Trump said the sports leagues could “promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans,” but they need the players to "stand and salute, or put their hand over their heart, or at least stand for the national anthem and salute" — “They’re going to have to start respecting our country. It’s very simple. And you start by respecting our flag."
October 24, 2020
"The NBA and the NFL are struggling with lower ratings, as fans clearly do not want political messaging mixed with their sports."
"So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?" — Brett Favre asked President Trump (at the White House), WaPo reports, here.
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I won't watch college or professional sports until I get reliable reports that the players and the teams are no longer disrespecting the country that has given them every opportunity and that they have stopped calling their fans racists.
All y'all fight it out. I've taken a knee on watching...
The classic line applies so well here: It would take a heart of stone not to laugh out loud.
With its ungodly player payrolls, the NBA implosion and marginalization is going to be a gory spectacle to watch.
So good.
Honest answer:
I hope those overpaid idiots kill the golden goose.
I hope they continue on their current collective path and their sports become less important to American culture.
Get woke.
Go broke.
That's the thing. Fans of the NFL are not racist, but they do love their country. The whole NFL thing started when a washed up quarterback who didn't even have a starting job said that the flag stood for racism and oppression against colored people and he would not stand for it. Somehow or another, the concept of being in favor of minorities, at least in the NFL's eyes, was an extractively linked with being anti-American.
Personally, I believe most of the athletes are not anti-American, they want to be seen as caring about minorities since they view themselves as representatives of the minority community, and for the most part our young, poorly educated, and gullible. They've been preyed upon, and have allowed themselves to be preyed upon.
Since the topic is here I suppose a good solution would be to let the leagues all expire due to lack of interest, then build sports leagues with a focus on sports.
Respecting the flag is fine, important, but the real disrespect that is destroying sports is disrespect for the fans. In what other area would these on-field protests be tolerated? Can the factory worker protest racism on the shop floor? The office worker at a staff meeting? Even in entertainment, can you imagine Meryl Streep taking a knee for racism in the middle of Sophie’s Choice? Susan Sarandon during Bull Durham? Of course not. However annoying their activism may be, they keep to the talk shows. Only in live entertainment are fans subjected to this—because they’ve already paid, they’re there, they’re a captive audience.
Well, how about that? They’re not captive over time. Respect the fans and they will return.
On Opening Day, I tuned in to see the MLB team that I have followed faithfully for over 60 years. On the back of the pitcher's mound, squarely in the middle of the camera shot, was the BLM logo, stenciled in the dirt.
I turned off the TV, and have not watched a minute of baseball since. And probably will not ever again.
If Biden wins the whole BLM/anti-racism thing gets put on the shelf until 2023.
It’s like Halloween, but it’s every four years.
Too late. My no atonement from me for a generation - whichbdovetails neatly into my life arc - I'll be dead then. My love of baseball, basketball and football can be easily satisfied at the high school level. And for a lot less money. A game is a game. Professional ball handlers can learn other skills.
Hows about they stop playing the national anthem at games if it pisses off half the fans, and get back to playing sports and showcasing the kinds of excellence that all races can achieve, which sports do better than anybody? The reason men watch sports is because true excellence is fascinating to us. Guys like Patrick Mahomes or Julian Edelman, people who display mastery under incredible pressure.
I think that the comments of Troy Aikman and Joe Buck about the military flyovers was maybe the last straw. The planes gotta fly they cant just sit and rot in hangars, the pilots gotta rack up hours to maintain proficiency, it’s a recruiting tool for the armed forces, it all showed the ignorance of those two, and their disdain for the core fans of the NFL.
If their plan is to turn the NFL into The West Wing, a show for liberals, well, most of those liberals would rather that the NFL be shut down, so good luck with that.
The NBA is our real future. Wearing slogans on our back that have been pre-selected and approved by the ChiComs. That’s where freedom of speech is headed, you will be free to choose your opinions from the selection offered.
Don’t worry though, good citizens need not fear.
One might think with all the lockdowns, ratings for pro sports would be off the charts. But no, they are not. People are deliberately turning off sports on TV for obvious reasons.
Former NFL commish Pete Rozelle was a marketing genius, Goodell and Silver are complete idiots. They have been played by the players. The players? They might see the light when when the next television contracts are negotiated at a significant discount.
“The you disgust me, but we depend on your support” is a bold move, Cotton, let’ see if it works.
