Back in the bad old days, rich white guys buying and selling black men was called "slavery." Today rich white guys buying and selling black men is called professional sports.
There's a lot of commentary out there these days making the rather spurious analogy between slavery and pro sports. It's an analogy that has its limitations. The pro hoops slave Russell Westbrook just signed a $200,000,000 contract extension.
Slavery never looked so good!
Kinda makes you wonder where the loyalties of rich black athletes will fall at the end of the day. In the NFL, where 70% of the players are black but 70% of the fans are white, I'm guessing the majority of the players are savvy enough to know not to antagonise the majority of the fans.
The owners know that too. That's why they feel comfortable, at least for now, with their display of faux solidarity with their players. They know that when push comes to shove there'll be no shortage of wannabees of all races who will be more than willing to shuck their personal code of ethics for a big sack of loot.
At least this anthem controversy has helped take the focus off the gathering storm of that nasty brain-injury succubus that's been haunting them.
Showing posts with label CTE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CTE. Show all posts
Friday, September 29, 2017
Sunday, September 3, 2017
NFL in death throes
Professional football is well past its best-before date. Its legitimacy is rapidly eroding on two fronts, each of which is bigger than the NFL.
Colin Kaepernick kicked off something that's starting to snowball and have repercussions. The politicisation of sports isn't a fad that's just going to go away. I'm of two minds on that. On the one hand, it's a shame. I'm not a serious fan, but I can appreciate the athleticism of a great pass or an exceptional touch-down run.
On the other hand, the NFL and pro sport in general have for too long prostituted themselves as cheerleaders for a militaristic faux patriotism, which effectively politicised sports long before Kaepernick took a knee.
The other front is the rapidly growing public awareness of the CTE scandal. When a guy like Ed Cunningham walks away from his dream job, he's making a statement every bit as courageous and important as Kaepernick's. The NFL money guys might have thought they put the brain injury thing to bed with that billion dollar payout last year, but that was just the beginning.
There is no end in sight... other than the end of the NFL itself.
The NFL is toast.
Colin Kaepernick kicked off something that's starting to snowball and have repercussions. The politicisation of sports isn't a fad that's just going to go away. I'm of two minds on that. On the one hand, it's a shame. I'm not a serious fan, but I can appreciate the athleticism of a great pass or an exceptional touch-down run.
On the other hand, the NFL and pro sport in general have for too long prostituted themselves as cheerleaders for a militaristic faux patriotism, which effectively politicised sports long before Kaepernick took a knee.
The other front is the rapidly growing public awareness of the CTE scandal. When a guy like Ed Cunningham walks away from his dream job, he's making a statement every bit as courageous and important as Kaepernick's. The NFL money guys might have thought they put the brain injury thing to bed with that billion dollar payout last year, but that was just the beginning.
There is no end in sight... other than the end of the NFL itself.
The NFL is toast.
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