We’re Arguing For The Sake Of Arguing
This week’s Courier Herald column:
The NFL has been in the news a lot lately. Too much, in my opinion. And yet, for the second time in three weeks, it’s the basis for the words written here.
Sunday’s local matchup featured the Atlanta Falcons at home versus the Buffalo Bills. Hardly a marquee game, the pre-game hype was almost non-existent. The first clue was that parking in my usual spot was $10, at the bottom of the range that correlates to game day demand.
The crowd was a late arriving one. As the teams took the field for kickoff, I snapped a picture of the lower level premium seats. Those sections – on the lowest level of Mercedes Benz Stadium between the 20 yard lines – remained sparsely populated throughout the game.
I posted the pics to Facebook and Twitter with a joke that my fuzzy memories of childhood attribute to Skip Carey when calling lightly attended Braves games. “At kickoff for today’s Falcons game, most lower deck fans are disguised as empty seats.” It didn’t take long for the post to take off.
What I found interesting is that it was shared by friends of mine on the left and the right. Many were quite happy that their hopes of a boycott had come to fruition. Never mind that I hadn’t referenced a boycott or even provided commentary. I even noted to some that asked down the thread that the upper club level seats were mostly full, and the upper deck also more full than those lower, yet very visible, sections.
There’s a brief lesson here in a trap of anecdote vs data. My pictures (updated a couple of times throughout the game) provided anecdote. I have no idea what the paid attendance was, nor how many of those who paid actually hit the turnstiles. The pictures alone prove nothing.
If I wanted to make the case that a boycott (from the right, left, or both) were successful, then some data would be needed to provide the context. If I were trying to encourage a boycott, then taking pictures from inside the stadium during a game would make me a horrible ambassador for that idea.
The truth is, I am watching fewer televised games than usual. That’s not because of what’s happening on the field, but due to the commentary that is now provided with professional sports. What was once an escape is now just an extension of my day job – all politics, all the time.
As I’ve mentioned before, I go to NFL games primarily because of my sister. She holds the season tickets, and I go mostly to spend time with her (and usually my niece). Boycotting games in person would hurt me more than it’s going to hurt players or owners. I’m also quite safe from the rantings of Bob Costas in our stadium seats.
As I continued to watch comments on social media a familiar pattern emerged. There were charges of “fake news”, arguments breaking out between those commenting, and new editorial content added to pictures the more frequently they were shared. It was like watching a modern day version of the old children’s game “telephone”.
Many of the folks commenting were certain the pictures affirmed what they believed to be true. Some attempted to counter the narrative with facts of their own. Hour by hour, the numbers of opinions multiplied, and the topic itself was muddled. The most interesting part of it all was that in all of the comments I observed, neither the player that started the protests nor his cause were mentioned once.
When I was in 8th grade, two of my friends got into a fight of some sorts. Things escalated. Eventually, almost our entire 8th grade class was on one side or the other. I was friends with both, so I started asking what the fight was about. No one could ever tell me, other than I needed to pick a side.
The fight lasted through the entire school year. The two eventually got over it, are best friends today, and still can’t say what it was actually about. There was an argument, things snowballed, others got involved, and eventually the original issue was buried under other people’s grievances.
Right now, there are a lot of folks using the NFL as their current proxy to air their political grievances. They may eventually move on to something else, and/or they may consume the league in the process. The original issue has been eclipsed. It’s now all about joining a side. Our entire country is bickering like aggrieved middle schoolers.
The Falcons lost the game Sunday. To me, that loss is relatively inconsequential.
Our institutions – public and private – that once united us are now being used to divide us. We don’t even seem to care what the issues are about; we just can’t let the other side win.
That’s not a recipe for winning. This is how America loses. For all of us.
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So just ignore those acting out during the national anthem ?
Nah.
The fans were hoping this would go away week 2 by the players just standing there staring into space as usual. But the owners rushed forward following the money, mistake. And they keep it going.
Actually, it would have been very easy to ignore them. Especially since even during the height of the protests last year, most players weren’t so much as protesting as they were supporting Colin Kaepernick’s right to protest. And that this year, the protests had nearly all died down and gone away until Donald Trump began applying public pressure on NFL owners to fire them, which caused not only some players to circle the wagons, but even some coaches and owners as well.
