The world of football lost a great man, as former Oakland Raiders coach, NFL commentator, and namesake of a long line of football games John Madden passed away. To those who knew him (and many more who didn’t), it was heartbreaking because we grew up watching or listening to his unique voice or playing one (or in my case, many) of his games. Losing someone so well-known is bad enough, but a handful of Leftists decided to take the opportunity of Madden’s passing to criticize his role in what they felt was racism, danger to public health, and other social ills.
That’s right, kids. The Left went after football.
Now, it’s personal.
football
What the Left thinks it means – a violent sport rife with racism, social and economic inequity, and physical harm to the players
What it really means – a violent game that represents America better than the Left does
Now, for the people reading this in another country, I’m referring to American football, not the traditional football known elsewhere. Traditional football has its own set of issues, but I won’t get into them here. Mainly because I know all about football riots and I want to keep myself from being in the center of one in the near future.
Anyway, the Left attacking football isn’t exactly new. Since Colin “I Blew a Super Bowl Win and Became a Benchwarmer and All I Got Was a Lousy Netflix Special” Kaepernick turned his floundering football career into a full time racial grifting career, the Left has has its eyes on making the National Football League into the Now Fun for Leftists league, complete with safe spaces, penalties for not using the right pronouns, and scores based on how woke a team is.
For any Leftists reading this, these are not suggestions. Do not implement them. I was kidding.
Football by its very nature is violent. The purpose of the game is to score points by getting the football from one side of the field to the other while preventing the other team from doing the same. It’s Stratego with linebackers. Yet, within the violence there is artistry and intellectualism. It’s not just men pushing and clawing at other men. It’s seeing players using their minds and bodies to their utmost for the betterment of themselves and everyone else on the team. If you really think about it (and I have since I don’t have much of a social life), isn’t that America in a nutshell? When we are at our best, America utilizes its best and brightest to advance everyone.
And that’s why Leftists hate it so much.
In the hivemind of a Leftist, America is imperfect (which it is) and can only be improved through advancing Leftist ideas (which it can’t). To that end, the Left started working on football to remake it in their own image, and in some cosmetic ways they’ve succeeded. By adopting the Black Lives Matter narrative, you can’t go a weekend without seeing “End Racism” and “Black Lives Matter” on helmets, end zones, and commercials featuring current NFL stars. Although this is praised as forward-thinking, it’s never enough for the Left. Fortunately for them, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has a spine of Silly String and is willing to bend over to Leftist demands.
This is not to say all of the proposals being brought forward suck ass, even if the NFL is slower than Joe Biden massaging a young girl’s shoulder while he sniffs her hair in bringing them to the forefront. Within the past few years, the NFL has started taking concussions more seriously, which has been one of the major criticisms of the Leftists who used Madden’s death to scold football fans. There’s still a ways to go, but it’s not like the NFL has been stagnant as it was in the past.
But it’s still not enough for Leftists.
Regarding the racial issues brought up, football isn’t about racial bean-counting. It’s about finding the best people to play the positions. Minorities and women are finding their way onto coaching staffs and even into head coaching roles. Just like the Presidency, it’s only a matter of time before people of color and women are as common as a losing season for the Detroit Lions.
But it’s still not enough for Leftists.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a pattern forming here? Oh, yeah, it’s that Leftists aren’t ever satisfied when you capitulate to their demands.
Although the Left’s complaints about football and John Madden’s role in the devaluation of minorities seem to come from a good place, let’s not forget these are some of the same asshats who thought housing COVID patients with the elderly was a good idea. So, needless to say, I’m taking their football complaints with an asteroid of salt. I’m half-convinced one of the reasons Leftists hate football is because they think the Electoral College has a football team.
Central to this whole matter is the Left feeling like it has to take up the cause for others. If only the players had a union…oh wait! They do! And this union has taken up the causes Leftists are just now inventing…I mean discovering. The funny thing is Leftists typically love unions, but in this case they’re discounting the players’ union altogether. Considering how many union reps happen to be black…well, it doesn’t take a genius to make the connection, so I’ll explain it slowly for the Leftists so they understand.
By disregarding the efforts of blacks to make the NFL better and assuming you speak for them makes you racist. And you can’t blame me for making that connection. These are your rules, kids, not mine.
I know the NFL has screwed a lot of conservative fans with its adoption of Leftist ideology, but it may be time to come back and help it find its way again. It’s possible to tweak the existing structure to allow for improvements while telling Leftists to go pluck a duck when they start virtue signalling on behalf of wealthy blacks. (Holy Twilight Zone, Batman!) Leave the signals on the field, Leftists, and let the players play. They are doing a lot more heavy lifting than just in the weight room, and it’s time we give them the respect they deserve and the encouragement they need to make their communities stronger. Screw politics and reward good behavior.
