Vanity Plates Under Fire

Dale Atkeson’s license plates are meant as a modest homage to his three years as a Washington Redskin, but the Department of Motor Vehicles says they are out of bounds.

Atkeson, a 71-year-old Manhattan Beach resident who played for the ‘Skins in the ‘50s, has been ordered by the DMV to surrender his “1REDSKN” plates, which DMV policy deems offensive.

Atkeson was fingered by a Native American activist who routinely surfs the DMV’s Web site to check for offensive plates that skirted the bureaucracy. The activist complained, and the DMV sent Atkeson a letter just before Christmas.

Atkeson, a grandfather who shudders at foul language on television, said he was stunned when told his tribute might be hurtful to others. He wants to keep his plates--a Christmas gift from his wife, Wanda, seven years ago--but sees himself up against an unbeatable opponent.

“I don’t know what legal rights I have. The DMV is like God Almighty,” he said Thursday.

Years after Atkeson received his vanity plates, the DMV decided in 1999 to ban plates with “Redskins” or derivatives of the word. The decision followed a complaint by Eugene Herrod on behalf of Advocates for American Indian Children, part of the Southern California Indian Center in Fountain Valley, according to DMV spokesman Steve Haskins.

The DMV agreed with Herrod’s complaint that a slur should not be used on a license plate, Haskins said.

An administrative law judge upheld the DMV policy in a February 2000 ruling after the ban was challenged by a football fan with a “REDSKIN” vanity plate. The judge ruled the license plate was “offensive to good taste and decency” and “carries a racist connotation.”

Herrod subsequently found Atkeson’s plates on the agency’s Web site. The activist was not at the office of the Southern California Indian Center on Thursday, a representative said.

Atkeson, who played fullback and returned kicks for the Redskins from 1954 to 1956, was unwittingly caught in a long-running national controversy over his old team’s name. Utah was the first state to ban “Redskins” variations on license plates, beating California by a few months in 1999.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in 2000 that the team has no right to trademark its name because it disparages Native Americans. The team has appealed that ruling.

DMV spokesman Haskins said 18 plates have been found that violate the “redskins” rule. The owners are sent a letter notifying them to turn in their plates to a DMV office. They can propose an alternative vanity plate, or take standard-issue plates as a replacement.

Atkeson said he has written to the department to appeal and has not considered possible substitutes.

In a world with so many crude images and diatribes, Atkeson wonders why he has been targeted. “How utterly ridiculous it is to go after my license plate when you can turn on the television and see Howard Stern and his filthy mouth,” he said.

Atkeson grew up in Lomita and went to USC but quickly flunked out. He joined the Navy and honed his football skills on a base team in San Diego before joining the Redskins via the Cleveland Browns. He said playing for the Redskins was a treat because the team trained at Occidental College and played an annual preseason exhibition game against the Rams at the Coliseum.

His $7,000 salary was double what he made as a longshoreman, the job he held in the off-season that became his career until he retired three years ago.

Atkeson says he has seen real racism. He remembers the bigotry against Japanese Americans during World War II, and confesses to having gotten caught up in it. “The government brainwashed us.”

By contrast, he said, attacking the license plates on his Toyota pickup “is really grasping at straws. But I’m not Indian,” he added sympathetically.

Meanwhile, he and his wife are lying low. They have yet to hear anything about the plates on Wanda’s Camry, which read “RDSKN2.”