But here is the deal: even during the height of the protests, less than 10% of football players participated. Most NFL teams did not have a single player to participate and the rest only had 1 or 2. So why not ignore them?
Simple: most people have always resented the money, fame and influence these athletes enjoy. So the backlash is merely an effort to exert control over them. To tell them “you only have your wealth, your fame, your status because we allow it. We gave it to you and we can take it away.” Or in other words “you may be rich and famous but this is still our country and not yours so you will only be tolerated so long as you play by our rules and not offend us.”
It really doesn’t amount to a whole lot more than that. I remember when a lot of these same people tore into Gabby Douglas for not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem and turned it into a major story. Then it came out that a bunch of hockey players and swimmers also didn’t put their hands over their hearts in that same Olympics and previous ones, and that some were even seen slacking off, laughing, clowning around during the anthem. But the folks bashing Douglas wasn’t concerned when it was Michael Phelps or the hockey team’s alleged lack of patriotism because it wasn’t them that they wanted to send a “you may be rich and famous but we are still in control” message to. It was Douglas.
Note that any conversation about this issue – including the alleged concern over players not standing on the field while fans rarely stand in the bleachers and practically never do at home – inevitably returns to discussions over how much money they are making and how pampered they are. That is fine, but no one talks about the wealth and privileges of CEOs and stockbrokers do they? Or of the Silicon Valley crowd. Or of the top directors, actors and producers in Hollywood. Or of rock stars. The money that athletes in baseball, hockey, tennis and golf get rarely comes up either. NFL and NBA players are unique in the athletics and entertainment complex – and among the rich and powerful in general – when we speak of how much money they make and insist that they be obliged to behave a certain way in response. After all, when was the last time we have seen these people demand that a CEO or a baseball pitcher show proper gratitude for “all the great opportunities that this great country has provided them”?
Now I do not agree with Kaepernick and the other protesters. (I find some of Michael Bennett’s statements and actions to be particularly counterproductive, and Castro and Che Guevara fans need to watch “The Killing Fields” “Red Famine” (on Ukraine) and “China Cry” and read “The Black Book of Communism”.) But I find the folks who are making a movement out of being offended at them just as distasteful. Oh that these same people had been just as outraged over – for example – the tendency of certain GOP officeholders to do their level best to avoid military service, and to shield their kids from the same. But then again, there is no reason to try to exert control over GOP officeholders, because no one resents them for having wealth, fame or power. Because unlike those privileged, pampered overpaid ungrateful NFL players, they earned it the old fashioned way by (often) inheriting it right?
You didn’t say it but part of this that also can’t be ignored is the racial aspect. It’s black athletes protesting against injustice to black citizens. Many white folks don’t want their game interrupted by such a thing.
I try to imagine if white athletes protested in the same way against, what?, the war on Christmas? (or something), would people get upset with that? Would Trump be calling them sons of bitches?
Some – including the Washington Post specifically – have tried to draw parallels between Tebow and Kaepernick. It isn’t perfect because Tebow wasn’t protesting and Kaepernick is a much better NFL player on one hand. But on the other hand the protests took place off the field before the game and Tebow’s actions took place on the field during the game, and in contexts where many NFL fans have denounced similar demonstrative behavior from “certain” NFL players (think Deion Sanders’ end zone celebrations) in the past and present. And of course, none of these “keep politics out of sports!” types were “offended” by Tim Tebow’s commercial for Focus on the Family which aired during the football game and was harder to avoid than the player protests.
So the issue really does appear to be the message and who is sending it. The irony … I am far more sympathetic to Tebow’s views than I am Kaepernick’s. (As for Tebow’s ability to drop back in the pocket, read a defense and throw an accurate curl or deep out … let’s say that I would rather have Kaepernick on my roster.) However, a ton of secular/progressive left-liberals – if I may use that term without being offensive – were indeed offended by Tebow’s displays of evangelical religiosity. I wasn’t, but I was offended at how a bunch of people saddled themselves onto Tebow and started using him to promote views and an agenda that Tebow himself did not share. And yes, it is many of these same people who find it oh so hard to ignore Michael Bennett’s kneeling (because Kaepernick is out of the NFL … mostly due to his own unwillingness to be a backup I might add and NOT due to his protests or the resulting boycott).