More seriously, part of the NFLs problem is chasing one or two high rated games each week (probably some advertising contracts have clauses about that). I mean, 11 early games and 2 late games to try to boost viewership of the “premier” matchup has failed, yet they keep scheduling like that.
> "So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?"
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
No more than 25% blacks on a team
To be anti-racist you must recognize race and control outcomes
The supposition of the question is that their message is anti-racist but that they are doing it the wrong way.
I reject the premise. I don't consider someone like Kaepernick to be anti-racist. I don't consider the BLM movement to be anti-racist.
So the BS-question is but a gotcha question. If you fumble it you are either the 'racist' otr you support something which should not be supported (like the BLM (*) nazilike movement).
(*) Now if there was a 'black' movement which had combated violence within and by the black communities before and which then took up this 'police-violence' then such a movement might well have a lot of legitimacy. BLM clearly isn't such a movement.
Sports are not patriotic. The flag is there to get the crowd to shut up and pay attention instead of milling around as the game starts. Like the pledge at the start of the school day. It's marketing.
Having said that the flag doesn't even belong there, flag etiquette is a military thing, not civilian. Team effort towards something that explicitly doesn't matter so that individuality is suppressed. Otherwise you'd get individual initiative.
In civilian life the flag means there's a post office here, or some politician with eight flags in the background pretends to have your interest at heart.
The last straw for me was at the Kentucky Derby when Mike Tirico was talking over the playing of "My Old Kentucky Home" to explain its historical context while the cameras were on the BLM protestors outside. Couldn’t even watch a horse race without politics intruding.
Simple - acknowledge that some issues disproportionately affect blacks, and work towards addressing those. But be honest, and also acknowledge that blacks have it within their control to address those issues themselves, and work towards assisting them to do so.
And that can be done without pretending that America is a festering heap of racism.
But the NBA and the NFL are not supporting anti-racist messages. They are supporting racist messages and ideology and calling their racist messages "anti-racist."
"Humperdink said...
One might think with all the lockdowns, ratings for pro sports would be off the charts. But no, they are not. People are deliberately turning off sports on TV for obvious reasons."
Certainly truth in this statement. But a lot of people are not turning on sports to start with, and it's nothing to do with BLM protests. Part of it is having a sport at a different time of year. The NBA playoffs are usually in the spring and early summer. Another issue is the inability to actually go to games. Or go to a bar or friend's because of Covid. Or simply dealing with the financial hardship that all these insane shutdowns have created.
If you saw that Kaepernick video where he did his tryout about a year ago, his skills were obviously extremely diminished. It was embarrassing to watch it. His throwing motion was amateurish. Like watching a golf swing at the driving range compared to a PGA pro, but we are supposed to believe that it’s racism keeping him from starting somewhere.
It’s an insult to the fans who appreciate their sport.
Why should we put up with sanctimonious moralizing about race any more than we would put up with it about religion?
Preachiness was rejected in my parents' generation. They wouldn't even watch Billy Graham or Bishop Sheen.
I don't see how this crusade is any different.
Reddit/Teachers always seeking age-appropriate antiracism curricula for K-12.
But what happened to Positivism? John Dewey and all that? Isn't antiracism "normative"? A "value judgment"? I thought that was oppressive and totally uncool?
Boy they tossed that shit overboard fast didn't they.
Trump is right. Many people have been proud of the US and against racism for a long time. When you disrespect those people by saying they shouldn't be proud (unless Barack is President, Colin has a starting QB position, and LeBron is recognized as the GOAT), then they'll be against racism and you.
Wow, who could have seen that coming? Are the people wondering about the ratings really that stupid, or are they pretending? Small comfort either way, methinks.
Brett Favre asks, "So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?"
Hey Brett, where did you get the idea that it was the league's job to promote an anti-racism position? The league is a business. It's already illegal for a business to act in a racist fashion (in hiring, personnel policy, etc).
Maybe the league should rotate through being against a variety of Bad Things, e.g., an anti-Earth-killing meteorite position, an anti-death position, and anti-psoriasis position (with its attendent heartbreak)? That can only help, right?
All politics all the time is great for Leftists but normal people hate it.
Easy. Disband all the sports leagues, and instead have an Anti-Racism League. Focus is the problem. You can't do both at once well, and obviously anti-racism is the more important.