The funniest thing about this whole John Madden non-controversy is how quickly some Leftists condemned the man without knowing a thing about what he did to address their concerns well before Leftists decided to ruin football. Madden was a big proponent of concussion protocols back in the 1990s, featured many incredible athletes in the video games bearing his name, and understood the difficulties players face. Maybe it’s because he…you know…was a fucking coach instead of a scolding Leftist douchebag that couldn’t be bothered to do a few seconds of research on Google before spouting off?
Naaaaaaaaaah!
Tag: nfl
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
After the recent killing of George Floyd, a forgotten figure of the Black Lives Matter movement came back into the limelight: Colin Kaepernick. The former starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers became a darling of the BLM crowd by taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem (and for wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs) to protest the killing of black people by police. At the time, he was praised and criticized and now it seems he was ahead of the curve, even though he was riding the pine at his former job for sucking.
With Kaepernick’s reemergence, Leftists are coming out and saying we owe him an apology, a starting quarterback position, and back pay. There are people making as much on two knees as Kaepernick could make on one, and what he’s doing won’t get you arrested! But is he worth the accolades? Let’s take a look.
Colin Kaepernick
What the Left thinks it means – an early hero of Black Lives Matter who was blackballed by the NFL for his stance on police brutality
What it really means – a quarterback whose skills have been overshadowed by his advocacy
When he started, Colin Kaepernick was a one-of-a-kind quarterback. He was able to lead the 49ers to a handful of NFC championship games and an appearance in the Super Bowl, where he lead the team to a disheartening loss to the Baltimore Ravens (which just happens to be your humble correspondent’s favorite football team). After that, he experienced either a decline in his skills, defenses started figuring out his tendencies and exploited them to their benefit, or his offense wasn’t as potent as it was when he was successful. As a result, he wasn’t as effective as he once was and lost his starting quarterback position, even though he felt he had the skills to play as a starter.
This is where things get a little controversial. Kaepernick started dating a woman in the off season who turned him from a mediocre-starting-quarterback to a mediocre-former-starting-quarterback-with-a-cause. And out of that cause came a lot of trouble for him and headaches for the NFL. After he tried to test the free agency market and came up empty, allegations of his being blackballed flew around like errant passes from Kaepernick.
Was he blackballed? Not really. He insisted he was a top-tier talent without the numbers to back it up, and he refused to accept a back-up quarterback position. Oh, and there was the attitude problems and controversial statements supporting Fidel Castro…while he was trying to get a job with the Miami Dolphins. I will say this. What Kaepernick lacked in reading the room, he more than made up in positive press coverage. To say he became more beloved by people who would normally consider football barbaric (and, to be fair, anything short of checkers is too barbaric for the Left) would be an understatement.
And that’s how he’s made his money since deciding not to play football (i.e. when no NFL team would sign him because, well, he’s a PR nightmare in crappy socks). He’s become a professional victim, even though his ego/stupidity made him a victim in the first place. Since he’s involved in a Leftist cause, however, his defenders will overlook the obvious flaws in his story of victimhood. After all, there are black people being shot by police all the time, right? Wellll…that’s not strictly true. Crime statistics show police most often shoot…white criminals. And it’s not always white cops doing the killing, either. Thanks to diversity (something the Left claims to embrace), police departments have officers of various races. In fact, only 2 of the police officers involved in the George Floyd matter were white.
None of this diminishes the fact far too many people are getting killed by police officers, regardless of race. Nor does it excuse the racism evident in some police departments. These are real issues that fuel the division in this country and acts as justification for all sides to distrust each other. If we are make any headway, we have to call out the bad faith actors and praise those who are upholding the best in people.
And that’s why I’m calling out Colin Kaepernick and his Leftist enablers. I know the perfect is the enemy of the good, but Kaepernick is neither. He took advantage of a bad situation to create a new job opportunity for himself when his job at the time wasn’t working out the best and his options were as limited as his ability to evolve as a quarterback. And I’m guessing he hasn’t improved on his existing skill set during his extended off-season. Even though his cause has gained traction, it wasn’t because of him. If anything, it occurred without his presence being necessary. Although the Left can remember the glory days of him taking a knee, the truth remains he was merely a replaceable cog in an already existing machine.
As far as his Leftist enablers go, he doesn’t deserve back pay, a starting quarterback job, or an apology because he hasn’t earned any of it. He hasn’t played for a few years because no team would sign him. That’s not the NFL’s fault, but it is Kaepernick’s fault for not realizing his limitations. If he could play like he did prior to the Super Bowl he lost and shown he has a more level head than he did before taking a knee, there are teams right now who could use a good quarterback or at least someone who could do a good job mentoring the next generation of quarterbacks. And if football was no longer an option, he has a degree in business management that he could use…or is he using it right now to leverage his self-imposed victimhood into a lucrative, albeit somewhat dishonest, career?
In other words, Colin Kaepernick is playing Leftists for fools so he can enrich himself, and if Leftists have their way, he will succeed. But, hey, at least they’re “woke”.