September 24, 2017

Just when liberal media was gearing up to destroy football over all the brain damage, Trump calls for a boycott of football over the National Anthem protests.

Here was the devastating NYT story 3 days ago: "Aaron Hernandez Had Severe C.T.E. When He Died at Age 27":
Aaron Hernandez, the former New England Patriots tight end and a convicted murderer, was 27 when he committed suicide in April. Yet a posthumous examination of his brain showed he had such a severe form of the degenerative brain disease C.T.E. that the damage was akin to that of players well into their 60s.

It was, a lawyer for his family said, in announcing the findings on Thursday, “the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron’s age.”

C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L. players, some of whom committed suicide, according to researchers at Boston University.
Well, that's it, I said to myself. That's the end of football. How can we sit back and enjoy watching activities that we know are wrecking the players' brain?

Here's the top-rated "NYT Pick" comment there:
I'm a diehard football fan, but the moment is rapidly approaching when I'll stop watching. The Kaepernick situation. The head injuries. The continued blind eye and mishandling of domestic violence cases. Plus, the Giants are 0-2 with no signs of a new left tackle anywhere in sight. I'll miss the ritual of the whole thing most of all (I love spending Sundays with my wife and freinds-eating nachos, drinking beer and watching endless truck commercials), but I think football is something that future generations will look back on with much the same feeling of shock and mild disgust that we feel when contemplating Roman gladiators.
This is a blunt, loud call to stop watching. You're a bad person if — knowing what you know now — you continue to watch football. This isn't a new message. Rush Limbaugh has been saying for years that this issue has already killed football, and it's only a matter of time. But this news about Hernandez was a devastatingly hard hit. Here's how it looked in the middle of the NYT front page last Friday:



Football was down. The end. We, the good people who read the NYT, must say no to football. What is known cannot become unknown except by willful, immoral forgetting. No decent person can take pleasure in football. No fit parent can allow a child to take up the game. The era of American football is over. Bury it. We can end the misery through the simple and necessary refusal to watch anymore. Say no, America... or hey, wait a minute. Here's that nasty President of the United States and he's calling for a boycott of football...


Now, what?! If you really hate brain damage, you might say, great. We can successfully destroy football now, because we've got a powerful second reason for football-watchers to end their support for the evil, destructive game. The people who are least receptive to the brain-damage problem might be the most likely to get into the strict discipline of firing players for "disrespecting our Flag & Country." Look at that capitalization, from the man who said "I love the poorly educated." He knows his audience. They don't read The New York Times. They're not going to let complicated news stories about CTE stop them from watching football. Can they even say chronic traumatic encephalopathy? But they sure get the prod from the Prez about Flag & Country.

Do you ally with your enemy against a common enemy? But Trump isn't the enemy of all football. The National Anthem protests have been hurting football. The ratings have been declining badly, seemingly because of those protests. Trump may be trying to revive football, by demonstrating the strength of the support — among the real fans — for a harsh policy that would end the protests and bring the fans back. But it seems unlikely that football management will adopt that approach, as Trump must know, and so I imagine he's thinking that he's putting his personal stamp on the protest problem. He told management what it needed to do: Fire the protesters. They didn't do it, and the decline of football continued. He told them. He showed them how to save football, and they wouldn't do it, because they don't respect their own fans. They listened to the elite media that has no respect for the people who really watch football (and who vote for Trump).

So, watch the liberal media endeavor to save football from bad old President Trump. He's a racist. This is his racism once again, stirring up the stupid people who voted for him. Here's the NYT today:
The tweet suggested that the president, who used an expletive on Friday night to refer to players who kneel or sit in protest during the anthem — a practice that took hold last season among some African-American players after Colin Kaepernick, the now-former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, did so to protest racial and social injustice — is bent on deepening a bitter culture-war fight with the N.F.L.

It is a highly charged debate, with unmistakable racial undertones, pitting advocates of free speech who argue that professional athletes should have a right to use their positions to call attention to social issues against those who contend that refusing to honor the anthem disrespects the military and the nation, and that sports is no place for such displays.
Let the brain damage continue. We've got a culture war to fight.

269 comments:

1 – 200 of 269   Newer›   Newest»
Clyde said...

Althouse, you put the article in again in place of the quote you wanted to put there.

rhhardin said...

There's the Peltzman effect, that more safety equipment leads to more injuries.

They wouldn't hit hard without a helmit.

rhhardin said...

Trump is wrong on the flag and the anthem.

Forced respect isn't respect, it's submission.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Clyde. (It would have taken me a long time to notice that!)

Fixed.

Original Mike said...

"Now, what?!"

Rugby.

Mark said...

It was, a lawyer for his family said, in announcing the findings on Thursday, “the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron’s age.” C.T.E., or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, has been found in more than 100 former N.F.L. players. . .
Well, that's it, I said to myself. That's the end of football.


Except that before they politicized sports, they politicized science. With the agenda bias that permeates research science, none of it can be trusted. People have caught on to this.

Ann Althouse said...

"Forced respect isn't respect, it's submission."

I'm going to write a separate post about this.

tcrosse said...

Does anyone kneel for O Canada ?

Mark said...

Trump, who helped destroy the USFL, now being held up as having a solution to the NFL's issues?

He sure is managing to keep his supporters distracted from his recent failures with Health Care and the like.

Ann Althouse said...

"Except that before they politicized sports, they politicized science. With the agenda bias that permeates research science, none of it can be trusted. People have caught on to this."

I think that argument will work among the Trump fans, which is why those who really believe in the brain damage problem should welcome Trump's assistance in ending football.

Mark said...

I think football is something that future generations will look back on with much the same feeling of shock and mild disgust that we feel when contemplating Roman gladiators.

And people are woke to inauthentic commenters who claim to be woke and now are making politically correct comments. (By the way, I seem to remember Howard Cosell making almost the exact same quote about boxing, or maybe it was Humphrey Bogart in his last movie. Anyway, the bit here about Roman blood sport was stolen from somewhere).

AMDG said...

I quit playing football in after freshman year of high school - we were coached to takl by burying our heads in the opponents chest.

If you,want to save football they need to take the head out of the game. Either eliminate or return to leather helmets without face masks.

Fernandinande said...

Maybe they'll get C.T.P.; chronic traumatic patellopathy.

rhhardin said...

John and Ken on KFI, long ago (1998) on saying the Pledge in school, real audio

http://rhhardin7.home.mindspring.com/johnkencut.pledge.ra

It starts slowly with typical lawyer and mother interview, and then gets lively as angry callers appear and John and Ken defend.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I love it. Althouse cuts right to the heart of the matter.

The liberals were all salivating at being able to destroy or at least cripple the NFL and football because "brain damage" but ....NOW because they hate Trump MORE than anything else, they are now in the position of having to defend the NFL because TRUMP!!

Trump trumps brain damage**

Hah. Watch them squirm and try to square this circle.

** Not that I deny that having your bell rung for years, beginning in elementary school sports, doesn't contribute to brain damage. Nor do I make it a joking matter. BUT...the irony is too delicious.

Mark said...

his recent failures with Health Care and the like

That's exactly right. Why doesn't Trump use his vast powers to bring an ObamaCare repeal to a vote in Congress? Why doesn't he himself produce the votes to repeal? He's such a failure.

Or perhaps it is because he is the president. He is in the executive branch. And he has NOTHING to do with what Congress does or does not do. Trump has nothing to do with McConnell and McCain and Ryan all being incompetent, ineffectual, do-nothing liars to the American people. That's on them.

Laslo Spatula said...

I had my first and second concussion while playing high school football.

Of course, back then you walked it off.

You just had your bell rung, that's all.

I coulda been a contender.

I am Laslo.


Michael K said...

We have had a little discussion at neo neocon and my theory is that we are seeing this now because of the physical giants now playing professional and at top rated college teams.

Why didn't this happen in the days of the Harvard-Yale game in 1930? Because normal sized people were playing the game.

We have the NBA which is filled with 7 foot tall people and has a significant incidence of dissecting aneurysm because that is a complication of Marfan's Disease and Marfans affects very tall people. It's rare but not as rare in basketball players, especially since it has become a game for giants.

Think about the energy delivered by a 305 pound player running at full speed.

A lot of brain injury is caused by acceleration-deceleration.

I've seen fatal whiplash from just snapping the head in a read end auto accident.

