Saturday, September 30, 2017

Watching Roger Goodell Melt



As I stated in my post, The NFL Goes Politically Correct on Donald Trump, I have no idea why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell responded to Donald Trump's provocative tweet about NFL  players kneeling during the national anthem. He should have
just ignored it.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has wisely said nothing on the issue, even though an Oakland A's player took a knee. A rookie catcher, batting .240! I sure hope he is solid defensively behind the plate with a strong arm or he is not going to get a refill on his cup of coffee.

National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver at first came down in support of his players on the controversy, even though the NBA is in its off-season with no games being played and nobody even asking him. He really should be given a Cultural Marxist medal.

But during NBA's Board of Governors meetings last week, the owners made clear to Silver that he was not to pull a Goodell. And so, Silver said Thursday in New York during his news conference at the end of the league’s meetings: that there is a league rule stating that players, coaches and trainers must stand for the national anthem, and that he expects that rule to be followed when the season starts Oct. 17.

“We have a rule that requires our players to stand for the anthem,” Silver said. “It’s been our rule for as long as I’ve been involved with the league, and my expectation is that our players will continue to stand for the anthem.”

And so Goodell is out there all alone as far as major league sports commissioners go.

His response to Trump put more focus on the controversy and then the statement he issued was so off-the-wall politically correct that for a moment I thought it was ghostwritten by Yvette Felarca.

Has Goodell ever looked at the crowds at NFL games? Do the crowds come close to looking politically correct?

Why would you want to rub such crazed politically correct protests into the face of a good chunk of your fan base?

Last week's NFL games were a politically correct, vs. red meat eating fans, freak show.

And now we have this:
A new report from The Armstrong and Getty Radio Show has sent shockwaves throughout the sports world after it was claimed that members of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders may have purposefully allowed their star quarterback to get sacked multiple times after he refused to kneel during the National Anthem.

If true, this would essentially mean that an NFL football game was illegally thrown over anger that one of the teams star white players did not believe that kneeling during the nation’s anthem was the correct way to protest supposed racial injustice in America.

In other words, an epic level scandal.

During the anthem, virtually the entire team was seen kneeling other than the teams coaches and star quarterback Derek Carr. Unfortunately, this may have not set well with the team’s offensive line as they were apparently the players who spearheaded the entire idea to kneel as a team in the first.

“This is one hell of a scandal with the NFL, could ruin the whole league,” claimed the show before detailing the fact that Carr was sacked two times in a row on the teams second drive and that the team’s usually dependable center snapped the ball at the wrong time in three different instances. Extremely capable receivers also made multiple “weird” drops of passes thrown by Carr that T.V. announcers even noted at the time.
At this point, it really doesn't matter if the story is true. It is feeding the idea that there is some kind of white versus black thing going on in the NFL---with black players in the face of whites.

So what should Goodell do at this point?

He should issue the following statement:
The NFL is proud that many of its players last week protested against injustices they see. The NFL is for free speech in America.

That said, the NFL is about bringing the best in professional football to football fans in the United States and around the globe. Weekly protests would be a distraction.

Thus, I am ordering all players and coaches to stand for the national anthem as I have a right to do based on the agreement with the players association. There will be severe penalties for any player or coach who defies my order.
If a player stands for the national anthem, it should not be a reflection of his personal views, it's all on me.
Protest and open dialogue has always been the hallmark of America and so I will propose to the owners that the third week of the regular season every year be called "Protest week," where a player will able to protest before the game on any issue he chooses. But again, we are about bringing excellence in football to our fans. We will give every player and coach on  "Third week"  the opportunity to be heard on any issue but we must recognize that the great issues of the day must be discussed  and resolved in forums and platforms well beyond the football field. We will participate but do not think football players have all the answers to all the world's problems.
After issuing his statement, Goodell should then call all the player agents into his office and tell them to get their clients in line with his plan or he will cut the balls off of any agent who doesn't get it done (agents understand this language). Players don't listen to too many people but they do listen to their agents. The message will sink in for most.

