Washington's Jason Hatcher suggests team's nickname may be impacting officiating

After a loss to Carolina on Sunday, one Washington veteran had an interesting theory as to why a key call went against his team. Defensive end Jason Hatcher suggested that perhaps the team's controversial 'Redskins' nickname plays a role in the calls they get or don't get from officials.

The ire of Washington's players and fans was raised in the first half when cornerback Chris Culliver hit Greg Olsen and caused a fumble that he intercepted and returned for a touchdown himself. The score, however, was called back after Culliver was flagged for unnecessary roughness on a helmet-to-helmet hit on the tight end. Culliver's touchdown would've given the Redkins a 21-14 lead. Instead, the Panthers got the ball back and scored themselves, marking a 14-point swing.

Though Washington would lose by a much larger margin —the final score was 44-16 — the sequence of events still bothered Hatcher and his teammates after the game.

“We’ve just got to check ourselves. Everybody got to look theirselves in the mirror," Hatcher said of the loss, which dropped Washington to 4-6. "This is a team sport, and we lost as a team. Everybody got to get they self together, get mentally and physically tougher so we can go in here and win. It’s going to be hard, you know, we fighting against teams and the referees. It just is what it is.

“I’m not saying this out of character to get fined, but it is what it is. I don’t know if it’s about the name or what, but at the same time, we play football too. We work our butt off too. Don’t single us out. At the end of the day, it’s the name. Don’t worry about the name – we players and we work our butt off too. I’m just frustrated with it. We shouldn’t have to be punished for that. It’s been every game, calls after calls that should’ve been made in our favor, but it goes to them. It’s just not right. We in the league too. We’re National Football players. We got a team too. We go out there, and we sweat and work hard too. I don’t give a crap about the name. We are players. We’ve got feelings too, and we want to win too.”

That's seems like a reach worthy of Stretch Armstrong from Hatcher. Bad calls are made in the NFL every day - heck, the officials initially called a Ted Ginn touchdown pass an incomplete pass only to overturn it when the Panthers challenged - and are part of the game. Additionally, the penalties called for both teams were almost even on Sunday. Washington was flagged nine times for 68 yards while the Panthers racked up 66 yards on eight penalties.

Considering the NFL, unlike the federal government, has not pressured Washington to change the name and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has done nothing but defend the Redskins name, it seems highly unlikely there's a covert plan to undermine Washington because of the team nickname.

Hatcher stuck to his stance on the nickname via Instagram:

That's not to say that no referees have ever acknowledged being bothered by the nickname. Retired referee Mike Carey revealed after his officiating days were done that he asked the league after the 2005 season not to assign him to any more Washington games because he felt the name was offensive.

If he was never on the field for one of the team's games, his opinion couldn't impact his decision-making.

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