Go back to normal size players and it may go away but that won't happen.

rhhardin said...

Rush ran a continuing series of parodies against heading in soccer, as tongue in cheek against this PC correct sport.

It turned out, current thinking is, that Rush was right.

One of the parodies is on his site, though not the best version. His safety organization was Keep Our Own Kids Safe, or KOOKS. One of the mothers didn't like the name, but Rush said it was an accident, and she accepted that.

Greg Hlatky said...

The Left: "Hey, you can't criticize the NFL. Only we can criticize the NFL!"

Wince said...

Let the brain damage continue. We've got a culture war to fight.


"And Stork here. Everybody thought the Stork was brain damaged."

David Begley said...

Football has already ended at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Seriously, college football is the winner here. The third largest city in Nebraska - Memorial Stadium on game day - was sold out as a mediocre Cornhusker team barely defeated the lowly Rutgers Scarlett Knights.

The NFL is a cabal of rich white guys who dupe taxpayers to fund their real estate needs. The TV and media money is divided evenly, restraints on competition with regard to protected territories. Free media coverage. The players who protest the Nation Anthem would never earn that kind of money anywhere else in the world. Those lineman could never play soccer.

Roger Goodell said the President "disrespected" the NFL. Why does the NFL deserve respect? Does Bud deserve respect? Does Ford deserve respect?

I say burn the NFL down.

Kevin said...

Rep. Donna Edwards calls for ALL players to kneel, as the kneeling has now been turned by her into an anti-Trump protest.

"On Sunday, I hope every @NFL player takes a knee in solidarity w @Kaepernick7 against the white supremacist who squats in our White House."

This is how it always seems to go:

1. No one kneels.
2. Some people kneel.
3. EVERYONE ON YOUR KNEES!

Michael K said...

"The players who protest the Nation Anthem would never earn that kind of money anywhere else in the world."

One irony never mentioned is that, as pro football players got bigger and bigger, the percentage of NFL players that are black has increased. Nobody will do a survey of black NFL players in 1960 and now.

RMc said...

Football will never disappear completely, but by 2050 or so soccer might take its place in popularity. The NFL might still exist, but most of the players will be from third-world countries.

gspencer said...

Q. "How can we sit back and enjoy watching activities that we know are wrecking the players' brain?"

A. Because it's done with consent. We're all adults here and in the NFL. If they choose to play despite the risks, then we'll continue to enjoy the action.

Laslo Spatula said...

CTE is ravaging the NFL.

So maybe all the players should play Canadian Football.

I am Laslo.

Kalli Davis said...

CTE does not exist in a living human being. It's more likely that death itself or (the post-mortem examination) causes the abnormal brain morphology. If one were to take an MRI of a living NFL player 1 hour before death... no CTE, but 1 hour after their death and surprise surprise... CTE. What does that tell you?

Greg Hlatky said...

The NFL might still exist, but most of the players will be from third-world countries.

Doubtful. American football isn't played anywhere except Canada. Unlike baseball and hockey, colleges are the personnel feeder for football. Basketball is sufficiently world-wide to get foreign ayers.

David Begley said...

How did the National Anthem become a race thing?

cronus titan said...

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this instance, which is the bigger enemy -- the dangerous nature of football or Trump? Althouse may very well be right that the Democratic media complex views Trump as a bigger enemy, and therefore will side with the NFL . . . at least until Trump is gone in 3 or 7 years. And then will return to attacking football.

For its part, the NFL is losing a great opportunity to make peace with its fan base. Football is at a crossroad. They have decided that Trump is their enemy, and thrown in with SJWs who really, really do not like the U.S. THey are free to do so, but do not whine when stadiums are half empty and ratings rapidly declining. You can tell your customer base to go fuck themselves for only so long before they find something else to do.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Think how much money Rush Limbaugh saved by being blocked from buying into a doomed league. Still, I'm rooting for the Patriots to win the last Super Bowl.

Laslo Spatula said...

Could be an interesting study down the road: how many of the kneelers had CTE?

I am Laslo.

harrogate said...

I finally stopped watching football over a year ago, because of the brain trauma issue. I will never watch it again.

I also recognize that Trump is wrong about the protests and also wrong to call out individual athletes as "sonofabitches" and also wrong to be so thin skinned re his ridiculous response to Curry.

Amazingly, these things don't contradict each other, even a little bit.

Fabi said...

Now what?

Lingerie Football League!

Greg Hlatky said...


"Forced respect isn't respect, it's submission."

Bake me a cake.

Laslo Spatula said...

NFL participation will become self-selecting.

Those who fear brain damage will no longer play.

Those that do not fear brain damage will continue.

Soon there will only be players who bash into each other even when the ball is not moving.

I am Laslo.

Michael K said...

"You can tell your customer base to go fuck themselves for only so long before they find something else to do."

There seems to be a lot of this around. You'd think the Dixie Chicks would have educated a few.

ESPN goes hard left just as Roku and Hulu get a lot of people to drop cable.

The NFL which lives off TV, not attendance, is pissing off 75% of football fans. That share probably represents the Trump fan share but it might be higher. How many NY Times and WaPo readers are NFL fans ? In addition, the TV fans are probably lower income than the season ticket holders.

Hollywood just had the worst summer season in decades. Of course the writing is crap but the politics has an influence.

chickelit said...

David Begley asks...How did the National Anthem become a race thing?

In the kneelers eyes, the whole country and its "for which it stands" is a white thing.

The Godfather said...

I think it was in the same speech in which Trump said the teams should fire the players who don't stand, that he complained about officials imposing a 15 yard penalty for a tackle that was excessively rough. So he really is completely on the opposite side from the oh-the-humanity folks who are against football because it's too violent. I'm no longer a football fan, and if the game goes away it won't bother me a bit. Then they can do away with boxing, rugby, soccer (they actually hit the ball with their heads!), hockey, rodeos, horse racing (particularly the kind where they jump over fences), surfing, and spelunking.

Michael K said...

"Amazingly, these things don't contradict each other, even a little bit."

And knees still jerk when the right tendon is tapped.

Laslo Spatula said...

A sport that is mostly played by black men results in brain damage.

NFKKK.

I am Laslo.

Greg Hlatky said...

Will players be able to opt out of wearing pink next month?

stevew said...

Well played Ms. Althouse, well played.

-sw

Sebastian said...

"Let the brain damage continue. We've got a culture war to fight." Well put. Of course, prog success in the culture war depends on widespread brain damage \snark.

No one is forced to respect, or show respect for, the flag or the country, just as no one is forced to respect those who disrespect the flag or the country. Until, of course, we are all forced to kneel by our prog overlords, the true leftist telos. Then, slavery will be freedom. For now, freedom is slavery.

Hagar said...

The head injuries are new, but I decided a long time ago I did not like American football because so many of the guys I met had bad knees, shoulders, backs, or what have you from playing high school football.
And that was with "normal sized people" nd less padding than they have now.

All that aside, it is ridiculous of these gad-zillionaire twenty-somethings to be protesting how discriminated against and oppressed they are.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Greg Hlatky said...
The NFL might still exist, but most of the players will be from third-world countries.

Doubtful. American football isn't played anywhere except Canada. Unlike baseball and hockey, colleges are the personnel feeder for football. Basketball is sufficiently world-wide to get foreign ayers.

9/24/17, 10:02 AM

Yep. Of the Big Three American sports, football has the least appeal to those outside our borders. Does the NFL imagine that, like the Democrats, they can trade in their old deplorable fanbase for a new one? That Guardian readers will suddenly embrace American football? Hell, no - they will applaud these bonehead players and then go back to watching rugby, cricket and soccer.

Hollywood's losses on the domestic front are offset by the revenue they get from overseas markets. No such thing exists for the NFL.

Wince said...

"Are you the brain specialist?"

Bob Ellison said...

You're dancing around the issue, Althouse. "We can successfully destroy football now..."

The CTE issue is just a tactic.

I know you know the strategy, the real game. State it: the left wants to destroy football because the left knows football is a rightist thing. The goal is complete control.

harrogate said...

"How did the National Anthem become a race thing?"

It doesn't take much in the way of understanding where others are coming from, in order to be able to answer that question. It's almost like your question is in bad faith.

But just in case: in a nutshell, the kneelers say that institutional racism, in particular regarding how the police interact with black Americans, brings the country short of the ideals expressed in the Anthem.


