So as long as we're using an appropriately archaic slur it's OK? Has "spearchucker" fallen far enough out of favor that I could name a team that? How about "zipperhead" or "wop" or "slope" or "sambo?" That seems like a preposterous justification for keeping an offensive name.
But really, my problem with it isn't about the speech or using offensive terminology or what have you. It's the fact that a bunch of people have come together many times over the past decade to ask the team to change the name because it's offensive, and the team has always adopted this attitude of "if you don't like it, fuck you." That's unconscionable to me personally.
If I owned a team and I named it the "Wogs" cause I thought it was a funny word and a group of people came to me and said, "Actually, that's a very offensive term," I'd change it. I don't understand the argument that "yeah, I may be offending you, but I don't care," when there are plenty of names to use that would not offend people. That's just being a straight-up asshole for no reason. What possible justification is there for keeping the team name outside of an appeal to tradition?
An article I was reading earlier on the subject raised a good point.
Basically, it asked if the journalists and talking heads defending the name would feel comfortable going up to a family of American Indians and addressing them as "redskins." If you aren't willing to say it to an American Indian's face, then you acknowledge that it's a slur, and I would guess that most people would agree that we probably shouldn't be using slurs as team names. To which end, I would be fine with every one of those teams you mentioned changing their names/mascots if they are legitimately offending people. It's time to move beyond this absurdity.