Then I would distort the word "protest," in a way that so many words are distorted in this day and age.

For the first Third Week (2018), I would start a plan now to get various players to "protest," say, cancer, diabetes, global hunger, kuru disease or whatever. It would be a show, reporters for sports channels would go around asking players what they are "protesting," In this deluge of "protests," the few that would protest against things that are offensive to the fan base would be drowned out.

But the key is the agents and making sure that they get the message they need to keep their players under control now that "the NFL has set aside a week for their voices to be heard."

Of course, from a libertarian perspective, the national anthem shouldn't even be played at sporting events. It is nothing but militaristic, nationalistic (in the worst sense of the term), statist propaganda.

If you are a libertarian, go anti-statist and wear a Murray Rothbard shirt to the game.

-RW

11 comments:

  1. How exactly is it a "distraction" for someone to kneel during the playing of the nationalist anthem?

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    1. Yeah seriously.

      I mean, does it make it harder for you to get a patriotism boner if you have less than 100% participation i the stadium?

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    2. It's like Tom Woods frequently says: Just because some workplace can set its own rules under libertarian law doesn't mean that everyone else has to like or respect their version of "routine, formality and professionalism."

      Of course few workplaces demand religious observances such as national anthems, I don't see why sports leagues should require it. Reminds me a little of the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade in Catch 22.

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    3. @Unowned

      Please don't piss down our legs and tell us it's raining. Joe Sixpack being pissed at the I kneelers has nothing to do with them disobeying some obscure employer directive (and the owners and commissioner haven't had any issue with it anyway). They're just mad that muh flag is being "disrespected."

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    4. It's odd how kneeling is somehow a political incursion on their sacred space but playing the national anthem is not, especially given its history of being used to drum up support for war.

      If they want to worship the state, that's one thing, but then demanding that all the players (and presumably the fans) should prostate themselves even against their will is another.

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  2. Meh. I was an offensive linemen. Sometimes you let the quarterback know he can't do everything And he still needs the guys who get no credit. It's not throwing a game. It happens all the damn time. That's why smart QBs buy expensive meals and gifts for their o-line. Even smarter one actually listen to what the O-line says they are seaing on the field.

    If the O line orginized the kneel protest Carr should have had a chat with them.

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  3. Why are libertarians becoming uncomfortable with non-worship of the national anthem? Our movement is becoming so unhinged by cultural Marxism that we have Wenzel counseling Goodell to take reprisals against players who do not submit to what he himself called “militaristic, nationalistic, statist propaganda.” Further encouraging one of the saddest aspects of our culture.

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    Replies
    1. I don't want to diminish the importance of the issues of police racism or brutality, but the reaction to the protests has become THE story. I would not have guessed that, in 2017, so many would apparently be so badly triggered by some athletes' perceived "disrespect" towards a stupid piece of cloth and a silly statist jingle.

      More depressing days for libertarians.

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  4. Phathead, did you ever play on a TEAM? I sincerely doubt it. Carr was injured last year and it crushed their playoff chances. If I was GM, I'd review the tapes closely. This is one of the best O-Lines ion pro-ball, that gave up exactly ONE sack all last year! Sure sounds like that Center purposefully spiked snaps. I'd make an example of him and that would end this crap fast.

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  5. AnCap rapper Eric July tweeted a good point a few days ago;

    "It's not about disrespecting, it's about the injustice"
    The fact that you have to explain this at a massive level, shows it's not working"

    https://twitter.com/EricDJuly/status/912815671427379200

    I have a feeling the letting Carr get sacked scandal will be like Bounty-Gate a few years ago. It will get some press but the overrall take is that every team does it.

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  6. If Silver and Goodell were as smart as their paychecks indicate, they'd quietly stop having the Nationalistic Anthem played, except maybe before Finals/Super Bowl/All Star games.

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