If that's not enough, come then with the Anti-Sex League. Make sure you have a member named Julia.
I agree with the two Tims on this thread.
I love football, and I think it is one of the great unifying forces in our country. It has been used to be people of all races and socioeconomic levels together. The unity of the teams just seeps into our culture without us really thinking about it.
When Michigan State started recruiting black players, they didn't paint it in the end zone or put it on their jerseys. They just did it. It spoke for itself and other schools did it. And pretty soon it was just how it was. The world was better for it.
We get so much farther if we lean toward love. Introducing anger into people's living rooms during an optional activity isn't going to go far. People don't need it. People aren't going to turn on their tv to cheer for a team that tells them they are horrible people.
(look at how much further gay rights have gone since they ditched the NO Hate! Campaign and went with Love is love. People LOVE love.)
Ok you want to kneel and shit on the flag during the national anthem, fine, you’ll piss off quite a few people and it will pretty much get the anthem thrown out ( as usual democrats just destroy things ) and that will be evgeny Zamyatin that. Some will stand, some will not.
But emblazoning burn loot murder all over the court/field, putting idiotic ( and false propaganda ) phrases on your jerseys when before you wouldn’t even allow a piece of tape to show respect for a mass cop killing is too asinine by half.
They are too stupid to live, let them go.
this is the project of a convicted ex revolutionary terrorist, exconsed in the thousand currents foundation having extorted more than two billion dollars, from corporations and individuals, there test case was the zimmerman case,
They can all go to hell. I won't spend a dime going to anymore games. The same with some Hollywood asses, and Musicians like Springsteen. I live in NJ, and wish he WOULD move to Australia. That alone would make me vote for Trump.
And a self employed local plumbing contractor? The National Milk Producers Federation? What are the Federal Chief Executive's thoughts (soon to be followed by Executive Orders and enforced by the Department of Labor) on how they should "promote anti-racism?"
But "Unknown" above provides the best answer.
Begin by identifying every employee and job applicant by Race. Obtain and apply the National Workforce Distribution by Race. Adjust company job positions, wages, and salaries to match the NWDR within 10% for each Race. If a qualified person of the appropriate Race cannot be found, then either fill with an unqualified person of the required Race, or void the function and leave all positions at that level unfilled.
At this point it is not only about the flag..it is the disrespect they are showing their fans. I really don't care about their feelings....I just wanted to watch a game and get away from the hectic things going on in the world. Now we can't even do that. I have a library, so I have a ton of books I've been reading. I'm good. They can suck eggs and go play in Russia (WNBA players play overseas in the offseason)
Trump is exactly right. Stop disrespecting the flag by conflating what it represents with racism.
That’s their mistake. And it pisses me off.
Most of these dumbass athletes supporting kneeling during the anthem don’t know a single thing about American history.
Trump declared, Thou art kneeling before the wrong God.
"So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?"
Start articulating what you are for, rather than simply insinuating bad motives on the part of others.
How would you strengthen black families? How should crime and violence within the black community be addressed?
BLM has actually aligned against the former, and MIA on the latter.
Agree with Trump on this.
Lead by example.Over 70% of NFL and NBA players are male blacks. Where are the trans, where are the East Asians, where are the Jews.... After all, the Democrats cult of diversity informs us is not about who is the best or most qualified at a thing, it is about having a properly diverse group.
What Tim Maguire said at 6:46.
"So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position..." I see your insurmountable problem right here. How 'bout your quit yammering about "anti-racism" and play effing ball?
The players have more than enough means to work for whatever causes they care about.
The players do not have license to steal their employers platform to advance their chosen causes. This is a very, no, Extremely simple concept. No employer would allow any employee to use and abuse company assets to further the desires of an employee.
The reaction to this issue has made it crystal clear to me that — especially in the media and among the athletes — not many people understand what the flag and the anthem represent, or have any sense of pride in who we are or in the essential goodness of standing up for individual liberty as the defining principle of our founding.
It makes me sad. The American Revolution was not just a war, it was a revolutionary new model of government and completely flipped the old model on its head, granting rights by default to people and putting strict limits on the ways that government can limit those rights.
Most of these idiots protesting the flag not only don’t know that, they don’t know why it matters and the horrific track record of governments before that in the area of individual liberty: there wasn’t any.
Yet here we are, listening to millionaires bitching about something they completely misunderstand.