They're not "disrespecting the flag." They're aiming for what they say the flag represents. And what's more, they're doing it peacefully, thoughtfully, deliberately.

But unlike the Charlotteville protestors, they can't qualify as "very fine people."

Sad!

Humperdink said...

For a moment I thought the Hernandez legal team was arguing the CTE angle to excise the murder conviction. Lost my head there, it's always the money.

Kevin said...

I'm a huge defender of First Amendment rights and yet I have a problem with the anthem protests.

First, because it is the moment of unity in the game where fans of both teams stand and acknowledge what ties them together rather than what tears them apart. Before the anthem, we are foes. After the anthem, we are enemies. During the Anthem we are unified. Except for the players who decline to be unified down on the field. They have taken the moment of unity and turned it into a moment of disunity for everyone.

If you're going to protest the anthem, don't pretend like so many have said, that it's to unify the country. It's anything but that.

Second, these players are free to speak their minds any time. They have cameras following them around. They have Twitter accounts. They have reporters whose job it is to write about them. They are not people without a voice and they are free to speak out on any topic at length.

What they want to do, however, is put on the team uniform, wait until a national audience is assembled to watch the team, and then make a statement within the confines of the uniform and the audience supporting that uniform. It is not "I have something to say, if you care to listen." It's you came to watch my performance so you're going to hear what I have to say about an unrelated issue.

It's no different than the people who went to watch Hamilton and had to listen to the cast lecture the Vice President at the end of the show. They didn't pay for that. They didn't consent to that. And the people involved with the show have significantly more opportunity to speak their minds and have their voices heard than the average American does.

They could have asked to talk to the Vice President after the show. They could have written an open letter to the NYT. They could have gotten their message out in a hundred ways. But they chose to use the context of the show and the audience's participation in it to make their statement.

Freedom of speech does not include the right to hold an audience hostage to until your message has been transmitted to them.

Sebastian said...

"his ridiculous response to Curry." Disinviting someone who doesn't feel like visiting: ridiculous! So mean to deprive pro athletes of the chance to stand you up. Doesn't Trump know about turning the other cheek, Bush-like?

Hagar said...

With all that money, the players surely could find some useful ways to help fight "injustice," etc.
This is is just foolishness and counter-productive.

Gusty Winds said...

When Aaron Rodgers takes a knee today to end the Packers victory over the Bengals, they should start playing the National Anthem and claim him as a protest supporter.

Michael said...

You don't need to fire anybody. Let the players who don't want to line up for the Anthem stay in the tunnel. If you come out, line up, and then kneel or otherwise disrupt the proceedings, you don't play in that game - period. Come back next week. Things would rapidly sort themselves out.

donald said...

The Falcons and Dogs better win them some championships this year, cause I guess the end is near.

Gahrie said...

The first problem with football is that the players got too big and too fast. Remember when Refrigerator Perry was a big deal? Today half the players are his size or bigger.

The second problem is that players felt the need to interject their politics into the game.

This is my last year of fantasy football, I haven't been watching the games this year. looks like the NBA is out for me too.

These idiots are about to kill their geese that lay golden eggs.

Mark said...

The NFL which lives off TV, not attendance, is pissing off 75% of football fans

My understanding is that TV revenue and gate receipts are all pooled and split between the teams. The real money for a team is in concessions and sales of team gear. Thus, one could predict that some teams will be harder hit than others.

But NFL is now beginning to reap what they sowed in paying players such huge sums of money and in charging the TV networks so much to broadcast the games. Initially that resulted in ticket prices being so sky-high that ordinary fans could never afford to go to a game - and certainly could not afford to bring their kids, which reduced their dedicated fan base. And now the NFL is dependent upon all that money coming in like a junkie needing his drugs.

harrogate said...

Sebastian: it's the old "you can't quit because I'm firing you!" response.

Which, itself is a derivative of the erudite schoolyard "I know you are but what am I?!" retort.

It seems to me you are confusing "turn the other cheek" with simple adulting.

Gahrie said...

The most absurd thing however is everyone complaining that Trump is disrespecting the NFL and Curry.

Respect is a two way street, and the NFL players and Curry were disrespectful first.

Greg Hlatky said...

If the NFL is going down I hope it takes the networks with it.

Dude1394 said...

"Blogger Gusty Winds said...

When Aaron Rodgers takes a knee today to end the Packers victory over the Bengals, they should start playing the National Anthem and claim him as a protest supporter."

Now that is funny and I would like to see that but I won't be watching any NFL football.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

In the meantime, baseball (with the exception of a few dolts) remains largely free of politics. The many Hispanic players seem grateful to the opportunity to play in the majors, just like Musial and Mantle and DiMaggio were happy to escape from the mines and the fishing boats.

The Brewers escaped disaster yesterday when Shaw hit a glorious walk off HR in the 10th. September baseball is a blast. So is October baseball. Whether the Crew manages to make it to the postseason or not, I'm far more interested in baseball right now than football.

mockturtle said...

Ann, this dilemma illustrates your remark about the left not knowing 'which way to tsk'.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You know, I guess I never saw the hidden, full blogpost-long agenda behind trying to mitigate brain damage, promote free speech or upholding the cheap patriotism that respects fabrics and colors more than ideals and rights, but hey. You've got a president to defend, a would-be drama to embroil him in and some easy-peasy symbols around which to dance and make it happen! It's like a whirling Dervish of non-issues. A confluence of symbols with which to downplay any real substance.

Keep up the good work.

Now, what?! If you really hate brain damage, you might say, great.

A sentence only a Trump apologist could love. Brain damage has to be too complicated an issue to avoid it for its own sake. More Republican voters are needed, after all!

Mark said...

Of course, if they want to play this game, rather than play football, we could always talk about what evil homophobes Goodell and the rest of the NFL are in not signing Michael Sam.

cronus titan said...

@Sebastian. Good point. We live in an era where SJW types feel free to hurl every insult in the book, attack at will, and then act butt-hurt when someone criticizes them or defend themselves (which is why you see so many attempts to ban speech). This is really amazing -- they attack the President constantly and act like victims when he counterattacks. As you point out, the Bushes of the world just took it and allowed themselves and their supporters to be degraded. Unlike the last few years, there is a price to be paid for continually insulting, and the SJW crowd has no idea what to do except scream louder.

Humperdink said...

Disinviting some overpaid ingrates from the White House? I'm on board. With Trump, puncturing commie-pinko liberal balloons is becoming an art form.

Wince said...

Here's a pretty good legal analysis of the Hernandez lawsuit in Sports Illustrated.

Mark said...

Or we could talk about the real reason that Goodell and others don't want to sign that uppity Kaepernick (because he's black).

rhhardin said...

-Do you folks travel much?

-A lot. Yeah. We've cut down ever since the baby.

What line are you in?

Brain surgery. Professional brain surgery.

That's a hell of a field. Challenging.

Actually, I'm thinking about giving it up. The racket's getting to me. I was working with patients who'd undergone severe trauma... to the patella, here in the front of the brain. You get whacked there, you start going in circles... lose all sense of direction.

I read about that in ''People'' magazine.

You did? The pressure started getting to me. My hands started shaking. Dropping scalpels everywhere.

- Undercover Blues (1993)

mockturtle said...

I agree, exiled! Hispanic players seem very happy to be in America and being well paid for playing a sport they love.

Missed the Brewers game yesterday. Wow, another 10-inning game?

Chuck said...

God, what an ocean of stupidity.

1. Stupid Kaepernick. If he really wants to make a statement about police violence against unarmed blacks (an argument for which there is no general statistical evidence), I'd like for him to debate Heather Mac Donald on live television.

2. Stupid Trump. Back when Obama was president and mouthing off about the name of the Washington Redskins, Trump was chiding him on Twitter: "Government is shut down yet Obama is now harassing the privately owned @Redskins to change its name.He needs to focus on his job!"
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/387274184725762049

It was actually good advice to Obama; Obama should have butted out. And now, it is even better advice for Trump.

3. Stupid NFL. Playing the corporate political-correctness game is what got them here. I don't know; I just have no interest in the NFL. I watch football avidly on Saturdays. I play golf on Sunday afternoons.

I just have no use for all of this stupidity. The combination of Trump, the NFL, and Twitter. Is a thermonuclear combination of stupid.

Gahrie said...