“Kaepernick is out of the NFL … mostly due to his own unwillingness to be a backup I might add and NOT due to his protests or the resulting boycott)”
You got anything to back that up?
@Benevolous:
Rumors mostly. And the fact that none of the other protesters – including Michael Bennett – have been ejected from the NFL, which is what led Trump to tee off on them in the first place.
As far as I know, Michael Bennett and any others protesting are under contract, whereas CK is a free agent and just hasn’t been re-hired. I don’t think anyone under contract has been “ejected” from the NFL for protesting, so I don’t think you can eliminate his protesting as a reason why he isn’t playing.
@Benevolus and Andrew C. Pope:
This is precisely what irked me during the Tim Tebow and Michael Sam controversies … people who didn’t follow the NFL or were only casual at best fans all of a sudden became experts at its intricacies. For Sam, progressives used the fact that he was the SEC defensive player of the year who didn’t get drafted was proof of bigotry he faced at the hands of the NFL. Never mind that the last two consecutive ACC defensive players of the year – Jeremy Cash and Ben Boulware – also weren’t drafted, and the latter was the defensive captain of a team that played in 2 national title games and won 1 to boot (making him a far more impactful and consequential player to college football than Sam ever was). Instead, Cash, Boulware and Sam all went undrafted for the same reason: they were ‘tweeners, guys who were great at the college level at their position but were too small or slow to play that same position at the NFL. With Tebow conservatives did the same: he won the Heisman and national championship in college so obviously his failures in the NFL was proof of being blackballed! The truth was that Tebow wasn’t even the best QB to win the Heisman and a national title at Florida. Danny Wuerrfel was, and his NFL career was even shorter than Tebow’s. The guy that Wuerrfel competed against while playing for the Gators’, Charlie Ward, was a Heisman and national title winner too and he wasn’t even drafted by the NFL. Maybe the best thing about the Kaepernick nonsense is that it has forced Tebow fans to acknowledge that it is relatively routine for successful college QBs – especially running ones like Tebow – to not enjoy the same level of success in the NFL – for QBs who weren’t even that good in college, such as Brad Johnson, who didn’t even start at Florida State but won a Super Bowl and was a Pro Bowler in the NFL – to be better in the NFL than they were in college because of the differences between the two games.
Well, here we have again. Unlike the NBA, NHL and MLB having a contract means very little in the NFL because they are not fully guaranteed. Only the certain bonuses are guaranteed, which means that after they have been paid an NFL team can release an under-contract player at any time. There is some nuance … sometimes a team will hold onto a player because the salary cap consequences of releasing him are greater than they are holding onto him because of the way that the NFL calculates the guaranteed portion of the contract towards the cap. Granted, Bennett himself recently signed a very large contract with a very big signing bonus and the Seahawks, a title contender with a lot of players under similar contracts and not much cap space left, would find cutting Bennett prohibitive for those reasons. But plenty of other players who protested are not in Bennett’s situation, and indeed others who protested have since changed teams in free agency. No players who protested have received sanctions from the NFL. This is not due to any 1st amendment convictions or dedication to progressive ideals on the part of NFL owners or coaches, mind you. Instead, it is because the NFL does not require players to stand for the anthem and does not prohibit players from protesting. Were NFL teams to take action over this, they would be in violation of their collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA, and the NFLPA would be able to take very costly legal action against them. This is something that President Trump knows, and is also something that the “conservative” outlets like Breitbart, the Gateway Pundit, The Blaze, Fox News etc. with their talk of boycotts and punishing the NFL know also. It is just their sustained temper tantrum over the fact that an environment where people like Bennett and Kaepernick – and in the NBA LeBron James and Steph Curry – are able to become rich and powerful exists in the first place.
