Final Thoughts

I normally don’t write successive posts on the same topic, but the furor over the NFL protests hits home because of my affinity for the game over a lifetime.  And, if you have read my prior posts, I find symbolism to be important in human affairs.  Donald Trump’s comments, like most of his positions, are both wrong and right.  He is entirely correct to call out the players and NFL for permitting kneeling during the national anthem.  No other great nation would countenance that.  He is entirely incorrect when he says that the NFL should pass a rule around standing at the national anthem.  It already has policies around that.  The State should not interfere in private company matters, and the consumers of the NFL’s product will ultimately decide whether they wish to experience public grievance as part of their ticket price.

I attended the first Chicago Bears game of the season at the invitation of a business associate.  As I left and walked through the tunnel, an older African American gentleman with an NFL jersey with the name “Stingley” on the back was navigating through the crowd just in front of me.  I couldn’t help but nudge his elbow.  “Cool jersey,” I said, “I remember watching the game on that day.  It still makes me sad.”  “Darryl was my cousin,” he said.  “I’m so sorry,” I replied.  As some of you older people may remember, Darryl Stingley was injured by a horrific hit by Jack Tatum which rendered Stingley a quadriplegic in a pre-season game in 1978.  It was a horrible thing to have witnessed on T.V.  Sadly Darryl Stingley passed away about 10 years ago at age 55 and Jack Tatum also passed away at age 61.  Stingley and Tatum never spoke after the hit and Tatum never apologized.   Neither reached his 65^th birthday.

The gentleman and I went on to have a nice conversation while we worked our way through the crowd.  We talked about football in the public league (where Stingley and I both played), the South Side of Chicago, and the Bears.  We talked about what we do for a living, our children, the City of Chicago, and a few other things on our way back to our cars.  Two strangers, from two walks of life, two different neighborhoods, one black, one white, connected by the common bond of football and a tragically memorable event.  That’s what football brings.  A chance to unify and to connect in a special way.  By letting political grievances seep in, the NFL is going to destroy these precious moments. 

The NFL has gotten out of the sports and entertainment business and has gotten into the grievance mongering business.   What is NFL football, really?   It is fun, fake inter-city tribalism.   Your guys are going to play our guys.  During the playoffs, mayors get into the act, betting each other some nominal wagers.  The cities adorn themselves in the colors and symbols of their team.   Guys talk about it in bars.  People talk about it around the water cooler on Monday morning.  But it’s all fake.  We don’t really hate the guys in Cleveland or Pittsburgh.  For Pete’s sake, the players aren’t even from that city.  It’s all fun. 

One good aspect of all this is that the reaction to Kaepernick has brought to light a number of unpleasant facts about the NFL and the crony capitalist bedrock upon which it rests.  

But now, instead of a spectacle of fake tribalism the NFL has chosen to contaminate its product with real tribalism, real social tension, and real bitterness.   Most perversely, the league has chosen to permit millionaire players to disrespect the flag, the anthem, and is following the lead of a guy that also sports emblems showing support of Castro and Che and that disrespects police officers. 

It’s disappointing and sad that the NFL has decided to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the left leaning MSM cartel – CNN, MSNBC, NYT and WaPo.  At a time  when we need more platforms and venues that promote unity, the NFL has decided to permit its players to play victim in a way that is perfectly calculated to push us farther apart—by protesting the national anthem and the American flag. 

The reality is that the NFL's business model involves a series of licenses.  In fact, your ticket to a game is actually a license granted by the team that permit you access to the stadium and the game.  TV and cable arrangements are a series of licenses.   But in reality, the licenses flow both ways.  Fans also grant the NFL a license to their time and attention.  In person, pro sports fans are willing to subject themselves to messaging by sponsors of products in a variety of ways-- ads for products and services are placed in programs, around the stadium premises, in the program and on the jumbotron.  At home, we willingly subject ourselves to advertisements and interruptions (T.V. timeouts).  These messages are claims on our time, which we are willing to license back to the NFL.   But now the NFL has begun to transmit political messages which many of us find obnoxious and annoying.  It's one thing to see an ad for beer or razor blades; it's an entirely different thing to see messages from the disciples of a guy that wears a Castro t-shirt and pig socks.  It is abusive of the implicit license on our time that we grant to the NFL.

I won’t be part of it.  It’s sad because pro football (along with college and high school) has been a common bond with many people during my lifetime.  I won’t. If I go to a game, or watch one on TV, I want fake tribalism, not the real kind.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the NFL.  The NFL left me.