But just in case: in a nutshell, the kneelers say that institutional racism,

You mean by the unstitutions that openly and legally discriminate against White men?

in particular regarding how the police interact with black Americans,

You mean the police actually arrest criminals?

brings the country short of the ideals expressed in the Anthem.

The country that created those ideals and lives up to them better than anyone else?

The reasons are bullshit...its about power.

Kevin said...

Or we could talk about the real reason that Goodell and others don't want to sign that uppity Kaepernick (because he's black).

Well the Ravens were going to sign him until his girlfriend Tweeted that Ray Lewis was the owner's house negro. So, the media conveniently forgets about that in every report of his inability to land a job.

Fernandinande said...

Since Trump loves the poorly educated it seems like he should also love the brain damaged, perhaps even more so.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The NFL players and others are entitled to their opinions and to be able to protest when they are NOT on the job

Being a paid player makes the game your JOB. As employees, you are obligated to adhere to the rules and conventions of your employer and place of work. If you don't like those rules....one of which is to "stand in a respectful manner" during certain events then you can quit your job.

Go protest on your own time.

Standing in a respectful manner, does not mean that you are being forced to "respect" something. It is just a part of your job. Don't like it? Quit.

Big Mike said...

Wonderful post, Althouse. I can feel the outrage from halfway across the continent. Lefties care about the health and safety of black people, but they care more about scoring points against Trump. Brain injuries? Just collateral damage.

Fernandinande said...

The Pinhead Institute

AMDG said...

The NFL has boxed themselves in. You have one side boycotting because Kap has been blacklisted. You have the other side boycotting because the league allow the kneeling to happen.

As the Dixie Chicks learned a long time ago - there is nothing to be gained and a lot to to lose when you offend your core audience.

I can't wait to see what happens when Goodall caves and November becomes Activism Month.

Humperdink said...

Mark commented: "Or we could talk about the real reason that Goodell and others don't want to sign that uppity Kaepernick (because he's black)."

Probably the stooopidest comment so far. Obviously, coaching a team sport is not your forte.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Missed the Brewers game yesterday. Wow, another 10-inning game?

9/24/17, 10:29 AM

Given the Brewers' poor record in late innings, I braced myself for the fourth gut-punch in a row and cursed the 10th inning for all eternity.

Then Travis Shaw - who has been a wonderful, wonderful pick up for the Brewers, hit a 2 run HR off the Cubs' Wade Davis - who hasn't blown a save in a year.

Lovely. The Cubs will still take the Division, but this has been a tremendously enjoyable season for Brewers fans.

traditionalguy said...

Football can be fixed. Make the weight limits apply, just like they do in boxing. It's the over 200 pounders that are scrambling the brains. But that is also a left over slave owner culture to own the biggest buck or the fastest horse. The normal size people are still seen as humans, not fantasy super stars.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

harrogate,

What are "the ideals expressed in the Anthem"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the text is about how our flag was up overnight and was still there in the morning. OK, "land of the free" is an "ideal," but, you know, the vast majority of blacks murdered in this country are murdered by other blacks, and they aren't cops. Check out the Chicago stats for this year if you don't believe me. Black Lives Matter when (and only when) white cops take them; otherwise, meh. As for the lives of all other people -- also meh.

Gahrie said...

There was a time when the NBA fined a player (might have suspended him also) for not respecting the national anthem. I bet they wouldn't do so today.

Mark said...

Obviously, coaching a team sport is not your forte.

Obviously, detecting sarcasm is not yours.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I should add that I wasn't so much offended by Kaepernick kneeling during the Anthem as by his police-as-pigs socks. Naturally, all the "pigs" were white. You couldn't say that of actual police.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's the NFL. You play until your body and you brain give out. If bodily abuse and breakdown is acceptable- why is the brain any different?

I live in Broncos country. Fans are nuts here. I've lost interest in FB over the years. A neighbor, who hates football, inspired me to re-think it anyway. His words - "bunch of over paid gorillas." Tax payers fund giant stadiums while owners and players get rich. *yeah yeah here it comes/inner liberal* - I'm a conservative big C- conserve the constitution/conserve liberty/ conserve freedom/... If this is too liberal, bite me. Don't care. The proceeds from football should re-pay tax payers who were forced to fund the stadium & fund community programs for local low income neighborhoods in the same cities these big stadiums reside, and yeah - OK fund a brain care center for poor old players who've lost their marbles and cannot control themselves. Wife beatings and revenge killing are a side effect to a good tackle.

-Pig socks.

Comanche Voter said...

Could it be-----or as the late Jim Healey, a radio sports talk guy in Los Angeles might have said---Couuuulllllld it beeee that Colin Kaepernick is brain damaged? Just sayin'.


But I do think that Colin is maybe a sandwich shy of a picnic lunch in the thinking department. OTOH NFL defenses evolve and most teams have figured out how to defend Kaepernick so his playing career was in the dumpster anyway. So why not go out in a blaze of social justice glory?

Mike and Sue said...

Canceled my Directv NFL ticket this morning. The telephone rep told me lots of people have been doing that this week.
I'm conflicted. I've always enjoyed the Americana aspect of football...but I am not going to support an organization taken over by the Gramscian left. They own it now...let it rot. Everybodys' loss.

Tommy Duncan said...

NFL football is entertainment. For me this falls into the "shut up and sing" category. I watch NFL football as a 3 hour weekly escape from the issues of life. If I wanted politics I'd watch "Meet the Press".

The players are employees who presumably have an employment contract that punishes behaviors that damage the franchise and the league. This could have been averted by invoking that contract clause and asking them to use Facebook or Twitter as their soapbox.

As things are now, no one is forcing the players to stand. And no one is forcing me to chose NFL football over yard work or duck hunting.

Regarding CTE: Being a fireman is dangerous. Being an iron worker or a farmer is dangerous. If you don't like the potential danger, don't play the game.

Michael K said...

" It's the over 200 pounders that are scrambling the brains. "

Yes, this whole brain injury thing is recent. Knees are blown out in soccer as often as football. The head injury story is in the past 30 years as players became giants.

A lot of people prefer baseball because the players look like normal people.

bgates said...

The NFL is a cabal of rich white guys

Virginia Halas McCaskey, Martha Ford, Shahid Khan, Susie Smith, Amy Strunk, Susan Lewis Barclay, Carol Davis, and Green Bay Packers Inc might dispute that.

Then there's the issue that frequently pops up when one tries to suggest that it's a problem for one particular ethnic group to have so much money - several of those teams are owned by Jews. Personally, I don't think it's any worse to have a disproportionately small number of Gentiles among the team owners than to have a disproportionately small number of Irish-Americans among the league's wide receivers, but I'm not the one using "white guys" as a slur.

cronus titan said...

Remember Tim Tebow? He was skewered by the Democrat media complex for kneeling in prayer during games for being divisive, morally superior, etc. High schools laid down the law when student would "Tebow" during the day. Yet for some reason the Democrat media complex has no issue, indeed highly supportive, of kneeling to protest the U.S.

ALso, let's not forget that this kneeling business in protest of the U.S. started when Obama was President, and Hillary considered a prohibitive favorite.

JPS said...

Michelle Dulak Thompson,

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the text is about how our flag was up overnight and was still there in the morning."

Yes, and in the one verse that we all know, it's a question. Some people forget that.

Bruce Hayden said...

It should be interesting. The progressive elite have been able to hijack one cultural thing after another, through others get and moral preening. NFL, NBA, etc owners and players are/get rich, and end up being surrounded by other rich people, who often tend to be progressive. And maybe feel somewhat guilty about their fabulous wealth (it often seems like the easier the wealth, the more progressive they are, and the harder they worked for it, and the longer it took, the more conservative). No surprise that players growing up with nothing, and moving in next door to millionaires, are affected by their neighbors' sentiments and politics. To some extent, all of these protests at the National Anthem are little more than virtue signaling to their millionaire neighbors that they, too, have been "woke".

The problem, esp with the NFL (and country music) is that their primary clientele is Red/Trump America, and esp after this last election, when Trump was able to steal a goodly portion of the White working class from the Democrats. This is the part of America that still enlists in the military, and while the star athletes were buying their first mansions, many of their viewers were fighting for this country over in Asia. No surprise then that they were offended when those athletes disrespected their patriotism - before going back to their mansions and rich friends. What have those athletes done for the country? What have they sacrificed? For those who live in double wides, it is hard to see how the white patriarchy is exploiting these players making millions, and living lives that most of their fans can merely dream about.

