Cut Saban some slack or stop The Chop

Alabama football coach Nick Saban has taken an awful lot of guff for his indiscriminate use of the word/slur/term of endearment "coonass" during an apparently off-the-record interview last month.

A lot of people, inside and outside of the media, have seized upon Saban's latest misstep. It's just another opportunity to bash the guy, who though he certainly seems unlikeable, is not as much of a villain as some LSU and Miami Dolphins fans would have you believe.

But since we're all being politically correct here (not a problem for me), and everyone is so self-righteous about avoiding slurs and not offending people, consider this: Do you not consider "coonass" to be at least as offensive as "Redskins" or "Braves" or the generic "Indians"?

If not, you're fooling yourself. Or lying.

How can so many sports fans do the "Tomahawk Chop," root for a club whose mascot is dubbed the patently offensive term "Redskin" or cheer wildly at cartoonish images of faux Native-Americans carrying flaming spears, but in the next breath criticize Saban for using a term that is not-so-clearly offensive to Cajuns?

Can someone explain to me how is this reasonable?