Not to
sound all snowflakey but at the beginning of the week I was pretty sure I might
need some therapy and maybe a little play-doh. The NFL and the Denver Broncos
in particular have been part of the fabric of my life for almost as long as I
can remember.
As a
kid we did church and the Broncos on Sunday. If they had an 11 o’clock away
game I went to the early service. As adults we go to the store Sunday mornings now
and get chips and beer and then watch the Broncos. Maybe they’re on Sunday
night sometimes. Monday night a couple times a year and occasionally on
Thursday night. Also as an adult I have paid attention to a lot more teams and
the game in general. I had to cut out church to make time for fantasy football.
That’s
how it has always been.
I don’t
want to be overly dramatic but something inside me broke last weekend when
across the league there was some sort of formal protest of something I sure don’t
understand in every professional football stadium across the country. Guys who
should be some of this nation’s role models were kneeling during the national
anthem; some offering black power/black panther salutes; all disrespecting our
country, it’s flag, it’s military veterans and active servicemen, and yes we
get it, all white cops.
No
matter how many times the radio wants to play soundbites of players and coaches
saying they weren’t disrespecting the flag or the military, it was just to show
team unity, they were disrespecting the flag and the military. The erudite, morally
pristine, holier-than-thou liberal pukes who want to feel morally superior to us
knuckle-dragging, uneducated, blue collar conservatives who were offended can
just add it to the long list of stuff we will probably never agree upon.
This
was Raiders week here in Denver and I didn’t care. I have hated the Raiders
since I could tie my own shoes and I live for the two weeks a year the Broncos
play them and I can get all worked up and emotionally invested in a stupid
game. And I was so heartsick I just didn’t care.
Last
weekend ruined football for me, at least for awhile. It’s been observed a
thousand times this week that football is supposed to be a place we can escape
from our jobs, troubles, worries and politics. Politics and football were
never intended to mix and I should have known better but I never wanted to see
the day when a football field was used to make a social statement.
Right
up front let’s be clear that I and everyone I know believes in freedom of
speech and in protecting the rights of all Americans to be able to speak what’s
on their minds and protest what may be heavy on their hearts. I am not for a
moment saying those players didn’t have a right to do what they did.
But
like it or not, we who are mightily offended also have a right not to like it
and to say so as loudly and obnoxiously as we care to. And I’m pretty sure I’m
not the Lone Ranger on this one (55-61% of Americans disapprove of the current
protest according to polls by Fox News, CBS and others).
This
whole NFL kneel down thing was started by a black has-been quarterback in San
Francisco, raised by white parents and making $10 million a year, as a protest
against police brutality against young, inner-city black men to whom the brave
quarterback has a less-than-obvious connection. I don’t know if the media
decided they couldn’t actually produce any real statistics documenting a trend
in police brutality against young black men (they can’t) and so they upgraded
the terminology to a protest against “social injustice,” or if some reporter
just thought of bigger words.
So this
year the protest grew to include “inequality” in general, as more millionaire
sports stars caught the fever. And last weekend entire teams joined in the
protest as a show of team unity, I guess, in response to tweets by Donald Trump
that the NFL should just fire the “sons of bitches” that were kneeling during
the anthem.
Defending
the President’s tweets is a lost cause, even among the faithful. President
Trump is not a career politician but he is a highly opinionated, outspoken guy
who sometimes forgets he’s not just another citizen anymore and I agree, he
probably would do better if he’d quit forgetting that. But can I join the
outrage about what he said?
Not
unless I want to disown at least six friends and family members who have said
the exact same thing in my living room and around my dining room table. Add to
that another eight to 12 business associates and the guy who bagged my
groceries at Krogers. Your President shouldn’t always say out loud what many of
us are thinking but it was one of the traits that got him elected and sent
what’s-her-name on her march of many sorrows.
So what
is even being protested exactly? Last week Bronco’s Head Coach Vance Joseph
said, “Now, this thing has grown. It’s evolving every day. I’m not even sure
what it’s about anymore and that’s the issue in my opinion.”
The
technical definition of social justice is “the fair and proper administration
of laws so that all persons, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, possessions,
race or religion are to be treated equally.” I’m not sure who NFL players think disagrees
with that. Maybe KKK members, Neo-Nazis, #BLM members and Anti-Fa hoodlums, but
who else?
What
would Aaron Rodgers or Von Miller like me to do this week to end social
injustice in my world? Or maybe I should just focus on inequality. Maybe I’ll
end that on Tuesday if I see some. Or should I just shoot a cop? Does it have
to be a white one?
In the post-game press conference after the Buffalo Bills had crushed the socially enlightened Broncos, Denver linebacker Von Miller said in response to a question about the anthem kneel-down, “Hey, I had to stand up (sic?) for my brothers who are being beaten.”
I am willing
to place a sizable bet that unless Von was talking about Brandon Marshall in
pass coverage or Denver’s offensive tackles, he does not know a single person
being beaten.
I
realize social injustice and inequality exist. Good grief, we’ve taken huge
steps backwards in race relations since 2008 when we first put Barack Obama in
the presidency and he began to make sure we all knew how racist white people
were by virtue of being white and how victimized black people were by virtue of
being black. I haven’t seen it this bad since the 60’s when I was really too
young to realize what was going on.
Am I
supposed to apologize for being white? Am I supposed to apologize because other
people are black? My awareness is raised, what next?
Hey, I
know, why don’t we take the reins of trying to fix the scale of social justice
away from the democrats who have been running on that platform since 1964 when
republicans pushed through the Civil Rights Act? I think over 50 years of not
fixing a damn thing is enough, don’t you?
It’ll
never happen but what if you let conservatives have a swing at the piñata?
Maybe making welfare harder to get and jobs easier to get would be a good place
to start. Maybe a program to encourage grass roots leadership aimed at
reknitting the nuclear African-American family in inner cities.
Maybe
harsher penalties are in order for domestic violence, having as many as a dozen
children by nearly that many women out of wedlock, drunken driving, shooting
incidents and illegal drug violations. Well, that might clean up the NFL but I think
the issue is bigger than that.
How
dare an organization trying to protect its star running back in Dallas from a
six-week suspension for beating his girlfriend try and tell the rest of the
nation about social injustice.
How
dare an organization that fines a player for wearing cleats printed with, “9/11,”
and “Never Forget,” endorse a bunch of hooligans who think they need to tell
this nation how justice works.
How
dare you.
On
Thursday the Broncos announce they were going to resume standing as a team for
the national anthem and immediately the media began making it sound like they
were doing us a favor.
Whatever.
I’ll
probably forgive them because they’re my Broncos after all and I’ve even been
mad at God and forgiven him before too. And in all honesty, I probably will
watch the Broncos-Raiders game but something tells me I’m not going to care how
it comes out as much as I used to. And it will probably be the only game I
watch this week until the rest of the NFL starts standing again.
I’ll
forgive them too. But I won’t forget.
Red
Miller, former Broncos head coach and the first coach to take them to a Super
Bowl, died this past Wednesday at age 89. I am convinced it was from a broken
heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment