🐱 Will the NFL push back this time?

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/09/08/will-the-nfl-push-back-this-time/

As the NFL prepares to launch its 101st season, the 45th President, his supporters, and his family members will be coming after the league. So will the NFL defend itself, and its players, as the tweets begin on Thursday night, when Texans and Chiefs players (and Texans coach Bill O’Brien) kneel during the national anthem in peaceful protest of systemic racism and police brutality?

Maybe not.


Peter King recently asked Commissioner Roger Goodell about the looming intersection of presidential politics and pro football, saying to Goodell, “You know the president is going to hit you with a two-by-four.”

Said Goodell in response: “With all due respect, I don’t know those things. . . . I guess you know these things. You’re going into hypotheticals, you know, maybe it will, maybe it won’t. I think we said we’re going to support our players. This is a peaceful protest and we’re going to support them if they choose to do that.”

It’s not a hypothetical. It’s happened before, and it will continue to happen. Indeed, it flared up on Monday, when one of the president’s sons declared that “[f]ootball is officially dead — so much for ‘America’s sport.’ Goodbye NFL. . . . I’m gone.” That comment came merely in response to last week’s story that Cowboys players have received a “green light” to protest during the national anthem, without any protests actually happening.

What happens when the protests occur this weekend on a widespread basis? What happens when the President and those who support him see names like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake prominently displayed on rear helmet bumpers? What happens when they see the anti-racism messages printed at the back of each end zone?

What happens if/when the next video emerges of police brutality against an unarmed Black man or woman and NFL players launch an NBA-style wildcat strike?

Maybe the Commissioner is playing his cards close to the vest. Hopefully, he is. The NFL can’t simply wander into this crowded minefield without a plan for handling the inevitable explosions.

Frankly, the plan needs to be to fight back. Supporting the players means more than simply saying, “We support the players.” Supporting the players means standing up to anyone and everyone who will try to bully or attack them.

At a time when some owners are trying to thread the needle regarding support for player protests while also hoping that they choose to stand for the anthem, the more awkward needle to be threaded with a big, fat camel relates to the broader notion of having their players’ backs while simultaneously cramming money into the President’s front pockets. The latest Trump (son) tweet reconfirms that support for players and support for the President cannot be reconciled.

If the NFL once again stands silent in the fact of a torrent of tweets and other attacks, the disconnect will become even more glaring.

 

[KooksandFreaks]

Hey, Mods. None of these folks have the first clue how to play football.

It's a game of catch.

 

[WinchesterPremium]

Hey, Mods. None of these folks have the first clue how to play football.

It's a game of catch.

Catch AIDS more like. Because its gay.

 

[whatever I feel like]

The problem with the NFL isn't just this protest shit.

It's the fact that they've hired so many fat, unfit, large units of farm equipment to stand around and block anyone trying to play the sport, that the sport itself has changed. It's slower than ever and it was always a slow sport.

I don't know what you are watching but its not the "stay three feet away from the receiver at all times" bullshit I am being forced to sit through. Bring back smashmouth football.

 

[XYZpdq]

lol you watched handegg

 

[Thomas Talus]

Remember when people used to cynically say that all anything really boiled down to was money? Now we wish that was the case.

People want power and security, money is a means to those ends but not the only one.

 

[Quijibo69]

Press F for sports

 

[I Love Beef]

So where in society did we fuck up to make the spousal abusing, child abusing, rapist, dog fighting ex cons think we pay them to do anything more that run fast and throw a ball real far. I blame the cuncussion bullshit that came out a few years ago, it tried to humanize the people who would beat the shit out of you and then get their team to either pay you off or cover it up.

When OJ Simpson and the Spurs Posse got off scot free from their respective first degree premediated murder and mass underage b& rape sprees. Keep in mind, California, everyone, where the entirety of the US worships as the ideal living place of the world.

Just watching the fall of Rome, everyone. I honestly don't have much commentary other than that I totally agree with @Dom Cruise on this.

 

[Bumblino]

I still don't get why they'd ruin their own business over wokeness. I just can't fathom throwing away my money for the sake of being "socially aware" or whatever the fuck.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

I still don't get why they'd ruin their own business over wokeness. I just can't fathom throwing away my money for the sake of being "socially aware" or whatever the fuck.

Most of their players and coaches have contracts guaranteeing them X millions for the next year+ so they don't care. Plus they have a players union which they're counting on making sure they keep getting contracts for millions of dollars.

We're going to see the repercussions of this for years, and at least one league will go on strike because revenue has declined and the players aren't getting as many millions anymore.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Sportsball, handegg, traumatic brain injuries. Nothing of value was lost.