As for Kaepernick versus Blaine Gabbert last season, a total canard because Kaepernick was under contract at the time, and his refusing to accept being benched for Gabbert would have meant subordination under the terms of his contract, freeing the 49ers from the responsibility of having to pay him. The whole “Kaepernick is better than Blake Bortles!” idea is also nonsense. How is a team supposed to win a championship by replacing one mediocre player with another? The purpose of the NFL is to win championships, not to be a jobs program for preferred players. This argument is frequently advanced with fans of college players – usually QBs – who can’t accept that the player isn’t as good in the NFL as he was in college. And yes it was often used by Tebow fans … who also wanted Tebow to replace Bortles in Jacksonville, and prior to that wanted Tebow to replace Bortles in Jacksonville. Yes, Kaepernick is better than Bortles, but that isn’t the standard. Good enough to beat Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in the playoffs is the standard. And if you have a guy who is not good enough to beat Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in the playoffs, you don’t go out and get another guy who isn’t good enough to beat Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in the playoffs. You go out and try to get a QB who can. Which means that if Blake Bortles doesn’t get better this season, the Jaguars will replace him with Sam Darnold from USC or Trace McSorley from Penn State (for example) in the NFL draft. But what you absolutely do not want to do is play Colin Kaepernick, who will win more games than Blake Bortles, but not enough to make the playoffs. Why? Because the NFL draft is a wealth redistribution mechanism that rewards the worst teams with the highest picks. And quarterbacks go with the highest picks in the draft. So playing Kaepernick and going 8-8 is not in Jacksonville’s interests because they will pick at #14 or #16 and Sam Darnold and Trace McSorley will be long gone. What they want is to LOSE with Bortles – while superficially “trying” to win – to be in a position to replace Bortles with the best QB that they can in the 2018 draft.
That is what the conservatives who keep squawking “Tim Tebow took the Broncos to the playoffs!” don’t understand: making the playoffs was a disaster for the Broncos that year. Why? Because had the Broncos kept losing, they would have been able to draft Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III in the next year’s draft to go with that absolutely loaded football team. Tebow’s short term success kept Denver from getting a young, long term franchise QB which they still to this day do not have. With the QB position in the NFL, the good actually is the enemy of the great, and that is precisely why Tim Tebow, Colin Kaepernick, Vince Young, Jake Plummer, Kordell Stewart etc. were unable to find sustained employment in the NFL.
So regardless of their political views, both guys would still be in the NFL if they were 65% passers. Cam Newton raised the black power fist after scoring a TD on Sunday, and has generally been regarded as a high maintenance, headache player dating back to high school. He has also spoken out on racial issues in the past. But because he gives that franchise a real shot to win a championship, his roster status is not in jeopardy, despite playing for one of the most vocally Republican and conservative owners in the NFL and in a red state – the one that gave us Jesse Helms no less – to boot.
This is a great subject and one that needs to be expanded upon to have a true impactful meaning in the world. At first I didn’t agree with the kneeling during the anthem and to be honest I still don’t for many reasons, but the world is at attention now on the subject and the thoughts that were trying to be expressed. Now what needs to happen is a movement towards change. A coalition and funding campaign needs to be set-up with the goal of reducing police racial profiling and excessive force/ murder against black men. Fund could be raised by having kneeling moments that can be video posted just like the ACL water bucket challenges and while these funds are being raised so can awareness for the cause come to light on the proper channel. The NFL during the national anthem is not the right platform to bring about change towards a social injustice the needs to end. It will not end this problem, but awareness with the celebrity and the power that NFL players have can make a difference outside the football field.
CFA Security- http://www.cfasecurity.com
No we’re not!
I can’t believe you even said that. You must be part of the establishment fringe trying to divide us by pointing out how ridiculous our imaginary differences are.
Seriously though, I can’t even stand to go to my fave lib sites at times like this (meaning after a tragedy) because so many are so quick to try to attribute political meaning to it. Breaks my heart.
I am a gun owner and I intend to remain one, but I am also in favor of reasonable gun controls. But it has to be pretty consistent throughout the country to be effective.
Exactly how to do it I am not sure, but there are certainly examples elsewhere to learn from.
I think that discussion is fine. It’s all the hysterical speculation about the shooter being “liberal” or “conservative” or “cnn’s to blame” when we have no idea yet what this guy was about that is bothersome. Many seem desperate to reinforce their paradigm with any little shred of circumstantial trivia.
The discourse in this country has been devolving for a long time. The result, not the cause, is the election of a president who appeals to the lowest common denomination in every single situation.
Mrs. Benevolus and I have been talking about this a lot lately.
There has always been a “team” or “tribe” mentality in people, probably goes back to cave man days. But it seems in my lifetime we used to generally be able to keep things in better perspective as far as sports and politics and religion, things like that. In other words, we could agree to disagree. Now, it seems like every issue is presented by someone with a megaphone as a life or death battle.