And more generally, people should always have national pride, no matter where they grew up. It’s part of what binds us together and we see right now, all around us, how vitally important that is.
No more than 25% blacks on a team
Too high. Just 12.5% black, 12.5% Latino, 8% Asian, the rest white. Make sure the whites take DNA tests to prove they have no black or Hispanic ancestry. I don’t want LeBron James suddenly trying to pass for white.
Not that I give a damn anymore.
How can they support political stances without being political? That's a tough one. Is it a koan, or something?
People that were indoctrinated in colleges, in the 80's and 90's are the people people making these decisions in college and pro athletics. They are woke, but have no concept of their audience.
Who exactly is the demographic that is deciding to spend a couple $thousand to get tickets to a NFL game, or pay an extra $200 sports package on cable? Hint, they are not the sniveling woke. They are long time fans that look forward to good times with friends and family, joining together with a long time bond of team identification. A very human desire. Face it, the woke have fucked it all, for nothing more than trying to signal how virtuous they are. Risking others assets, but no personal risk at all.
"If Biden wins the whole BLM/anti-racism thing gets put on the shelf until 2023."
There is no election cycle now, this is permanent.
Perhaps after the NFL, MLB, WNBA and the NBA go broke all those players can learn to code. Also, in my opinion, the WNBA is the wokest of the bunch.
Asking how the NBA could promote anti-racism when the large majority of it's highly-paid players are black? Gimme a break! If NFL and NBA players who are paid millions to play a game are suffering guilt trips, there are better ways to assuage that guilt than to dis the flag and the nation for which it stands.
Flip flopping on this subject has managed to caused a huge amount of their audience on both sides to decide to turn off the TV.
My wife and I note that while we watched every Packer game while dating, once we cut cable we only missed it the first season.
This season we are fully disconnected from football, never expect to go back and the kids will only have seen it when young.
Left and right, these leagues are dying. Who the hell wants to watch about an hour of football plays spread over 2.5 hours?
Sports are dead to me. As someone who grew up in the Baltimore area in the 60's and spent a lot of time at Memorial Stadium watching both the Orioles and the Colts, that is painful to say. I'm not coming back, no matter what gesture the leagues make to their alienated fans.
Well, the comments over at the article sure were depressing...
Politics, religion, and charity should be on your own time and dime, not mine.
I don't see a problem at all. Declining viewership is an appropriate response.
Blogger TRISTRAM said...
"More seriously, part of the NFLs problem is chasing one or two high rated games each week (probably some advertising contracts have clauses about that). I mean, 11 early games and 2 late games to try to boost viewership of the “premier” matchup has failed, yet they keep scheduling like that."
For decades the magic of NFL success was the scarcity of the product with just one local game on Sunday afternoon. Scarcity was the reason Monday Night Football was an instant hit when it was introduced. But now there is actually too much NFL football available. Throw in the BLM crap and the thrill is gone.
Corporations ruthlessly pursue their goals of revenue and profit. A good example is Big Tobacco marketing cigarettes to children with cartoons. But how is the NBA and NFL maximizing profit if viewership and attendance are falling?
I think their irrational behavior has a lot to do with the ownership structure of the NBA and NFL. These teams are owned by billionaires. And virtue signalling is how the super-rich give back. They don't do charity. They don't pay taxes. But they do run their mouths nonstop. Let's tax the hell out of these creeps instead!
(Remember when Davos attendees laughed out loud at the suggestion that the super-rich should contribute more to their communities? Higher taxes are for people making between $ 400,000 and $ 1,000,000 per year. Nice attitudes from a bunch of retards who constantly virtue signal.)
Rick T recounts: The last straw for me was at the Kentucky Derby when Mike Tirico was talking over the playing of "My Old Kentucky Home" to explain its historical context while the cameras were on the BLM protestors outside. Couldn’t even watch a horse race without politics intruding.
My respect for Tirico as sports announcer went down the drain at that.
"If their plan is to turn the NFL into The West Wing, a show for liberals, well, most of those liberals would rather that the NFL be shut down"
It wouldn't surprise me to see the NFL switch to soccer. Replace the pickup trucks in the parking lot with Priuses.
I have no interest in either of them, as well as MLB.
Begley will still be watching his Cornhuskers. Today he will be watching them get the living shit get kicked out of them by Ohio State. Seeing what has become of Nebraska football is making Tom Osborne roll over in his grave. And he's not even dead yet.
