their proposed new stupid stadium moat? The zesty litigiousness of team lawyers? Or was it that the team is still named after shorthand for a scalped Indian?


We’ve reached out to the Giants for comment, and we’ll update this post when we hear back.

Update (10:10 p.m.): What follows is a mostly fruitless exchange with Giants flak Pat Hanlon:

Patrick Redford <patrick.redford@deadspin.com> 9:03 PM (1 hour ago) to: hanlon. re: Schedule Hi Pat, I’m curious, was the decision not to use “Redskins” in your tweet announcing the 2015-16 schedule while you used every other team’s nickname deliberate? Thanks.

Hanlon, Pat <Pat.Hanlon@giants.nfl.net> 9:21 PM (44 minutes ago) to: me. re: Schedule Patrick, no. We have different formats of schedule and use “Washington” and “Redskins” interchangeably... Will send the Redskins version separately

Patrick Redford <patrick.redford@deadspin.com> 9:26 PM (40 minutes ago) to: Pat. re: Schedule Okay, but why are there two versions? Do you have other versions of the schedule where a single different team is identified by their city instead of their nickname?

Hanlon, Pat <Pat.Hanlon@giants.nfl.net> 9:47 PM (19 minutes ago) to:me. re: Schedule In response to your last question, no, on our graphics, no other team is referred to by both city and nickname.

Patrick Redford <patrick.redford@deadspin.com> 9:52 PM (15 minutes ago) to: Pat. re: Schedule Got it. So why did the team only do one alternate one for Washington?

Hanlon, Pat <Pat.Hanlon@giants.nfl.net> 9:54 PM (12 minutes ago) to: me. re: Schedule We use both names for Washington.

So there you have it.