SAN DIEGO -- After the National College Athletic Association announced that it was cracking down on disparaging sports team mascots, many teams took a second look at their names.  But pro baseball's San Diego Padres didn't feel that they'd be the next flashpoint in the controversy.

For starters, a coalition of religious organizations known as the Society for the Protection of Religion (SPR) is protesting the "insensitive religious slurs" perpetrated by two California baseball teams: the Padres and the the Anaheim Angels. 

"The liberal usage of, and the derogatory depictions of our most sacred religious icons must stop!" said Keith Northerland, the group's president.  "False portrayals of padres cheapen that image and encourage bias against leaders of all religions.  The team and their fans say that they're honoring padres, but I for one don't have any religious colleagues who look like that antiquated and offensive image they've chosen!  And since padre literally means 'father,' it also diminishes the institution of fatherhood!"

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"To name a team after the California bear, that we've hunted into near extinction, is a sad comment on the ironic immunity of human beings."

-- Environmentalist Alliance for Team Mascot Education (EATME)

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The Anaheim Angels have also come under scrutiny because of those who believe angels to be actual beings.  "To presume to name a team after angels," said Northerland, "is to suggest that the existence of angels is nothing but a joke.  But angels are working hard for us every day and it's just not fair that we should turn around and characterize them in such a crude manner.  They deserve much better!" 

But the controversy doesn't stop there.
The Environmentalist Alliance for Team Mascot Education (EATME) has targeted a number of sports teams in which, according to their press release, "the use of animal names in sports represents a stereotype with negative consequences -- which is a dangerous precedent in a diverse society which includes our animals friends."

"The California bear, that is now the mascot for the Cal State Bears, is an endangered species, so to name a team after a bear that we've hunted into near extinction is a sad comment on the ironic immunity of human beings.  It does nothing for bears, while it denigrates and desensitizes our own image of bears as vicious, aggressive creatures -- and that shapes our behavior toward them."

"People should think of it from the animal's perspective," the press release continues.  "How would you like it if there were, say, a Hawaiian football team called the Howlin' Howlies, with a guy dressed up as Howard who does some stupid halftime dance.  Or what about a Mexican soccer team called the Oaxacan Gringos, or maybe a Japanese baseball team that 'honors' Americans by calling themselves the Wakayama Whiteskins."

What's next for the ongoing debate over sports icons? 

American garment workers are calling for a march on Washington to get Congress to change the names of the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox.