WOULD THIS PROTEST CONTINUE IF NO ONE KNEW IT WAS GOING ON?
With the start of a new NFL season, thoughts of Super Bowl games dance in the heads of all football fans. This could be the year the Browns win their division and go all the way. Can the Eagles repeat? Will a 40 year old Brady get that last ring and ride off into the sunset as the GOAT?
Despite all the hopes of a new season, the elephant in the room is the anthem protest. First, the NFL decrees that the players must either stand for the National Anthem or remain in the locker room. Then the NFLPA cries foul and the NFL walks back the rule and says "let's talk". So, no change and no solution. Is there really a solution?
To be fair to both sides we must remember that the NFL had no "anthem stand" requirement until 2009 when they signed a lucrative contract with the Pentagon to "promote patriotic displays".
Sally Jenkins, sports reporter for the Washington Post, in a column on the 22nd of July, wrote that the "anthem debate is a case of misplaced emphasis". She goes on to say the "enforced patriotism, is not patriotism at all".
But sports in America is indeed rooted in patriotism, as it is in all the countries of the world. Soccer matches in Mexico begin with the their Himno Nacional. The people in the bleachers stand, remove their hats and proudly sing along. The players are all standing, with their hands on their hearts, singing along.
Jenkins asks the question, "How can a mild protest by at most 12 % of the league cause such a stir"?
To answer this, we must agree on two things.
1. The average NFL fan, whether at the game, or at home is very patriotic.
2. A player seen kneeling is perceived as being unpatriotic.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, medalists at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, were loudly and roundly booed for their raised fists on the medalists podium. This action was widely seen as anti-American and unpatriotic. Colin Kaepernick's "pig socks" were similarly seen as divisive and unamerican by the average NFL fan.
When NFL players, in the UK and Mexico stood for the host nation's anthem yet knelt for the Anthem of the United States of America, this too was viewed as unamerican, unpatriotic and a slap in the face to all Americans.
The average American sports fan agree with Tim Suttle, a Pastor and writer from Olathe, Kansas who penned: "The liturgies of sport teach us that America is a singular beacon in a world of hackneyed imposters...The game embodies the belief that this nation stands above all other nations as more powerful, virtuous, righteous and more justified in our actions...".
We, as fans are proud of our nation! All other nations are too. As a group, we desire our athletes to be like us. We don't say, so and so the black football player, or so and so the ballplayer from the Dominican republic. No...we say my teams pro bowl Safety or our All Star shortstop. Sports fans everywhere want an escape. We turn to sports.
So..what is my solution to this morass the NFL has created? Let the protests continue. Do nothing. What can it hurt if just 12%, a figure attributed to Jenkins, of the league protest a perceived injustice.
But, the league needs cooperation from the media. Are the protests worthy of attention? Without the television constantly covering the sidelines during the anthem, there would be no attention brought to the subject. Censorship you say...during the 2017 season the networks, and even local coverage, deliberately avoided showing the empty stands. The league "suggested" coverage of this was detrimental to the ratings. Constant badgering of the players by the print media on how they "felt" about the kneeling served no purpose but to inflame an already agitated fan base.
The owners should press Goodell to minimize the effect on ratings and league attendance. The Green Bay Packers reported in their annual report to stockholders that revenue was up year-to-year and that 99% of the season ticket holders had renewed with a waiting list of 137,000.
The league is in fine shape!
So...can the Eagles repeat or what?
W.D. Barr's unique perspective on what's important in the world of Mexican Baseball!
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Josh Hader 1st All Star Game Marred by Twitter Police
HADER GIVES UP GAME TYING 3 RUN HOME RUN IN ALL STAR GAME
Josh Hader, of the Milwaukee Brewers, spent the week basking in the glow of selection to his 1st All Star game! During the first half of the 2108 season, Hader struck out 89 batters in 48 innings of work while recording 7 saves. The Brewers reliever has struck out 157 batters in 95 and 2/3 innings on the mound in his MLB career. Quite the accomplishment you say...we need him on our team you think. Well think again!
On in relief in the 8th inning, Hader gave up a 3 run home run home run to the Mariner's shortstop, Jean Segura. Bad enough you thought but the twitter crazies wanted to find out more about Hader. They checked his Twitter account and found tweets from 2011 where Hader, at age 17, posted things that are deemed Racist, homophobic, derogatory to women and supported (in the minds of the mob) the white power movement.
While neither condoning nor condemning Josh, I would like to add my comments to the seemingly demonic Tweets.
Mr. Hader was 17 at the time of his tweets. Excuse...no, but a reasonable explanation. He was a very young man whose views at the time were very malleable. Merriam-Webster defines "malleable" in the following way. "Capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces or influences".
Lets take a look at a few of the songs that topped the Billboard top 100 list in 2011.
"F-you, forget you" by Cee Lo Green
"Tonight (I'm F-ing you" by Enrique Iglesias (with Ludacris and DJ Frank E)
"F-ing Perfect" by Pink
Influence, peer pressure, pop culture?
Why do people feel the need to check through 7 years of a person's Tweets? Because he gave up a home run? Didn't anyone in the MLB look through his Tweets?
Hader was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in June of 2012. Why didn't they check his social media pages? Traded to the Astros in 2013 and again no look into his past. Finally in July of 2015 Josh was traded to the Brewers. By 2015 there were numerous stories of sports figures in trouble for Tweets by them or about them. And yet, one can only assume that the Brewers organization doesn't bother to check every player's social media account.
I can hear the keyboards of every MLB, NBA and NFL in every office clattering away under the finger tips of the newly hired social media account researcher. What a racket...both figuratively and literally.
Josh has apologised to his team mate, Lorenzo Cain, to MLB and to his fans. There is nothing more he can do.
He can go back and delete the Tweets and tell all his team mates to check their accounts for anything that the thought police may find objectionable. Other than that?
If the fans in Milwaukee, or any other MLB city boo him when he takes the field or protests him with harassment, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Josh Hader, of the Milwaukee Brewers, spent the week basking in the glow of selection to his 1st All Star game! During the first half of the 2108 season, Hader struck out 89 batters in 48 innings of work while recording 7 saves. The Brewers reliever has struck out 157 batters in 95 and 2/3 innings on the mound in his MLB career. Quite the accomplishment you say...we need him on our team you think. Well think again!
On in relief in the 8th inning, Hader gave up a 3 run home run home run to the Mariner's shortstop, Jean Segura. Bad enough you thought but the twitter crazies wanted to find out more about Hader. They checked his Twitter account and found tweets from 2011 where Hader, at age 17, posted things that are deemed Racist, homophobic, derogatory to women and supported (in the minds of the mob) the white power movement.
While neither condoning nor condemning Josh, I would like to add my comments to the seemingly demonic Tweets.
Mr. Hader was 17 at the time of his tweets. Excuse...no, but a reasonable explanation. He was a very young man whose views at the time were very malleable. Merriam-Webster defines "malleable" in the following way. "Capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces or influences".
Lets take a look at a few of the songs that topped the Billboard top 100 list in 2011.
"F-you, forget you" by Cee Lo Green
"Tonight (I'm F-ing you" by Enrique Iglesias (with Ludacris and DJ Frank E)
"F-ing Perfect" by Pink
Influence, peer pressure, pop culture?
Why do people feel the need to check through 7 years of a person's Tweets? Because he gave up a home run? Didn't anyone in the MLB look through his Tweets?
Hader was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in June of 2012. Why didn't they check his social media pages? Traded to the Astros in 2013 and again no look into his past. Finally in July of 2015 Josh was traded to the Brewers. By 2015 there were numerous stories of sports figures in trouble for Tweets by them or about them. And yet, one can only assume that the Brewers organization doesn't bother to check every player's social media account.
I can hear the keyboards of every MLB, NBA and NFL in every office clattering away under the finger tips of the newly hired social media account researcher. What a racket...both figuratively and literally.
Josh has apologised to his team mate, Lorenzo Cain, to MLB and to his fans. There is nothing more he can do.
He can go back and delete the Tweets and tell all his team mates to check their accounts for anything that the thought police may find objectionable. Other than that?
If the fans in Milwaukee, or any other MLB city boo him when he takes the field or protests him with harassment, they should be ashamed of themselves.
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