 

[HumanHive]

At this point I only care about 4chan autism soccer. It’s completely free and I actually recognize the names of the players.

 

[Unog]

This politicization of team sports just makes no sense to me. What is the end goal? Trump loses? End the police? Then what, you've pissed off a significant percentage of your fanbase and everyone involved will eventually make less money, which is the only reason most of you are even playing.

The point is that progressives infiltrate/pressure and flip shit like that over for propaganda purposes. Same reason progs have infested pretty much every other form of entertainment you can think of - videogames, movies, television shows, whatever.

As far as the people actually running the NFL, it's as others said, the people actually running it are ridiculously out of touch like a lot of these dipshit corporate types and actually think the twitter screechers are the majority opinion.

 

[Wooper]

I saw a few people in the thread say it and I'll repeat it, we don't want to hear your opinions just throw the football!
I have a question though. Let's say the NFL, the NBA, hell I think even the NHL took a day off after waste of life #79 got shot by a cop, all of them stopped with this stupid bullshit and just had players play sports without grandstanding. Viewers have already been snubbed by these organizations and a lot of fans, mainly older viewers aren't going to come back after you said they weren't welcomed. Not only that but these organizations broke the very frail window separating this form of entertainment from reality. While watching a game, in the back of their mind mind viewers will remember these sports organizations/players stupid messages and how they have went out of their way to say the fans are a problem and not welcomed. Now your average viewer won't be as invested in the game as they once were.

 

[Begemot]

The problem with the NFL isn't just this protest shit.

It's the fact that they've hired so many fat, unfit, large units of farm equipment to stand around and block anyone trying to play the sport, that the sport itself has changed. It's slower than ever and it was always a slow sport.
It's the same thing that's happened with Rugby League in Australia. It was an interesting, fast paced sport with feats of amazing athletics once upon a time. Then they started to stock their teams solely with oversized Islanders. Now the sport is boring as fuck.

The problem is two-fold. You stacked your teams with so many dumb, hulking, previously poor idiots, gave them a bunch of cash and told them they were special, introduced IDPOL into the mix and now these pavement apes think the world should stop for them.

They've made their own rod. This has nothing to do with Orange Man and co.

Almost as if there's an sport that encourages fluidity and skill called the AFL, huh, sweetie?

 

[Grandpa Simpson]

Does the NFL even want to make money anymore?

Seemingly not. This is absolutely everywhere. Not just the NFL, or NBA. It's full on propaganda in almost any large audience entertainment.

 

[TowinKarz]

If the NFL wants to support black people; maybe they should pay their black players a couple million more than their usual contracts.

Won't work, the league minimum is plenty to live on and statistics show that no matter how many free seminars and financial advisors are at the ready, 3/4ths of players piss away their money and are broke within 5 years of leaving the league.



More money is not the solution, because the average NFL player is of a high-risk high-reward competitive mindset and has been failed by decades of coddling in high school and college before hitting a pro field that they were special, didn't have to follow rules, and someone else would clean up behind them.

And every attempt to institute some kind of rule and structure for the players is met with howls of "YOU JUS' WANNA BE OUR OWNERS! TELLIN' BLAK FOLK WHUT TO DO!!! SLAVEDRIVER!" or "They're grown up men, you can't treat them like kids" ignoring the fact that mentally, most of them are little better than 12 year olds, because the system already allows you to ascend to the pro level WITHOUT learning basic accountability.

We've all seen a trouble-prone kid in college spared any discipline "Because he's just a kid" and then, the instant he's drafted, shielded from any discipline because "you can't treat a grown man like a child" , ignoring the fact the common thread through all of it was no discipline.

Is it any wonder these guys think they can beat the shit out of their girlfriends or shoot guns off in a nightclub, or rob other people? They've never been accountable before in 30 years, why would THIS be different?

Pro player culture is very, very rotten in a way that just heaping more money on won't fix.

It's why an Aaron Hernandez can be a millionaire on paper, but still thugging it up every weekend, shooting people who "dissed' " him, that's the lifestyle he WANTED and was allowed to cultivate.

Sports dont' have a money problem, they have a lack of ethics problem, inherently because they valued talent over character for 50 years... and as long as the on-field product was entertaining, they got cut a break. But now, they are doing the dumbest thing they can and letting those same grown-up gangsters, thugs and brats LECTURE us on OUR supposed poor morals, and the average person now isn't willing to lean on the old "well, as long as they play the game, it's not my problem" crutch to excuse the fact their favorite player has a history of DUIs, sexual assaults or drugs or whatever....