I believe this entire conversation starts with the flawed premise that sports figures somehow have a special insight and duty into politics and culture, and should lead us in the "right" direction.
If that's what they want to do, let them run for office.
Team: a group of individuals unified to achieve a common objective.
At he start of each game we demonstrate our unity and dedication to common purpose by letting everybody do what they want: stand up, kneel, bring a chair and sit, stay in the locker room. We also demonstrate our unity as a team by letting everyone dress as they want.
What does it mean to promote anti-racism?
In the modern university it means to tell Whites that they are irredeemably racist and must become allies of the Marxists.
I strongly suspect that the average NBA and NFL player has no understanding of or experience with true racism. Thus you have the absurdity of LeBron James fearing that White cops are out hunting black children.
Why support this idiocy?
What does it mean to promote anti-racism?
In the modern university it means to tell Whites that they are irredeemably racist and must become allies of the Marxists.
I strongly suspect that the average NBA and NFL player has no understanding of or experience with true racism. Thus you have the absurdity of LeBron James fearing that White cops are out hunting black children.
Why support this idiocy?
I can fix this for the NFL and NBA, easy.
You want your fans back?
Create a 20' high statue of Trump. Ensure that it's bending over so that his butt is sticking out.
Then each and every one of the players, staff, and coaches line up and individually kiss that ass.
Not just some glancing peck as you walk past. No, you're going to need to grab that ass with both hands and firmly plant your lips on that ass. And kiss it.
Then your fans will start watching your product again.
Until then? Go fuck yourselves.
I think it’s more the absence of sports played in front of stadiums full of cheering fans. And the fact that so many fans are just plain bored.
Well as long as they think they need to promote anything but Football or Basketball they have lost me. The national anthem before the game was fine. It was an attempt to unify us. The anthem was attacked because some do not want unity. They want to divide us.
I might note also the trend of auctioning venue names: Chase Field, Citizens Bank Park, Guaranteed Rate Field.
Teams should adopt names such as Pittsburg Pimps, Philadelphia Panderers, Houston Hookers, Washington Whores.
Words mean things. Today, and for the past few months, "anti-racism" has meant following or demanding a Marxist program of self-criticism and self-denunciation by whites, to align with Party ideals of collectivist group identity politics. It has very, very little to do with what one thinks about human pigmentation.
If sports leagues have players that are politicized so far left, good luck having them support anything having to do with individual rights or support of the US. China owns the NBA now.
This is so obvious and right on that I had to repost it’s
“
Blogger mockturtle said...
Asking how the NBA could promote anti-racism when the large majority of it's highly-paid players are black? Gimme a break”
It is a bit ironic that these sports organizations, like the NFL and NASCAR, are shifting their political stance left when those are the people who hate their sport.
Basketball is pretty much a black sport. I don't care what they do because I don't watch. Not all fans are black, of course, but most players are.
Co-ordinating a precisely timed flyover of a stadium seems like good practice that probably involves a large number of individuals in different roles, similar to what they would be doing were in a combat situation. So in a way Troy Aikman is probably right, with Biden in charge, they will get all the practice they need in the wars the CIA wants and Biden will deliver, just like his old boss did.
No, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are plainly stupid about anything outside of the lines of a football field and also have contempt for their fans, despite Aikman’s claim that if anybody thinks he meant what he said, they don’t know the true him.
It’s like Hollywood, they have contempt for the moviegoers. Who needs all of these people raking it in hand over fist deploring their customers?
Just to put it in perspective, Steph Currey makes roughly $500,000 for every game he plays ($40M/year), so a little more than $10,000 for every minute of an NBA game.
I would like to be oppressed in exactly the same manner.
You can profile me in traffic (being driven in my Rolls) on the way to my $31,000,000 home in Atherton.
You can follow me around when I'm shopping for $10,000 suits or $1,000,000 watches.
Please oppress me like this, racist piece of shit America, and I promise not to lecture you on how evil you are...
“They’re going to have to start respecting our country. It’s very simple."
It is. What's the point of anti-racism in a country you consider evil? Why should anyone pay attention to people who despise them?
"No more than 25% blacks on a team..."
Half that would be more representative of the population.
Face it -- It wasn't overnight exactly, but did happen rather quickly, but the United States has become a near totalitarian country.