We saw with the Dixie Chicks that this sort of moral preening and virtue signaling does not set well with much of the country. But up until Trump, the left was able to use their self-awarded moral superiority to quell the unease that a growing portion of this country was feeling with this sort of thing, the disrespecting of middle America and much of what made it great. Two things happened though with the last election. First, and most obvious, Trump won, and with his tweets, has made it clear that it is fine to feel outraged at this disrespect. The people trying to shame the rest of the country into accepting their left wing views do not have the moral high ground. For the most part, they are hypocritical twits. They can virtue signal all they want, but in the end, they are most often far more corrupt, more sinful, than those they try to shame into acquiescence.

The other part of this, I think, is that the moral preening works with the upper middle class. They are often upwardly striving, and often tend to accept the values of their perceived betters, in order to be better accepted by them. But, the working class is much less striving. Much less willing to kowtow to the moral signaling of the elites. It has long been the case - I am thinking of the stories about the drunken party that followed Andrew Jackson's inauguration.they have been moving to the right for years, but the watershed was their abandonment by the Democrats in the last election. And Trump has now given them permission to take out their ire at being disrespected by the left on the NFL.

In the end, I expect that the NFL, in particular, will be forced to clean up their act. To discipline those players who disrespect the National Anthem, and those who fought for our country. Too much money is at stake, and moral lectures about white male privilege (by those far more privileged) isn't going to work this time. Red/Trump America knows that the NFL depends on their patronage far more than they depend on it, and know that they can bring it to its knees by voting with their feet. We are seeing this more and more, that they have the numbers and dollars to overcome any boycott by the left, and to severely harm most businesses that intentionally disrespect them.

Michael K said...

"Remember Tim Tebow? "

Good point.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Just so long as ESPN is making sure none of their on-air talent have names that might be civil war era. *we might faint*

Leslie Graves said...

What you said. Which reminds me: Please do get to 100,000.

Howard said...

Blogger rhhardin said... Trump is wrong on the flag and the anthem.
Forced respect isn't respect, it's submission.

Exactly correct.
Resistance is Futile

mockturtle said...

What I find appalling is the number of coaches and owners joining in the protests 'in solidarity' with their players. The tail wagging the dog. The prima donnas whine and get their way.

walter said...

So have the SJ kneelers making the big bucks weighed in on the brain injury issue?

Brookzene said...

I thought taking a knee during the anthem was a bad idea at first. But I figured it's like people burning the flag during a protest, I don't like it but it's protected speech and it's rare enough that it's not that big of a deal that a handful of protesters are acting like jerks - you always have jerks from either side - should just ignore them and let reasonable people argue with one another.

But after Alabama I'm supporting anyone who takes a knee. The president maliciously divides the country for his personal agenda. The example he shows, particularly to young people, is terrible. #TakeTheKnee

I'm Full of Soup said...

If I were Trump, and the anthem thing bothered me, I'd have invited the Chicago Bears players to join me on a Monday to tour crime wave ridden and murder capital South Chicago to talk to the residents and find out first hand what can be done to protect people.

That is what Trump could have done if he had wanted to try and broaden his support and improve things in some way. And Who knows, maybe that is what he plans to do after this furor dies down?

brylun said...

Felix the Cat and the Goose the Laid the Golden Egg

Howard said...

Steph Curry is as genuflectionistic as Tim Tebow.

RBE said...

I think there is reason to believe that lefty sports media people are sub-consciously or consciously out to destroy football because it is seen to be "righty" sport. Remember all the times the Mourning Joe crew tried to make soccer exciting? I also think there may be some funny stuff in the brain damage data and how it is being presented...just too convenient. I love the Patriots but I will be gone after Brady and/or Belichick retires.

That said...as a mother of winter sports athletes...the majority of the sports in the winter Olympics are dangerous with life threatening type injuries commonly endured. Cross country mostly exempted. Hard core winter athletes have many of same medical complaints as they retire as football players. Most that I know have no regrets! Will the media complain about the high level of risk to try to destroy the winter Olympics? No, in part because it is in favor with the beautiful people.

brylun said...

Just curious if Brookzene regularly attends NFL games or watches on TV? Is it more likely now? If so, which team?

Charlie Eklund said...

I loved playing football when I was younger and love watching others play it now. However, football is now being ruined by those who do not love it and the game itself is ruining others who do. Sad indeed.

Howard said...

Blogger walter said...So have the SJ kneelers making the big bucks weighed in on the brain injury issue? 9/24/17, 10:55 AM
Yes, they have. They have weighed in with 200 to 350 pounds of flesh. They have calculated that their prospects as a civilian are so low that they are willing to risk getting early dementia or worse to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

Michael K said...

"But after Alabama I'm supporting anyone who takes a knee."

Good for you ! Another football fan !

Err, how many games did you watch last year ? How many did you attend ?

How many people do you know who burned flags at work ?

Just curious. I don't expect an answer.

Ray - SoCal said...

Bannon has been pushing outreach to the black community. Unfortunately Trump has too much going on right now. This is just a continuation of his war with the MSM. ESPN has been very anti Trump. Trump finally hit back.

>And Who knows, maybe that is what he plans to do after this furor dies down?

And being blunt, those who like Trump probably support his comments on kneeling, and those that don't hated him anyway.

Is Trump basically acting like Ed Koch would if he had become President?

Michael K said...

"they are willing to risk getting early dementia or worse to lift themselves and their families out of poverty."

You'd think they would understand how dangerous this virtue signaling, wouldn't you ?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Howard said...
Steph Curry is as genuflectionistic as Tim Tebow.

9/24/17, 11:01 AM

The difference being, of course, is that Tebow was doing it to honor and thank God, not as a gesture of disrespect and contempt. That's why the Left hated and mocked him so much.

Leftists do not understand the concepts of honor and gratitude, so it's not surprising to see you conflate the two.

William said...

I think it's fair to say that America is not the most despotic government on earth today. Does anyone know of any other country whose athletes or citizens protest their respective national anthems in such a way? These athletes taking the knee are, in fact, visibly documenting the fact that they are not so hideously oppressed.......I agree with those who say that this kneeling is probably an early warning sign of CTE and that we should treat these athletes with kindness and sympathy. Perhaps they should be relieved of their football playing duties until we have a better handle on this affliction.

Brookzene said...

Err, how many games did you watch last year ? How many did you attend ?

I've watched my team every weekend for over a decade.

bagoh20 said...

Lots of activities were once much more dangerous, but through technology and education we made them safer rather than just quit them. Cars, airplanes, bicycles, hang-gliding, visiting national parks, sex, childbirth, surgery, ect. Only a luddite would choose giving up something so incredibly enjoyable for people as football becuase it's currently dangerous. In addition, I think we can do something about those gladiator fights and maybe even come up with some gluten-free, low fat Christian/lion match ups.

Howard said...

Michael K: Kinetic energy = 1/2 the mass times the velocity squared. The increase in the speed of the game may actually outweigh the increase in the mass of the players.

mockturtle said...

William opined: I agree with those who say that this kneeling is probably an early warning sign of CTE and that we should treat these athletes with kindness and sympathy. Perhaps they should be relieved of their football playing duties until we have a better handle on this affliction.

;-) I like it.

bagoh20 said...

"How can we sit back and enjoy watching activities that we know are wrecking the players' brain?"

You mean like Jersey Shore, or higher education?

walter said...

AJ,
I can't imagine getting everyone to go on that little walking tour.
Black on black crime must be ignored..despite the bodies piling. Addressing that is racist..somehow. But yes, Trump has a point regarding the NFL bit...but it would also allow him to pivot to the issue that affects far more people. As it is, probably just giving the media machine another tool to distract. Maybe Trump wants the distraction.
By the way, Obama was getting heat from Chicago "black folk" (Black journalist approved phrase) pissed that his prez shrine might not deliver on promised benefits...also pissed that looking back over his term, they feel they got little in return for support.

Brookzene said...

Does anyone know of any other country whose athletes or citizens protest their respective national anthems in such a way? These athletes taking the knee are, in fact, visibly documenting the fact that they are not so hideously oppressed

You're saying even if it's open season on driving while black, people are "not so hideously oppressed" because they have free speech? That's what you mean to say?

Birkel said...

President Trump yelled PURPLE ELEPHANT and the owners, the players and the media could do nothing but think of PURPLE ELEPHANTS. He told them not to keep thinking of PURPLE ELEPHANTS and they were trapped.

