Petition to the Bring Back the CLEVELAND INDIANS Name Can Make Owner Paul Dolan the Most Beloved Owner in Sports History

Ohio-Based group, "Bring the Cleveland Indians Name Back to Cleveland" Today Submits Petition to INDIANS Owner Paul Dolan.

Petition Will Give Mr. Dolan the Chance Not Only to Correct an Honest Mistake, But to Have his Legacy and Integrity Go Down in Professional Sports History.

Mr. Dolan Would Become as Beloved in Cleveland as Art Modell is Hated for Taking the Cleveland Browns Out of Cleveland.

CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2023 /

Below is our petition:

Dear Mr. Dolan,

We are respectfully submitting this petition today, October 17, 2023.

Good folks sometimes make honest mistakes, giving you the unique opportunity to have your legacy and integrity go down in sports history as becoming the most beloved owner of any professional sports team. You will forever become as beloved as Art Modell is hated.

With this Petition Drive, you and you now have the chance to acknowledge you made a well-meaning but incorrect decision when you changed the CLEVELAND INDIANS name to the "Guardians" two seasons ago. By changing the team's name back to the CLEVELAND INDIANS, you will join Cleveland Indian fans by coming together to make Sports History.

The CLEVELAND INDIANS would become the first team in professional sports (hopefully along with the Washington Redskins) to change their name, and then subsequently change it back to show goodwill to their fans.

We also ask you to please look at the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Chiefs, who withstood pressure from their Commissioners to have their names changed. Just like the Braves, and Chiefs, there is nothing racist in referring to "INDIANS" as "INDIANS" The Chiefs and Braves suffered no repercussions after standing up for their name, and neither will you.

Cleveland sports will admire your integrity if you simply acknowledge it was a well-meaning mistake to imply that the name "INDIANS" was somehow racist, and that your decision was party based on the horrifying death of George Floyd.

Also, just as many NFL owners lost many season ticket holders by supporting the players taking a knee to the National Anthem and American flag, there is also a financial incentive for you to do the right thing by respecting the will of the vast majority of your season ticket holders.

Finally, as so elegantly pointed out by the Native American Guardians Association regarding the Washington Redskins, taking away the CLEVELAND INDIANS name erases the history, tradition, and legacy of these proud people; INDIANS, as in CLEVELAND INDIANS.

• Can you imagine the Atlanta Braves changing their name for being offensive to American Indians? Their season ticket holders would be marching in the streets vowing to "Tomahawk Chop" the heads off of team owners.

• Can you imagine if the Dallas Cowboys changed their storied name for being offensive to American Indians because many years ago Cowboys slaughtered thousands of Indians? Or because kids that play "Cowboys and Indians" always have the Cowboys as the good guys defeating the Indians as the bad guys? If Cowboy ownership did this, their season ticket holders would be flushing their season tickets down the toilet. Same for Pittsburgh Pirate fans if ownership tried to change their name because it was offensive to law-abiding boaters.

As you very well know Mr. Dolan, Cleveland sports fans are the most hardcore fans in America, and deserve the same respect as the fans of the teams mentioned above.

If you change the team's name back to the CLEVELAND INDIANS, we would also ask you to also stop elements of the Cleveland sports media from referring to INDIAN teams and players before 2022 as "Cleveland Guardians." This Orwellian re-writing of history is no different than referring to Cleveland Brown great running back Jim Brown as the "The Former Star of the "Baltimore Ravens"

Regarding the controversy surrounding the logo of Chief Wahoo which has divided INDIAN fans and American-Indians as well: If you someday decide to sell the team, we urge you to sell that logo separately to an American-Indian group not affiliated with the team. That would avoid more controversy with the INDIANS moving forward.

Finally, despite having only 2000 signatures on this petition (all garnered in a very short period of time from local Ohioans) that these 2000 fans are a microcosm and represent the vast majority of ALL CLEVELAND INDIAN fans. This is not only proven by all the legitimate polls taken of CLEVELAND INDIAN fans, but by thousands of signatures also garnered by other excellent groups such as the "Native American Guardian Association" and "Save the Name"

Mr. Dolan, please look at the big picture here as to why (for all the reasons mentioned above), changing the team's name back to the CLEVELAND INDIANS would historically cement your legacy and integrity to INDIAN fans and to the city of Cleveland.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

BRING THE CLEVELAND INDIANS NAME BACK TO CLEVELAND

Please see our petition at - https://chng.it/nsWcYDSsyM

About Us
The group "Bring the Cleveland Indians Name Back to Cleveland" has been founded by recent (one year) Ohioan Stephen Marks and lifelong Ohioan John Galvin. Mr. Marks has been a talk radio host for iHeartMedia, a successful and nationally-known political consultant, author of the highly-acclaimed book "Confessions of a Political Hitman" (Sourcebooks), has been interviewed by dozens of TV, radio and print media such as CNN, FOX News, PBS, New York Times Magazine, and too many others to mention here, and has also been a successful professional musician. Mr. Galvin has been a small-business owner and political consultant.

Both Mr. Marks and Mr. Galvin are available for media interviews and can be reached at (216) 744-4002

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