Academia - universities and pre-K to 12
"Science"
"Medicine"
"Law"
News media
Entertainment - movies, TV, music, books
Sports
Our families and neighbors
Social media
Religion
Authoritarian Democratic rule in states and city
All of it. There is no refuge, except those we discover in some secret underground.
It's not a question of the messages on display, but rather the attitudes. A big chunk of the fan base became convinced that the players hate them and, moreover, resent playing the game. There's no coming back from that.
Everyone is too afraid of Negros. It's been going on a long time. Tom Wolfe explained the process 50 years ago ('Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'). If we stopped jumping through their hoops these silly stunts would go away. But, of course, that is not going to happen because, well, everyone is too afraid of Negros...
Even once-thought reliable institutions and groups, such as those who have promoted themselves as "conservative," have taken up and militantly sought to impose leftism on anyone and everyone.
Nothing in our world promotes Blacks as much as sports. It's where they most visibly excel beyond all others, where they are heroes and envied by people of all races. That happens because sports is merit based, which tells people the success is real, and not contrived. They are not coddled due to race, and they respond accordingly by making the real effort to win on merit.
The best way to fight racism is by competing successfully on merit under a free system. That really speaks to people honestly and they feel the truth of it, and they accept that success at much deeper level. It's not just opinion, or favoritism.
Trump said the sports leagues could “promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans,”
Trump didn't say that in the linked article, the Favre character said it. Which is good because anti-racism is actually anti-white racism (and incidentally and perhaps accidentally, anti-Asian racism), and I would hope the POTUS isn't a racist or a supporter of racists.
Which reminds me, until the "sports leagues" start working on the "inclusion" of underrepresented Asians they're just spewing bullshit and pulling hypocritical scams.
Teams should adopt names such as Pittsburg Pimps, Philadelphia Panderers, Houston Hookers, Washington Whores.
For a while, at least, the Portland Trailblazers were known as the Jailblazers. For good reason.
Predictable belly aches.
There is no refuge, except those we discover in some secret underground.
Well, there actually is a refuge: Jesus Christ. I'd be remiss if I didn't say so.
F'em,
I don't need lectures on how racist I am from illiterate multi-millionaires. The heart of my professional career was as a combat arms Army Officer, serving in one of the most actually anti-racist organizations in the world. My color? Green.
STFU and play
Even Jesus Christ can now be found only in the secret underground, like the early Church. He certainly is not welcome in the greater culture and society. He has been cancelled. Again.
“My love of baseball, basketball and football can be easily satisfied at the high school level.”
This. Become a fan of your local high school. Whether you went there or not. Whether they suck or not. The level of play might not be very high but the drama is real. You also build community and seeing some of these kids give so much of themselves might temper some of your cynicism about the future. And don’t forget varsity wrestling. That is some intense shit.
They are part of the machine now.
@Michael K
"Basketball is pretty much a black sport. I don't care what they do because I don't watch. Not all fans are black, of course, but most players are."
I have friends who had tickets to the Warriors in the 'old' arena (they built a beautiful new one recently). I went to a couple of games, in Oakland, mind you.
I would say 90% of the fans were white. Half the seats were corporate. A 'regular' ticket is $250 to $500 if you can even get one.
@Mark
"Face it -- It wasn't overnight exactly, but did happen rather quickly..."
From Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises:'
'How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.'
This country is mostly anti-racist which is why being called a racist is such a deadly insult.
The leagues could easily promote events where black and white players work together - perhaps for charities like Habitat of Humanity or where they just talk and joke together.
Instead there's a coercion of everyone to support the idea that the default opinion of white people is that black people should be oppressed and that we need to work to overcome it. This is both untrue and offensive. I couldn't be friends with anyone who assumed I wanted to keep them down and I would do so by frustrating them. Why would I want to be entertained by people who believe that about me?
"For a while, at least, the Portland Trailblazers were known as the Jailblazers. For good reason."
I saw the Washington Bullets play back in the day.
They had to change that name, of course, appropriate as it was.
Its never been hard. No one is against taking a stand against Racism. All people wanted was for the players to respect the Veterans and the Country by showing respect for the anthem and the flag. But that was too much to ask.