Trump is quite good at getting other people to look ridiculous.

As asked somewhere else this week: Has anybody won a Twitter flame war against Trump?

Gahrie said...

The president maliciously divides the country for his personal agenda

Yeah because no president has ever done that before!

Bruce Hayden said...

"I live in Broncos country. Fans are nuts here. I've lost interest in FB over the years. A neighbor, who hates football, inspired me to re-think it anyway. His words - "bunch of over paid gorillas." Tax payers fund giant stadiums while owners and players get rich. *yeah yeah here it comes/inner liberal* - I'm a conservative big C- conserve the constitution/conserve liberty/ conserve freedom/... If this is too liberal, bite me. Don't care. The proceeds from football should re-pay tax payers who were forced to fund the stadium & fund community programs for local low income neighborhoods in the same cities these big stadiums reside, and yeah - OK fund a brain care center for poor old players who've lost their marbles and cannot control themselves."

Grew up there - father had season tickets when they were in the AFC. The absurdity was that Denver was induced to build the Bowlen family a brand new stadium for winning two back to back Super Bowls. The old Mile High stadium had almost as many seats, and the Broncos had 20 years to run on their lease there. All the new stadium really did was provide a lot more sky boxes, and the associated income stream, and the naming rights to the stadium (started out as Invesco, but has gone through several iterations - can't keep up, not living there anymore) for the team owners.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

It's hilarious to think of Ritmo and Cookie (both of whom have proudly expressed their contempt of American sports in the past) suddenly becoming Giants or Pats fans.

The biggest leftists I know personally have zero interest in any team sports.

I can imagine a bunch of them tuning in today because fuck Trump and then wandering away or checking to see who's on MSNBC before the end of the first quarter. They certainly will not feign interest in football over the course of the entire season. Just enough to virtue signal and pose, like Brookzene is doing.

FullMoon said...

Concussions are the next asbestos and cigarette class actions, obviously.

I am confused at taking a knee. Is it police brutality, racism, anti Trump, anti America, Anti-anto Kapernik? Would simplify if someone would explain exactly what the problem is so I can decide what is important.
Evidence points to being anti-white. The evil old white boomer man that Hillary and Barrack created.

brylun said...

I guess the New York Football Giants will not suffer as much as other NFL teams, with viewers like Brookzene remaining loyal.

Howard said...

Wednesday: Curry points up with both hands to Jesus every time he scores. The previous coach was a preacher and most of the current team are seriously crazy drink the koolaide (not the eat the cracker kind) bible bangers.

Gahrie said...

You're saying even if it's open season on driving while black, people are "not so hideously oppressed" because they have free speech?

I've been stopped by the police for Driving while White in the wrong neighborhood, and the US government says it's OK to discriminate against me because of my race and gender.

Does that mean I get to act like an asshole too?

MacMacConnell said...

Anyone whose fallen off a bike, fell down as a child, played any physical sport at anytime on their lives or been in a car wreck probably has CTE to some degree. Any soccer player that has ever used his head has it. Whose to blame for Hernandez's problems, CTE?, his parents?, his neighborhood?, his thug friends, his drug dealers? or just maybe himself.

Brookzene said...

How many people do you know who burned flags at work ?

Just curious. I don't expect an answer.


Anyone who fires an employee for burning the flag at work is good with me. Firing a player for taking a knee during the anthem? Big mistake. Can't do it since Trump so idiotically weighed in on this in Alabama.

Howard said...

The anti-white victimologistics is pathetic, FullMoon. Your showing your Narcissus. It's anti-system that hides behind a flag while producing bad cops and institutional racism.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Bruce H- The last name was "Sport Authority Field at Mile High"

Sports Authority is bankrupt. oops - on to the next dumb name.

Most people don't care, but I think tax payers who are on the hook for a new stadium should be paid back with interest once it's done and is profitable.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Howard said...
Wednesday: Curry points up with both hands to Jesus every time he scores. The previous coach was a preacher and most of the current team are seriously crazy drink the koolaide (not the eat the cracker kind) bible bangers.

9/24/17, 11:19 AM

Right. And Hispanic mlb players often make the sign of the Cross before their at bats.

So what made Tebow so objectionable to the left? Well, he did make an anti-abortion commercial with his mother. Yep. That did it. He committed an unforgivable sin against the Left's Most Holy Sacrament.

Gahrie said...

Firing a player for taking a knee during the anthem? Big mistake.

Watch the huge positive reaction to the first owner to do so.

walter said...

Ah..so Howard assumes all the kneelers come from poverty and have no "prospects as a civilian".
Howard, did you ever answer whether you've protested at your workplace, in front of customers?

Brookzene said...

Does that mean I get to act like an asshole too?

I don't know... did they shoot you? If so I'll give you a pass.

FullMoon said...

Howard said...

The anti-white victimologistics is pathetic, FullMoon. Your showing your Narcissus. It's anti-system that hides behind a flag while producing bad cops and institutional racism.

9/24/17, 11:24 AM


Lotta white guys taking the knee? Please, continue to pretend there is not an anti-white agenda. Divide and conquer is Democratic strategy.

Howard said...

I love my Raiders.
Raider Punter Protest White House

Brookzene said...

Watch the huge positive reaction to the first owner to do so.

I really doubt any owner will fire a player now for taking a knee. And why won't they? That's right, because of Trump. He's not just playing football, he's obviously playing three-dimensional chess and this is going to work out great for all of us.

FullMoon said...

Howard said...

The anti-white victimologistics is pathetic, FullMoon

And, fuck you, I am not a victim, and neither are most of the crybabies you support.

Roughcoat said...

Worth repeating: head injuries could be largely obviated merely by removing face masks.

A return to leather helmets without face masks would pretty much eliminate the problem.

Getting rid of shoulder pads would completely eliminate head injuries and most other injuries as well.

Implementing the preceding will save the game, turning it into a close cousin of rugby. It would be better than rugby, I think. And far less damaging to the player than football as it is now played. Also it would open -- or re-open -- the game to smaller, faster players. Sheer size and bulk would become useless and a liability.

I predict that this is the direction football will go.

walter said...

I think in all this swirl, the fate of the game will likely be determined by parents.

FullMoon said...

Brookzene said...

Does that mean I get to act like an asshole too?

I don't know... did they shoot you? If so I'll give you a pass.

9/24/17, 11:28 AM


Brookzene:, off the top of your head, name one of the Dallas cops assasinated while protecting the BLM marchers.

Yeah, didn't think so. But everybody knows Schoolboy Trayvon, Gentle Giant Micheal Brown.

Howard said...

Again with the arrogance of ignorance on top of narcissism from FullMoon. White people are born on second base, blacks start out in the hole with no certainty of an at-bat.

Perhaps you are unaware of Newton's Standing on the Shoulders of Giants saying. White people stand on a monumental pile of wealth, property and privilege left to us by out industrious ancestors. Blacks have to climb out of an abyss of kidnapping, torture, slavery, death inflicted on their ancestors by ours.

What I can't figure out is why they aren't even more pissed.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Comanche Voter said...
Could it be-----or as the late Jim Healey, a radio sports talk guy in Los Angeles might have said---Couuuulllllld it beeee that Colin Kaepernick is brain damaged? Just sayin'.


But I do think that Colin is maybe a sandwich shy of a picnic lunch in the thinking department. OTOH NFL defenses evolve and most teams have figured out how to defend Kaepernick so his playing career was in the dumpster anyway. So why not go out in a blaze of social justice glory?


While Kaepernick doesn't appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed, it appears that a lot of his problems stem from his activist girlfriend Nessa Diab. He might've been playing for the Ravens this season, if not for her.

FullMoon said...

Blogger Howard said...

I love my Raiders.
Raider Punter Protest White House

9/24/17, 11:30 AM


Brave. I would be impressed if he put a Trump bumper sticker on his wife's car, being he plays in the Bay Area and all.

Howard said...

I'm with Roughcoat. Scale down the protection. I loved playing college Rugby 1000-times more than H.S. football.

Gahrie said...

Blacks have to climb out of an abyss of kidnapping, torture, slavery, death inflicted on their ancestors by ours.

...and their's. The slaves brought to the US were bought from other Africans, not kidnapped.

Black people descended from slaves in places where slavery was more brutal than here in the US seem to be doing fine. For some reason it is only American Blacks that seem to suffer from the legacy of slavery.

