NEW YORK — Are your ears burning, Matthew McConaughey? Perhaps a particular shade of … red?
McConaughey lit a social media fire with comments about his favorite NFL team, the Washington Redskins. The capital’s gridiron representatives — and their owner, Dan Snyder — have been criticized more heavily in recent years for keeping a name that is considered derogatory by many native Americans.
“I love the emblem. I dig it. It gives me a little fire and some oomph,” McConaughey told GQ for its November issue. “But now that it’s in the court of public opinion, it’s going to change. I wish it wouldn’t, but it will.”
The 44-year-old Texas native says he’s been a Redskins fan since he was 4, when, “watching Westerns, I always rooted for the Indians.” He also liked hamburgers, and the Skins had a player named Chris Hanburger, he added.
McConaughey’s words did not go unnoticed on Twitter.
“I wish ppl would stop saying ‘everybody was fine with the Redskins’ name, then all of a sudden…’ I promise u, ‘everybody’ wasn’t ‘fine,’ ” tweeted Stereo Williams.
“Matthew McConaughey wants the Redskins to keep their name, basically bc he digs the emblem & hamburgers,” Emmy Weikert tweeted.
But McConaughey also had defenders.
“Actor Matthew McConaughey Publicly Challenges Leftist Nonsense; Supports Washington REDSKINS!” tweeted Hawkeye.
A number of tweeters repeated a headline from the Independent Journal Review, a conservative viral news site: “Guess Who Just Weighed in On the Redskins Logo Controversy with a Non-PC Take Some Sure Won’t Like.”
This isn’t the first time McConaughey has defended the Redskins and his love for the team.
In a June interview, McConaughey mentioned that he used to wear a headdress when attending Dallas-Washington games in Dallas.
“(Cowboys fans) didn’t like that I would show up, painted in burgundy, with the headdress and stuff. But they didn’t throw much stuff either. It was all right,” he said.
Comedian Hari Kondabolu believes he has a solution to the issue: keep the Redskins name but replace the logo with a severely sunburned white person. Suggestions, recorded on his Tumblr, have included Bob Barker, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Carrot Top.
Dani, who describes herself as an “urban Native American,” thinks the two ideas can be combined.
“Matthew Mcconaughey stays looking sunburnt and like he rolled around in some cheetos. He could be the new Redskins mascot. #changethename,” she tweeted.
McConaughey’s new movie, director Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” opens November 5.