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(Now this will be controversial but for the sake of discussion I’ll say it anyway.) From my perspective, this really became a stronger thing with the rise of conservative media, particularly Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist- they demonized everything they opposed, feminism, climate change, government itself- and invented enemies when they saw an opportunity- war on Christmas?! Their success however, spurred many imitators and forced their opponents onto the same playing field. (I know, ironic- blaming my political opponents while trying to objectively discuss tribalism. Oh well.)
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There has long been yellow journalism, but we are in a new era of literally thousands of news outlets needing content 24 hours a day every single day, and virtually everyone has access to whatever they want to see to reinforce their however tenuously held predispositions.
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I can’t predict how this all plays out.
Does it keep getting worse until we are actually on the brink of another civil war?
Do we somehow get over this phase and become more “mature” in our discussions?
Is this why we lurch towards fascism- we desperately want a strong leader to end all this stress and strife?
How big a role is latent or overt racism involved in our division? The political parties at least seem to have become pretty starkly differentiated on race at this point.
“From my perspective, this really became a stronger thing with the rise of conservative media, particularly Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist- they demonized everything they opposed, feminism, climate change, government itself- and invented enemies when they saw an opportunity- war on Christmas?!”
Are you totally unaware of how the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CBS News, Hollywood movies and TV shows etc. treats conservatives and their causes? Or do you simply not care?
What causes are you referring to?
“Boycotting games in person would hurt me more than it’s going to hurt players or owners”
So we can safely say you wouldn’t have signed up for the military if a crisis had arisen during your formative years.
Yeah, you won’t reply (or you’ll make some snarky comment about my comment, thus proving the title of this post).
Enjoy your day, Charlie. The world isn’t going to be a better place without some personal sacrifice.
That giant “Woooosh” sound is this entire piece flying over your head. Have a great day.
Just had to let them in on the Woosh…
The act of protesting during the presentation of the flag is a divisive act and is meant to be. The flag represents us, all of us, our nation, what our nation aspires to be, our past, our future, what is good about the USA, and represents the imperative for us to achieve the sentiments in the Declaration of Independence.
When Arthur Blank and crew do anything other than standing with their hands on their heart at any part of the flag presentation ceremonies, they are giving the flag, America, the Declaration of Independence, and all of us a giant in your face F. You!
Blank is despicable man ….. He has demanded that the city and schools in Atlanta receive less sales tax revenue in order to host the Superbowl. His fellow owners have banned expressions of support for the fallen Law Enforcement Officers who were murdered by a Black Lives Matter thug but are now encouraging and participating in the protests to support Black Lives Matter. He tells us his middle finger to our country is “unity”. I’m sure his two ex-wives feel the same about his “unity” just like I do.
I doubt a boycott is going to last long or have any material impact on the NFL or Blank’s wallet. The game is too compelling and to inter-twinned in America life. I wish they’d just play football and not shove their leftist anti-America Kaepernick agenda down our throats.
Go Chiefs!
Well said! You need to post more than once a quarter!
“not shove their leftist anti-America Kaepernick agenda down our throats.”
Ah, they have been a little bit successful then.
Unarmed black men being shot by police are getting some agenda shoved down their throats and just about every black man in America is fearful about it. They want you to not be able to ignore it anymore. It’s something that must be fixed. They want you to share in that uncomfortableness because then you might actually help them do something about it.
Some won’t though, of course. You can ignore this protest so it doesn’t disrupt your weekly quota of watching athletes getting injured, but then there will be another protest, and then another. Will you not want those shoved down your throat either? Wouldn’t you prefer that the problem just go away rather than the reaction to the problem?
“The flag represents us, all of us, our nation, what our nation aspires to be”
I believe that is exactly the point of the kneeling protest. The flag is supposed to represent us all, but many Black people do not feel they are being included in the “all of us”, and there is a lot of evidence to support that claim.
Why do Black people get convicted at higher rates?
Why do Black people get more severe sentences?
These issues have to be dealt with and ignoring them won’t make them go away. We all have to look within ourselves and commit to trying to do better.
“The most interesting part of it all was that in all of the comments I observed, neither the player that started the protests nor his cause were mentioned once. ”
Invoking emotion to change the subject is Trump’s greatest power.