In June 2014, I did something politically unthinkable: I publicly supported the Washington Redskins.

In response to a court ruling that the team’s name was “derogatory,” I called David I. Ramadan, a Republican delegate from Loudoun County, and we agreed to form a bipartisan “Redskins Pride Caucus” to counter the endless negative press against our favorite team.

My decision to come out of the Redskins closet was not a political calculation. I was a loyal fan who had watched the team unite the community in the glory days. I thought that the name-based criticisms were contrived and unfair and that the team deserved a public defender.

The backlash was immediate. My Facebook account was flooded with hundreds of negative messages. I was denounced as a racist. Others called me a hypocrite for defending the name when my own wife is a minority. The more considerate critics offered to “educate” me. The general reaction was that I had committed political suicide by defending the team’s name.