Former United States First Lady Hillary Clinton brought the Washington Redskins back into the news this week.

Her official X (formerly Twitter) account posted a photo of Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former United States President Bill Clinton, skiing during a vacation in the Utah mountains. In the photo, the Clintons are visibly younger (perhaps 25 years younger). It has been reported that the Clintons vacationed in Park City, Utah, in February 1998.

The most important thing to remember in this story is that Mrs. Clinton fully approved of the tweet, choosing to post the photo and message herself. This is not an example of political opponents posting an adversarial message or unflattering photo to make an opponent look bad in some way.

The photo Mrs. Clinton chose to post showed her wearing gloves. Not just any gloves, but burgundy-and-gold gloves. Yes, the gloves then unmistakably have written across the back of the hand in large, bold, capital letters, “R-E-D-S-K-I-N-S”. Yes, the Washington Redskins.

Why is this all significant?

Mrs. Clinton, at this point in her career (while first lady of the USA), had no problem with the name “Redskins.” She demonstrated this not only by accepting the team name as fine and acceptable, but also by going much further, freely choosing to wear the name “Redskins” as part of her own personal skiing apparel.

Yet in 2014, when pressure was increasing on the then-owner, Daniel Snyder, to change the name from “Redskins” to something else, Mrs. Clinton said the name “Redskins” was “insensitive” and that there was “no reason for it to continue.” She also expressed that team owners “should think hard about what they could substitute” for the name. But when Mrs. Clinton was asked what alternative names she had in mind, she said she had not given it much thought.

Like so many politicians, was Mrs. Clinton quick to jump on the current bandwagon at the time in 2014? After all, how “insensitive” did she actually consider “Redskins” to be when she chose to wear the name in 1998 and then reposted the photo herself in 2026?