Gahrie said...

What I can't figure out is why they aren't even more pissed.

Perhaps deep down they recognize that your position is absurd and they realize that they have far better lives here than Black people in Africa do.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's hilarious to think of Ritmo and Cookie (both of whom have proudly expressed their contempt of American sports in the past) suddenly becoming Giants or Pats fans.

I have no contempt for sports. I would love to see you on a field holding your own against 290-lb guys whose objective it is to take you down in a bone-crushing display of "not running over a white line." Preferably without a helmet or pads on your part. I mean, it's not like a phony shit-talker like you would ever put your money where your humungous mouth is anyway. But if you prefer the men in your life (or the many that you'll never meet but pine after anyway) with significant brain damage then that's your deal. It wouldn't be surprising. I suspect no right-thinking male would have as much interest.

The biggest leftists I know personally have zero interest in any team sports.

The biggest douchebags I know center their lives around the fate of what one group of guys does to a ball before some other group of guys can do the same thing to said ball. Much like twenty cats against an owner armed with laser pointers. PLUS, it gives them a caveman-like sense of solidarity over such important things as round objects, color-coordinated wear and how much someone can pay you to pretend to live in the same city as the rest of them. Such a wonderful model for unity, leadership and cohesion is a rarity in these men's lives, only to be matched by the eat-the-sausage-from-the-other-pledge's-exithole antics and drunken rape bonanzas they experienced in the man-molding experience known as "the fraternity." Great models for crafting strong, courageous, individuals who acquire through these experiences everything they need to lead and do the right thing. Definitely the sort of shit-eating orders-followers people want in their lives, and filling the ranks of society!

Sounds like you should get a head CT yourself.

But I get it. You live in a land where the only achievements and pursuits one can expect out of life include cheese, beer and ball-chasing. And belly girth growth. Sounds like a blast. Where would civilization be without these pre-Roman-downfall entertainments.

Christy said...

The Ravens and Jaguars who knelt this morning for our National Anthem in London stood for God Save the Queen. Do they not know who the biggest players in the American slave trade were?

Gahrie said...

I don't know... did they shoot you? If so I'll give you a pass.

Nope they didn't shoot me. You know why? I complied with their orders politely and didn't resist.

Howard said...

Gahrie: Africa is "doing fine"????? No legacy of colonialism inspired military kleptocracy to see here.

You are as Clueless as Alicia Silverstone

readering said...

Looming issue in LA. Chargers and Rams building enormously expensive stadium in Inglewood while the Rams play in half empty Coliseum and Chargers can't even fill puny soccer arena in Compton.

Gahrie said...

Gahrie: Africa is "doing fine"????? No legacy of colonialism inspired military kleptocracy to see here.

You need to up your reading skills. I didn't say Africa was doing fine, I said the descendants of African slaves from countries other than the US are doing fine in the US.

Africa's problem isn't colonialism...it's that colonialism ended too soon.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

sexiled should tell her priest at her next confession that there is not enough testosterone in her life apart from what she can glean through a high-definition color monitor on a Sunday afternoon.

I'm sure he'll be able to relate. Other than for the age of the objects of interest.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"What I can't figure out is why they aren't even more pissed."

Like at the Million Man March they are too busy laughing at whites like Bill Clinton who looked outside and then jumped back, knocking Hillary! and Web's girl down as he ran for the rear door screaming "take them first!"

Bruce Hayden said...

"But everybody knows Schoolboy Trayvon, Gentle Giant Micheal Brown"

Poster boys for the BLM movement. Both murderous thugs that were, likely beyond a reasonable doubt, threatenening imminent great bodily injury, if not death, when killed by their victims in legally justified self defense. Martin had repeatedly banged Zimmerman's head against the concrete walk, tried to strangle him, and then supposedly was trying to take the gun away from his victim. Brown, big as a college lineman at almost 300 lbs, attacked his victim without provocation, hit him repeatedly, tried to take his gun away, and, at the end was repeatedly trying to physically reengage and overcome his victim, taking rounds first in the arm, shaking it off, starting another charge, taking more rounds in the torso, and, starting a third charged, finally stopped with two to the head. Both attacked their victims without provocation, and both did so viciously enough that their victims were fully and legally justified in defending themselves with deadly force.

FullMoon said...

Howard said...

Again with the arrogance of ignorance on top of narcissism from FullMoon. White people are born on second base, blacks start out in the hole with no certainty of an at-bat.


Haha! Right. White people don't have to work for a living. Maybe you have some of that white guilt I hear about. Not me. Nobody gave me anything for free.I have it pretty easy because I worked for it. Of course, I am California my whole life, so went to school with, worked with and lived in same neighborhoods as minorities. They all the same as me and my peers. Do remember when I was a little boy hearing of my immigrant Grandfather being laid off as carpenter and replaced by due to affirmative action inexperienced hire. That ever happen in your family?
Sorry if your family owned slaves back in the day and you are carrying that burden, not me.

Howard said...

The Coliseum is in Watts and Compton is, well Compton. White people don't want to go there. In the 70's Inglewood was called Inglewatts, don't know if it has gentrified since then. None of these locations sound good to me from a butts in seats perspective.

FullMoon said...

Howard said...

The Coliseum is in Watts and Compton is, well Compton. White people don't want to go there

Really? Why not?

Michael K said...

"I predict that this is the direction football will go."

I don't think the NFL will go that way. Bankruptcy seems more likely.

It's a bit like the dinosaurs died off and the little mammals took over. I could see amateur football surviving with normal sized people.

That will be very bad news for black kids who are not 7 feet tall. That's why this protest is so stupid.

The Rams and Chargers coveted the LA TV market but SC and UCLA were doing pretty well and will probably continue to do so.

Most Notre Dame fans are from Chicago, just like Packers fans.

I doubt two teams will succeed in LA. The Raiders might do OK in Las Vegas.

Roughcoat said...

Do they not know who the biggest players in the American slave trade were?

The biggest players in the African slave trade were Arabs and black African tribal chieftains. Europeans were facilitators and end-users. U.S. and British navy forces acted together to end the Atlantic slave trade even before the Union victory in the U.S. Civil War forced an end to slavery in the American South. Trafficking in black slaves continued among the Arabs.

Howard said...

No white quilt, just a humble feeling knowing I've got it super cushy compared with 99% of the rest of the world by being a member of the dominant tribe in the most wealthy and powerful nation to ever exist.

I understand you think that all of this scaffolding built over millennia under your feet is meaningless to your success. I thank my luck stars every day to be so privileged.

Luke 12:48 For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required
Working hard is the minimum standard required but you want a hero's medal for doing your job. That's weak.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's hard to tell what sexiled is more attracted to? The brain damage or the brawn.

How lucky how easily they go together.

I remember how fun it was to watch the Brazilian soccer team run circles around the U.S. Those mothafuckas know how to dance, after all! The U.S. idiots played it like football and could barely manage a lateral move, let alone a successful way of achieving their single-minded aim of advancing the white sphere up the field. The Brazilians energetically danced around them with a finesse rarely even seen in figure skaters. It was wondrous. It also exemplified the American idiotic inability to creatively problem-solve, be classy and less physically lazy. It was like watching a bull mastiff run into the steel-reinforced door of a bank vault, knock itself out cold, while the greyhounds it chased into its fate ran circles around it and then danced on its grave.

Roughcoat said...

Michael K, re "I don't think the NFL will go that way. Bankruptcy seems more likely."

You may just be right about that. But if football is to be saved, it will be saved by reducing the amount and type of protection worn by the players.

Michael K said...

Africa's problem isn't colonialism...it's that colonialism ended too soon.

Mugabe tried to get the British former governor to stay in Zimbabwe. He knew he could not run that country but his followers were too racist and drove out the white farmers.

Chaos followed.

A number of wise American blacks, including an IBM executive sent to Africa 25 years ago, have remarked on how fortunate they are to have had their ancestors brought here.

Of course that cannot be said publicly, especially now.

Bruce Hayden said...

Funny thing about Obama and slavery - his putative African ancestors were far more likely to have been slave takers, owners, and sellers than slaves themselves. And practiced the same religion (Islam) that most of the slaves were initially sold to (and still has adherents practicing slavery), before being resold to the Europeans

Michael K said...

I understand you think that all of this scaffolding built over millennia under your feet is meaningless to your success

"You didn't build that !"

