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those of the author and do not
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As the NFL Turns
By Susan Olling
I’ve been trying to ignore the continuing soap opera involving
NFL players, the NFL Commissioner, and the knee thing. However,
this drama seems to be everywhere. Since it’s been hard to
ignore, here are my two cents.
It seems that somewhere in the mists of time, the playing of Mr. Key’s
little ditty, along with standing while it’s played, became
customary at sporting events in this country. These games, as one
local commentator recently said, are not “patriotic events”.
Nope, they’re simply entertainment, just like movies, plays, or
concerts. I shouldn’t be surprised that the reactions about all
this “taking a knee” business have shown that there’s no gray area
here. Either people were burning jerseys or season tickets or,
and this seemed to come from some veterans, the players have the right
to do what they’re doing. By the way, when all this started last
year, one of MoCo’s high school football teams played a game at the
last “rural” school in our little county (rural but not
western Ohio rural). The visiting players assumed the
knee-taking position during the anthem, much to the dismay of the home
team’s fans. The visiting fans apparently had no problem with
what their players did. Have no idea whether any of the county
teams have been “protesting” this season. This knee-taking
behavior seems to have become an infection, as it crossed over to at
least one college campus (and didn’t involve football players).
The students and faculty at one of the D.C. law schools did the knee
thing and later linked arms to protest a visit from the Attorney
General.
It’s still very hard to have sympathy for adults who are paid mints of
money just to play football. How many of them simply went through
the farm system, AKA college football, without getting a degree of any
sort? Given Mr. Commissioner’s tepid response to the
domestic abuse messes that swirled around the NFL several years ago,
his initial response to the opinions of the current occupant of
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW that started all this a few weeks ago
seemed a bit excessive. Let’s see, domestic abuse vs.
taking knee during the National Anthem. These aren’t even
comparable. One’s a crime, one isn’t.
It appears that at least one retired NFL player wasn’t happy with
former teammates who did the knee thing. You can tell time has
passed when someone says that something wouldn’t have happened during
their time. Why would these younger players listen to an old guy,
no matter how many Super Bowl rings he has? He was also
surprised that the coach let players protest. Oh my, why not ask
him? Not that Mr. Coach needs to explain himself to a former
player.
Where are our priorities? There are more important things going
on right now than what NFL players are doing. Or not doing.
Hurricanes have done quite a bit of damage to parts of the U.S.
mainland. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were destroyed
by Hurricane Maria. The people who live on those islands are U.S.
citizens and should be getting the same help that the folks in Florida
and southeast Texas have been getting. We haven’t heard much
about what’s going on in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but there was a
gathering on the Capitol grounds on 11 Oct protesting the lack of aid
to Puerto Rico. A majority of that island is still without power,
and there are shortages of food and potable water. Some
U.S. pharmaceutical companies, including some big pharma, have drug
manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico. Most of the facilities were
apparently not badly damaged. However, impassable roads and
shortages of food and water mean that many employees can’t get to
work. Over fifty people were killed in Las Vegas.
Wildfires in California have destroyed entire neighborhoods (and the
worst part of their fire season has just gotten started).
Football, whether it’s pre-NFL-farm-team, NFL-farm-team, or the
NFL, is really pretty irrelevant.
Just when I thought this soap opera couldn’t get any better, it
has. Mr. NFL Commissioner reportedly sent a letter to all
thirty-two team owners asking them to make sure all players stand
during the anthem. I wonder if the letter contained suggestions
for the owners on making this happen. A proposal will reportedly
be introduced at the next owners’ meeting requiring all players to
stand during the anthem. One owner has apparently warned
recalcitrant players if they don’t stand to attention during the
anthem, they’ll be benched. I may watch whatever games are
on this Sunday just long enough to see what happens. Could
be great entertainment.
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