The last rationalization keeping people from being offended is being foolishly removed..... the pot is now being allowed to call the kettle black.

I don't know what you are watching but its not the "stay three feet away from the receiver at all times" bullshit I am being forced to sit through. Bring back smashmouth football.

Thanks to fears of concussion lawsuit, that will never happen. The NFL will never ever make a rule change that encourages more contact because they can envision a plaintiff's attorney one day saying in court "So, you felt it was okay to let my client get even MORE intentional blows to the head?"

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Totally forgot about him, sorry. Same team though. Since the mid-90s there's something like a single digit number of starting white WRs.

Jordy Nelson
Ricky Proehl
Wayne Cherbet
Danny Amendola
Joe Jurevicious
Brandon Stokely
Eric Decker

Those are just the notable ones. Every year around 4-5 make a starting lineup somewhere during the season. Remember Griff Whalen?

It is not what CB is. Jason Sehorn was the last notable white cornerback. He retired in 2003. Currently there aren't any even in the league.

Won't work, the league minimum is plenty to live on and statistics show that no matter how many free seminars and financial advisors are at the ready, 3/4ths of players piss away their money and are broke within 5 years of leaving the league.



More money is not the solution, because the average NFL player is of a high-risk high-reward competitive mindset and has been failed by decades of coddling in high school and college before hitting a pro field that they were special, didn't have to follow rules, and someone else would clean up behind them.

And every attempt to institute some kind of rule and structure for the players is met with howls of "YOU JUS' WANNA BE OUR OWNERS! TELLIN' BLAK FOLK WHUT TO DO!!! SLAVEDRIVER!" or "They're grown up men, you can't treat them like kids" ignoring the fact that mentally, most of them are little better than 12 year olds, because the system already allows you to ascend to the pro level WITHOUT learning basic accountability.

We've all seen a trouble-prone kid in college spared any discipline "Because he's just a kid" and then, the instant he's drafted, shielded from any discipline because "you can't treat a grown man like a child" , ignoring the fact the common thread through all of it was no discipline.

Is it any wonder these guys think they can beat the shit out of their girlfriends or shoot guns off in a nightclub, or rob other people? They've never been accountable before in 30 years, why would THIS be different?

Pro player culture is very, very rotten in a way that just heaping more money on won't fix.

It's why an Aaron Hernandez can be a millionaire on paper, but still thugging it up every weekend, shooting people who "dissed' " him, that's the lifestyle he WANTED and was allowed to cultivate.

Sports dont' have a money problem, they have a lack of ethics problem, inherently because they valued talent over character for 50 years... and as long as the on-field product was entertaining, they got cut a break. But now, they are doing the dumbest thing they can and letting those same grown-up gangsters, thugs and brats LECTURE us on OUR supposed poor morals, and the average person now isn't willing to lean on the old "well, as long as they play the game, it's not my problem" crutch to excuse the fact their favorite player has a history of DUIs, sexual assaults or drugs or whatever....

The last rationalization keeping people from being offended is being foolishly removed..... the pot is now being allowed to call the kettle black.

"I am not a role model" - Charles Barkley

The players never asked to be put on this pedestal and shouldn't. It's others who are doing it because it helps spread their message.

That's why we have politics invading this shit every four years. Remember Tim Tebow and the big dumb controversy around him?

 

[Meat Target]

It's a shame. Patrick Mahomes is (or at least, was) the opposite of Kapernick: talented, classy, and not an egotistical punk. You could tell from this year's Super Bowl, with all the military-worship and flag-waving, that the NFL knew the kneeling stunt didn't sell (we all know Kap started all the BLM drama because he sucked and needed a way to not get cut from the team).

When I saw a brief vid of Mahomes kowtowing to BLM, I was sorely disappointed. The Ubermuttsch was the only thing remotely likeable about the NFL. Figures he'd choose wealth and fame over principle, especially now that he's the face of the league.

Edit: NFL "pushing back" against those dastardly Deplorables? Lmao. I love how the Establishment is realizing that the Bad Orange Man is supported by roughly half the country, and that getting rid of him will not get rid of them.

 

[Iron Hamster]

So........II guess no one is looking forward to the playing of the blactional anthem?

 

[Bond Burger]

Seemingly not. This is absolutely everywhere. Not just the NFL, or NBA. It's full on propaganda in almost any large audience entertainment.

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Oh boy I almost forgot about the pandering Activision did which was next level.Every loading screen displaying this message including when you boot up the game or enter any match,The icing on top this shit sundae was that they delayed an entire seasonal update which had already been delayed previously and instead pushed out this garbage instantly for some free virtue,Really shows that these companies don't give a toss about their customers.