Brookzene said...

Brookzene:, off the top of your head, name one of the Dallas cops assasinated while protecting the BLM marchers.

I never said "many" "most" or "all cops are bad." But that's how you interpret it when people point out that some cops enforce justice and punishment on the streets. I wonder if that fact will ever get your attention? I think that's what Kaepernick's initial protest was intended to do. And frankly, as far as protests go, it was pretty mild stuff.


Michael K said...

Trafficking in black slaves continued among the Arabs.

And continues to this day.

walter said...

Right. Pre-Kaepernick, it was off the radar.
Thanks Kap!

Howard said...

Oh, OK Gahrie, my Bad. You might have a point. Some researchers think the problem with AfroAmericans is they have adopted southern white trash (Trump) culture that spawned the "wife beater" tank top, obesity, snake handlers speaking in tongues, and Waffle House.

Brookzene said...

Nope they didn't shoot me. You know why? I complied with their orders politely and didn't resist.

If you don't know that some people are getting shot even while complying than you are willfully ignorant.

Howard said...

Oh, shit. The games have started. See Yall later

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Some researchers think the problem with AfroAmericans is they have adopted southern white trash (Trump) culture that spawned the "wife beater" tank top, obesity, snake handlers speaking in tongues, and Waffle House.

Lol. I'm also wondering if inheriting 20 - 30% of their genetic material from the white confederate southern slaveowning rednecks who raped them might have had a less than exemplary effect.

Michael K said...


Howard said...

The Coliseum is in Watts and Compton is, well Compton. White people don't want to go there


I am certain you don't know the story so I will tell it again.

When the O'Malley family still owned the Dodgers, Peter O'Malley made an offer to the LA County politicians . He would apply for an NFL franchise and would build a stadium next to Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. It could use the same parking lot and access roads so cost would be minimal. He needed the support of the politicians.

Mark Ridley Thomas who was the Supervisor from Watts vetoed the offer because he would only vote for a team that used the colosseum, which is in what was his district then.

So LA has been without a team since then. Which is OK with me as I only go to SC games.

Ridley-Thomas is a state Senator now.

Michael K said...

If you don't know that some people are getting shot even while complying than you are willfully ignorant.

If you are swallowing that, you are willfully stupid.

walter said...

Howard,
Don't forget to make those protest signs for Monday morning.

walter said...

If applicaple, accessorize with this T-shirt

Bruce Hayden said...

I don't see bankruptcy for the NFL. Count me as naive, maybe. Just too much money involved for the owners to walk away from it through continuing to engage in virtue signaling. Not when a good team might be, or least have been, valued at most of a billion dollars. They may not fire protesting players during the season, due to logistical problems replacing them, while continuing to be competitive. But in the off-season and pre-season next year? I think likely. No real union problems, and replacement is much easyier except for the superstars. The teams that clean up their acts, and don't tolerate protesting something near and dear to much of their clientele are probably going to do, in the long run much better than the ones that do tolerate it.

Bob Ellison said...

Mac McConnell said, "Anyone whose fallen off a bike, fell down as a child, played any physical sport at anytime on their lives or been in a car wreck probably has CTE to some degree."

You're missing the point. It's not the CTE. It's the control, the power, for the people playing this game. Please, please keep your eye on the ball. This is like a basketball game. Ignore where the opposing center is standing. Please, please try to get that orange ball through the orange hoop.

Brookzene said...

If you are swallowing that, you are willfully stupid.

That's the thing about body cameras. You can see for yourself and make a reasonable assumption that it's been going on for years.

I know...who ya gonna believe, Michael K or your own lyin' eyes?

MayBee said...

The thing I don't like about the protest is that I don't see the end game. What will make the protest be over?

MayBee said...

The problem I have with the Concussion thing is....if so many players have it, are we *certain* we are seeing the cause of something, and not just the result of something that maybe your brain does to protect itself but does not actually cause depression, etc?

walter said...

MayBee said... The thing I don't like about the protest is that I don't see the end game. What will make the protest be over?
--
Probably only once the virtue signalling ceases to..garner..attention.
In that sense, Trump isn't helping.
But to the Howards of the world, there will never be an "over".

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Idiotic and illogical as always, Ritmo, and not remotely related to anything I wrote in this thread.

You're going insane. Trump has made you insane.

It's wonderful to behold.

LOL

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"The biggest douchebags I know center their lives around the fate of what one group of guys does to a ball before some other group of guys can do the same thing to said ball."

No, most of us see it as a diversion, as entertainment Most of us know it makes no difference in our personal lives or the fortunes of the world who wins the Superbowl or WS.

We watch sports because it's fun. And the NFL is busy making it less fun.

Of course I can't expect prissy, humorless, low T males who sound like scoldy schoolmarms to understand the concept of "fun."

Michael K said...

"I don't see bankruptcy for the NFL. Count me as naive, maybe"

I think the head injury thing will do it. The trial lawyers are eyeing this like asbestos and tobacco.

The only problem is that asbestos and silicone have poisoned the jury pool. I used to do a fair amount of med-mal expert witness work. One excellent lawyer in Alabama who used to send me stuff to look through told me several years ago that his firm was getting out of med-mal. Juries were getting hostile to plaintiffs. That was after a well known case, the BMW paint job case.

That was about the last big Alabama plaintiff award.

That might save the NFL but they are fools to be allowing these demonstrations while the CTE thing is boiling up.

Brookzene, I agree with you about the body cameras. Will you give me a list of videos of unjustified police shootings ?

I think it will be a very, very short list but go ahead.

Birkel said...

Michael K,

If you don't mind could you also ask Brookzene for a list of unjustified shootings of blacks broken down by race of the perpetrator? Asking for a friend.

Brookzene said...

Brookzene, I agree with you about the body cameras. Will you give me a list of videos of unjustified police shootings ?

No, I don't have such a list without googling it, and I've seen enough evidence that some cops can be violent, unprofessional, and yes, racist. If you need my help to realize that's true than here's the deal: you probably either have that racism thing going yourself or you're ignorant beyond belief. Just sayin'.

Michael K said...

If you don't mind could you also ask Brookzene for a list of unjustified shootings of blacks broken down by race of the perpetrator? Asking for a friend.

The silence is deafening. I actually subscribe to a couple of sources for videos and know of one that was clearly criminal by the cop.

Even the South Carolina case where the cop on video is shooting a guy who ran away from a traffic stop because he was behind in child support (You probably know the case) shows on closer inspection that the cop had tried to taser him and the guy got the taser away and tasered the cop.

The cop was probably inept on that case but the taser part is always left out.

Michael K said...

Thanks, Brookzene. I knew you had no examples.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Some researchers think the problem with AfroAmericans is they have adopted southern white trash (Trump) culture that spawned the "wife beater" tank top, obesity, snake handlers speaking in tongues, and Waffle House."


So what you're saying is American blacks are so stupid they adopted the ways of a subculture they despised? They are trying to emulate poor whites? How racist. No wonder Ritmo applauds that ridiculous idea. He has shown before he thinks blacks are hopelessly stupid. That's why they need his help.

Sure - the blacks were all eating that super healthy soul food cooked in lard and barely went to church at all and then one day they decided to copy white working class southerners for some reason. Never mind the Negro spirituals of the slave days. Never mind that both whites and blacks in the south were frying foods and cooking with lard long before a Waffle House ever made its' appearance. (There aren't a lot of Waffle Houses around here, but I do notice an awful lot of black big asses waddling into McDonald's and Burger King. Is that the fault of poor whites, too?)

And as far as fashion goes, the ridiculous ghetto style of huge oversized pants hanging down and displaying ass crack or boxer shorts was far worse than wife -beaters (which I associate with the Guidos of New Jersey more than with white Southerners). I've read the cops just loved the clown pants fashion though. They were able to arrest a lot of guys because they would try to run away and their pants would fall down and they'd trip on the sidewalk. Clown pants indeed.

Birkel said...

Michael K,
And that cop was sentenced to prison after having competent counsel and due process. He was prosecuted and pleaded guilty.

Doesn't bring Walter Scott back to life but is evidence that cops are not immune to justice.

Jim at said...

"He sure is managing to keep his supporters distracted from his recent failures with Health Care and the like."

You are really on a roll of stupidity today, Mark.

You do realize we can focus on more than one thing, correct? And a feckless Republican Congress has nothing to do with the NFL protests.

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