As Trump said about James and the NBA, "Why should I watch people who hate me and the Country?" Of course, the NBA has other problems. Its big Star is rather unattractive and plays a boring brand of basketball, and the Pro Game has degenerated into lay-ups and 3-pointers. And the "White community" is severely underrepresented. Right now, the NBA is 10% White foreigners 10% foreign black and only 10% White American. The NBA certainly doesn't look like America.
Looking back you can see that the NBA really lucked out in the 80s and 90s when they had a slew of likable superstars. Magic, MJ, Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Barkley, etc. Not so today.
Well it isn't just the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL - the same insanity has invaded pretty much all motorsports as well. In F1 - which I have watched since the 80's - we get lectured by the lone black driver (net worth north of 238 nillion US dollars) about how we are all racist and how we must change to make things better, yada yada yada, but no mention of what he is doing to make things better - just calling all the white folks racists. But if we were as racist as we are being told we are, then there would not be black millionaires playing any sports. They would all be janitors and such.
I had reduced my watching of F1 because of the lopsided racing - Mercedes has won everything for years - but with all of the BLM krap I am pretty much done. Funny thing is, most of the krap in F1 started when an American company bought the day to day operations.
As for the rest of the wokeball activities, as others have said - never again. They can all go find real work, and I am failry sure they cannot learn to code as they are not that smart. Oh well, the world needs janitors and farmers and ditch diggers too - all respectable occupations.
As I am irredeemably deplorable, when someone insults this country’s flag then I feel that they are insulting me. And I don’t pay people to insult me. LeBron James ain’t no Don Rickles.
Principles before progress. Diversity of individuals. Minority of one. Stand up to racism, sexism, and other class-based prejudice.
"So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?"
Try expresses your message in a way that's not purposefully offensive i.e., the athletes could have chosen a different act of symbolic speech.
If Kaepernick had said something like "I'll stand when we're worthy of what this flag represents..." he probably would have had the entire stadium kneeling along with him.
If professional leagues "woke" themselves out of a business, I wonder what effect it would have on college sports. When I think about it, I only see positives, but I'm not a sports fan so I may be missing some advantages that would be lost.
Mark observes, Even Jesus Christ can now be found only in the secret underground, like the early Church. He certainly is not welcome in the greater culture and society. He has been cancelled. Again.
Yes but the real Church thrives under adversity. If Christ were accepted by today's culture it would concern me greatly.
As a lifelong sports fan, the total pro sports lunge to the left has been so, so disappointing. Just cleaned out my closet last weekend and sent multiple jerseys and hats from MLB, NFL, and NBA off to Goodwill. Not throwing them out in anger; rather I simply can’t imagine wearing any of it now that it’s been shown we have so little in common. So many good memories but given where they have chosen to be today I can’t really see much of a future. Feels a little bit like a romantic break up.
I would say 90% of the fans were white. Half the seats were corporate. A 'regular' ticket is $250 to $500 if you can even get one.
Oh, I don't doubt that. This is how the rich can prove how they are really all for the blacks they ignore except when they have to hire an AA applicant. Corporate America is deep into virtue signaling. Look at a TV commercial.
After a lifetime of watching sports of all types, I've left each and every one of the professional ranks.
NBA? Done since the Sonics left in 2008.
NFL? Done with they first started their kneeling bullshit in 2016.
MLB? Done this year when they plastered the pitchers' mounds with racist crap and knelt during the Anthem.
NHL? Done this year when they boycotted two days of games because a felon got shot while violating a TRO.
NOOSECAR? Done this year.
And believe me when I say I will never, ever watch them again.
Done.
"So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?"
You can't.
Because to decent human beings, "anti-racism" means judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
To the left, "anti-racism" means dividing people by their skin color, and having different treatment for different "colors".
So you can be actually anti-racist, and tell the Left to fuck off.
Or you can continue sucking up to the Left, and have your fans tell you to fuck off.
Pick
Dan in Philly said...
That's the thing. Fans of the NFL are not racist, but they do love their country.
No, Dan, that's "and", not "but".
To all NFL and NBA athletes: you don't love America? Great. Fuck off and go someplace else.
No one will treat you as well as America does?
The STFU and play.
You have nothing of value to offer us but your sports ability. If you insist on pushing your moronic political beliefs on anyone who watches your sports ability, then we will stop watching you, and stop paying you
Predictable belly aches.
Predictable asinine comment.
There is an inordinate amount of hand wringing and pearl clutching in the NHL these days because there are so few black players while in the mostly black NBA- crickets.
