Hearne: Editorial Slams ‘Arrowhead Chop,’ Whatever That Is

Patrick Mahomes hops while riding mechanical bull

It’s not easy keeping up with Native American political correctness…

Not for the Kansas City Star editorial board, anyway. How else to explain conflating a tomahawk with an arrowhead?

No kidding,

Check out the headline:

“Stop the offensive ‘Arrowhead Chop.’ It’s time for a new Chiefs tradition.”

I know this is beyond elementary, but when football fans do a one-arm, downward movement during games, they’re wielding imaginary tomahawks, not arrowheads.

Tomahawk like the ones the “injuns” used in the old time cowboy movies with actors like John Wayne.

And given that since arrowheads are routinely attached to arrows, which are traditionally launched by what’s known as a bow, the Chiefs fan’s chopping motion makes no sense.

That’s not how one shoots an arrow with a bow…not  even close!

Which isn’t to say Chiefs fans couldn’t feign an imaginary arrow shooting, if somebody could come up with appropriate music bed.  You know, and maybe get the cheerleaders to demo the move for fans.

Maybe call it, the “Arrowhead Zinger,” or something cute.

I digress…

In short, the editorial is yet another example of a few newspaper know-it-alls running out of stuff to bitch about.

“Chiefs fans are among the most loyal and enthusiastic in the NFL,” the editorial reads. “And there’s no doubt they would fill any void left by the absence of the chop with a high-decibel celebration of our team.

“November is National Native American Heritage Month.  The Chiefs plan to celebrate the culture during a game against Oakland on Dec. 1. But the organization could do far more good if it used this month to reevaluate a practice that perpetuates stereotypes and dehumanizes an entire group.”

So after three decades of on-again, off-again criticizing the, uh, tomahawk chop, the solution – if anybody really cares – seems obvious.

Just stop playing that hokey chop muzak.

No more chop music, no more chop.

At which point the so-called Arrowhead Chop can quietly go the way of the Macarena.

That Spanish-flavored song and dance craze that broke out in the late ’90s,  “about a woman who cheats on her boyfriend while he is being drafted into the army.”

Remember when the Chiefs, Royals and Wizards used to cue up that tune by playing the music?

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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11 Responses to Hearne: Editorial Slams ‘Arrowhead Chop,’ Whatever That Is

  1. Kerouac says:

    “November is National Native American Heritage Month. The Chiefs plan to celebrate the culture during a game against Oakland on Dec. 1”

    – figures… little wonder they’re a day late and Championship(s) short; of Arrowhead Chop, red rush ketchup uniforms suggest relentless nosebleed and other things that make little to no sense ‘this is our year’, part 2019, verse 50.

    A football franchise whose ownership has day one resided another state, brought to Kansas City a Dallas team grudgingly renamed Chiefs in lieu the original preference Texans, employed a California cheerleader named Krazy George and a team mascot referred to as Wolf but looks moreso Ed Sullivan’s mouse an overgrown Topo Gigio. Nod Maxwell Smart’s Agent 99, keep missing it ‘by thaaat much!’ (*extirpated since the early 1900s, wolves rare as Superbowl Trophies residing Missouri and Kansas.)

    As the 1960’s gave way the 70’s, Championship-caliber football gave way also-running, Italian Espera Oscar de Corti gave way imitation Native American ‘Iron Eyes Cody’, as today’s fake news and counterfeit Pocahontas ‘Lies-abeth’ Warren replace the genuine.
    Oh, for the days of Hedrick and Grigsby, Bob Johnson riding Warpaint, larger helmet logos, uniforms 3/4 length sleeves minus sleeve stripes (and garish red pants), Toma’s beautifully painted multi-color endzones norm rather exception, and hallowed ground Municipal Stadium in lieu artificial Arrowhead among dead or buried betters of yore.

    Eventuality a name change/nod Cleveland’s late team namesake Paul Brown, ‘Chiefs’ and ‘KC’ helmet logo could be replaced ‘Hunts’ and ‘$’ logo (could even get that well-known ketchup maker same to pay for their name be affixed stadium, field or jersey, nod NBA selling jersey ads (guess we’ll just have to ‘wait till next year’ to find out.)

    😎

  2. Shawnster says:

    ^^^^zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    • admin says:

      Get a good sleep, Shawnster?

    • Kerouac says:

      Speaking of narcoleptic gridiron nee coma, two score plus one decade more…

      Van Winkle slept 20 by the year saw ghosts the Halve Maen; the disturbed saw dead people Sixth Sense; having no sense, swiss chiefs fandumb see ‘this is our year’, every; in the parlance Popeye, ‘time for some (more) shuteye’ zzzzzzzzzz

      🙁

  3. KC Reader says:

    Seriously, there is no need to perpetuate this embarrassing (in many ways) tradition stolen from two other pathetically weak fan bases. You don’t even see the Cleveland Indians or Washington Redskins doing this idiotic chant. Even if this chant wasn’t offensive it is embarrassing as it is 35 years old and created by a marching band. What’s next Chiefs fans, chanting the beat of Seven Nation Army? Jump Around? Maybe there is some other team’s stale 20 year old chant you can steal.

    • admin says:

      Interesting point…my overall take is we never seem to hear from the unwashed about why they love it so dearly, what it truly means to them and how they feel about with a) having it taken away from them or b) voluntarily giving it up?

  4. Super Dave says:

    What I have found funny through the years is the Chiefs name had nothing to do with Indians to begin with so the chop has always been idiotic to me. But last game I went to I saw more middle fingers being displayed than I did any chops.

    • admin says:

      Yikes!

      What were you wearing, dude? A Raiders getup?

      Yeah, the Roe Bartle angle has always been talked about, anecdotally. However, from Day One, the team has always pushed the Indian aspect. I remember they had cartoon Indians on the covers of the programs in the early years

  5. Tony Hawkins says:

    The Star E/B may or may not have a real opinion about the “chop”. I think the whole reason for the E/B’s column was for clicks. That’s what today’s journalism has become. You can sell papers or digital subscriptions? The just write an opinion column that most people will disagree with and wa-la, you’ve got clicks. Whores, they are!

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