Edmonton Football Team

EE Football Team, Inc., is governed by a ten-member board of directors.[13] The board consists of a chairman, treasurer, secretary, and seven directors. As of 2017 the board of directors included chairman Brad Sparrow, treasurer Janice Agrios, secretary Murray Scambler, directors Douglas Cox, Rob Heron, Ian Murray, Harold Roozen, Marshall Sadd, Lindsay Dodd and Tom Richards. The club's president and CEO is Chris Presson;[14][15] he is not currently a member of the board.

Edmonton played its first series of organized games with the formation of the Alberta Rugby Football Union in 1895. In 1897 the name Esquimaux was adopted. In 1910 the club was officially named the Edmonton Eskimos, with the current incarnation beginning play in 1949. Since 1978 the EE has played their home games in The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium. They are one of the most successful teams in Canadian football history, having won the Grey Cup more than any other team except the Toronto Argonauts, including far more championships than any other team in the CFL's modern era which is widely reckoned to have begun with Edmonton's first title in 1954. Edmonton has also led the CFL in attendance for many years.

The team holds many impressive records, including five consecutive Grey Cup wins (1978–82) and 34 consecutive years in the playoffs (1972–2005); the latter is a record no other North American professional sports team has equalled. Former Eskimos have figured prominently in Alberta political life: past players include two former provincial premiers (Peter Lougheed and Donald Getty), a former mayor of Edmonton (Bill Smith), and a lieutenant-governor (Norman Kwong).

The Eskimos made it to nine Grey Cups in a ten-year span from 1973 to 1982 (the only year they missed the Grey Cup during that time was in 1976; they also won the Cup six times in that span). Since Edmonton re-entered the CFL in 1949, only one other team—also Edmonton—has won even three championships in a row (1954–56). The achievements during the Eskimos dynasty were documented in the book, Decade of Excellence, with photographs by Bob Peterson.

As of August 2016, the Eskimos also have had the largest average attendance in the league 27 times since moving to Commonwealth Stadium in 1978.[16]

The story of the team's name goes back to stories in the press from at least 1903 and possibly as far back as 1892, the first date of a "rugby football" game between Edmonton and Calgary. It is a legacy of the bitter rivalry between the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, the so-called Battle of Alberta. In the early years of sports competition between the cities, the press in each town used colourful nicknames to insult the rival team's home. Edmontonian writers called Calgary "the cow camp", "horse country", or "the little village beside the Bow". Likewise Calgary's responded with insults about Edmonton's northern latitude and frigid weather, calling the city's residents "Esquimaux" (an archaic spelling of "Eskimos", referring to the indigenous people of the Canadian Arctic, properly called Inuit). Despite the fact Edmonton is one and a half thousand kilometres south of the Arctic, the name "had the advantages of alliteration, neatness, uniqueness, and a certain amount of truth," and thus, according to historian of Edmonton Tony Cashman, "it stuck." The name remained an unofficial nickname, however, until the arrival in Edmonton of American baseball coach and sports promoter William Deacon White in 1907. White founded the Edmonton Eskimos baseball team in 1909, the football Eskimos in 1910, and Edmonton Eskimos hockey team in 1911. Of the three, only the football team's name has survived.

In part because they do not use any native imagery in their team identity, the Eskimos are less often mentioned with regard to the Native American mascot controversy. Natan Obed, the President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit organization, has stated that "Eskimo is not only outdated, it is now largely considered a derogatory term" and is a "relic of colonial power".[17] Former Eskimos player Andre Talbot stated: "Sports organizations need to be community building organizations. And if we're isolating and offending part of that community, then our particular organization or league is not doing its job."[18] After Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq suggested that a name change would show respect, Paula Simons of the Edmonton Journal wrote an editorial pointing out that "Eskimo is a name that never properly belonged to Edmonton at all, a borrowed, appropriated name that disrespects not just the Inuit people, but also the other First Nations who actually did call this territory home".[19] The editorial board of the Toronto Star sees a name change as the inevitable result of social evolution.[20] In June 2020, New Democrat MP for Nunavut Mumilaaq Qaqqaq responded to a tweet from the team regarding racism by saying that if the team wanted to understand racism, it could "start by changing your team name."[21] Former Eskimos player Andre Talbot, who visited Nunavut as part of the CFL's celebration of the Grey Cup's 100th anniversary, has stated that he supports a name change.[22] Support for a name change has also come from the Mayor of Edmonton, Don Iveson, who called for the team to change its name prior to the city hosting the 106th Grey Cup in 2018.[23]

Conversely, there has also been support from members and organizations of the Inuit community in favour of the team retaining the name. In 2019, following the Eskimos' decision to retain the name, the leaders of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, supported the move and rejected claims that the name is derogatory, citing the fact that the term was created by a First Nations group to describe the Inuit.[24] Several Nunavut MLAs have also spoken out in favour of the name, including Lorne Kusugak, who expressed his pride in the term "Eskimo" during a speech in the territorial Legislative Assembly.[25] In a 2017 CBC News article on the name, several members of the Inuit community were interviewed and expressed their support for the name, with some expressing their frustration that the controversy took away attention from "far more pressing issues" that Canadian Inuit face.[26]

In response to Obed's calls for the team to change its name, the Eskimos organization announced that it would increase its engagement with Canada's Inuit population. This engagement included holding consultations with Inuit in several Northern communities and sending Eskimos players to represent the team and meet with students in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.[27] In February 2020, following a year-long research and engagement program in-person meetings and telephone surveys, the Eskimos announced that they intended to keep the name, citing a lack of consensus in supporting a name change.[28] In the aftermath of increased racial sensitivity following the killing of George Floyd in the United States, sports teams that utilize indigenous iconography - including the Eskimos - came under increased pressure to change their names. While several teams, including the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians announced their intention to review their use of indigenous mascots, the Eskimos initially announced their intention to keep their name based upon the findings of their 2019 research. However, on July 8, 2020, the team released a statement announcing that the name would undergo an internal review, with the results being made public at the end of the month. The team's statement came after a threat by longtime league sponsor Belair Direct to end its partnership with the CFL unless the name is changed. Other major sponsors, such as Coca-Cola, also expressed concerns with the continued lack of consensus regarding the Eskimos name.[29] The NHL's first Inuk player, Jordin Tootoo says that he has no personal issue with "Eskimos" but thinks the team should consider changing it.[30]

On July 21, 2020 the team officially retired the "Eskimos" name, and began using "Edmonton Football Team" and "EE Football Team" as temporary names until a new one is decided.[3] The name change occurred at around the same time as the NFL's Washington Football Team retired its longstanding nickname for similar reasons, although unlike in the latter case the Edmonton Football Team intends to keep its logo which unlike Washington's former logo lacks any racialized aspect.