Who are the racists, again?
How the Democrats allowed themselves to be put into this position I will never understand.
The whole NFL thing started when a washed up quarterback who didn't even have a starting job said that the flag stood for racism and oppression against colored people and he would not stand for it.
Lest we forget, Kaepernick originally SAT for the national anthem, as a tantrum for being benched. After the media started to ask him about such a disrespectful display, his girlfriend convinced him to make it a protest against racism. That's how phony this guy is.
And it's also why no NFL team will sign him: too hot a spotlight for too little talent.
@Michael K
From a 2014 'Slate' article:
'When Bryant Gumbel described former NBA Commissioner David Stern as a “modern plantation overseer,” Silver, the current commissioner, described those comments as “outrageous.” In 2011 Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for the players during the league’s contentious labor negotiations, said the NBA was treating players like “plantation workers.”'
Mind you, in 2014 a player like Kobe was making 'only' $30 million on-court salary, so maybe they were being treated like slaves. Oops, sorry, 'enslaved persons.'
And it's funny that black players somehow manage to keep cashing the checks...
DirecTV rewarded me for being a good customer (and having the MLB Extra Innings package) by giving me free NFL Sunday Ticket for this season. I haven't watched a single NFL game. I don't care about them any more. I don't even know what week of the season it is, and I don't care.
SAVE IT FOR SUNDAY (school)
sports are action, not talk
"’So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?’ — Brett Favre asked President Trump“
The resident should have rejected the premise. The leagues only have to to one thing—entertain their fans.
Clyde, I didn't watch pro football for a couple of years because the kneeling thing pissed me off. But this year, when there is scant else to do, I'm watching again. It happens that I love watching football and don't intend to cut off my nose to spite my face. But I'm also glad so many have lost interest and it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see it fail, along with the NBA. I'd like to keep hockey, though...;-)
Kaepernick knew he wouldn't get his contract renewed and so staged the 'protest' to make a name for himself. It worked, apparently. Though he doesn't play, he at least scored some commercials.
Greg suggests: To all NFL and NBA athletes: you don't love America? Great. Fuck off and go someplace else.
They should be given a choice between Haiti and North Korea.
"A big chunk of the fan base became convinced that the players hate them”
It’s not just the players who hate us, look what the announcers like Troy Aikman and Joe Buck say when they don’t know the mic is hot.
NASCAR started the whole trend. I asked someone who was inside the league what happened. He told me that consultants had said they could not grow any more. They had all the fans they would ever have--unless they somehow went outside the box to get new ones from groups that traditionally didn't care about NASCAR.
So then it was, hey, let's get the northeast US folks. We'll downplay the whole southern culture aspect. And if we get rid of the older driver, and recruit young good looking ones, we'll pull in more women. And so on. And they just assumed their core audience, the ones who had paid for the infield passes and had Confederate flags on their RVs, and who bought the hats and the shirts and so on, would just stick around.
But they didn't. They bailed en masse.
And the same sorts of consultants told the NFL they had to appeal to women, and gays, and northeasterners, and Goodell bought into it because it agreed with his view of the world. And enough team owners had died and been replaced with inheritors who only know how to cash checks, and not how to get butts into the stands. So when BLM comes along, and tells them if the league doesn't donate 100 million to BLM, they are stone cold racists. Now 60 percent of the workforce is black, and they think they should be cashing more checks also. So the tougher team owners rolled over. They saw what happened to that NBA owner a few years ago. The league can tell an owner he has to sell out to whoever the league designates, at a designated price.
Suicide by intimidation.
The cause has nothing to do with the sport. They may as well be advocating for the Green New Deal. Everyone agrees the planet needs to be saved from climate change, right? ;)
Even worse, now this: NFL celebrates LGBTQ History Month with Coming Out Day and Spirit Day
Alas, this is NOT a joke from Babylon Bee. I wish it were. :-(
Pro sports have come to discover that America has been able to move along in the COVID Age without them. When your core money-paying customer is a white guy, who likely takes exception to multi-millionaires who play a GAME calling themselves "oppressed," so much more the strange and toxic brew. America is undergoing a divorce from pro sports, whether because of the NBA and China, or the constant nagging of the Kaepernick Clique. People watch sports to be entertained, and to root for their team. Not to be scolded as racist overlords.
What's baseball's excuse?
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