Indians Should Just Change Their Name Back to the Spiders Already

The Washington Redskins might change their name due to the fact the higher-ups are finally starting to feel the heat from sponsors, and baseball's most prominent Native American-themed team might also do away with their antiquated name in response to this development.

Now that the Redskins have chosen to reconsider rebranding to something that isn't as offensive to Native Americans, the Cleveland Indians are also going to review their problematic name.

The Indians have a perfect opportunity to rebrand as the Cleveland Spiders, as a team with the Spiders name played in Cleveland until the National League contracted in 1899. While they lost an insane 134 games in '99, the Spiders rostered some of baseball's greatest players ever. Cy Young pitched in Cleveland for 12 seasons, nine of which were spent with the Spiders. The Indians, named after Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play in the major leagues, came around in 1901.

Outside of the University of Richmond, the Spiders name is criminally underused. Rebranding as a menacing animal while keeping the Indians' colors could not only scrub the franchise of the PR headache surrounding their name, but it could give them the chance to own the best set of uniforms in the league.

Rebranding as the Spiders would be a tip of the cap to Cleveland's baseball history, could allow the Indians to keep their red, white, and navy color scheme, and would christen them as an intimidating insect that is critically underrepresented across the sports landscape. This seems like a win on all fronts.