NFL: Can't You at Least Stand in Honor of the 59 Who Died

I have never been a football fan, but I occasionally enjoy a good game. There is nothing quite like a surprise comeback on the football field. Last year's Superbowl was amazing! The NFL was once the common ground where all Americans came together to celebrate what was good about America. It has taken the role that baseball fulfilled for 100 years. One of the reasons for its ascension has been a multi-faceted, multi-directional game is more easily comprehended on TV, than it is on radio. Whereas baseball is a linear, sequential game; it seems drawn out on TV, but is perfect for radio. So in the Post World War I era the rise of radio lead to baseball becoming the national pastime, following World War 2 with the rise of television football became a great national unifying force for the country with a lot of help from the federal government.

The National Football League is a quasi-government corporation. The NFL is exempt from the anti-trust laws. They carry out their business in publicly-owned venues. They generate $100's of millions of dollars of sales tax revenue through ticket sales, and through sales and corporate taxes paid by those who do business in the hospitality markets associated with their games. Additionally, many areas have assigned additional excise or event taxes on the tickets. The NFL' and other professional sports, has been at the forefront of advancing the civil rights of African Americans as much any activist, politician or preacher. Jesse Owens performance in the face of Adolph Hitler belied his vision of Aryan superiority. Jackie Robinson's breakthrough the color barrier in baseball, Tony Dungee and Lovie Smith both coaching opposing teams in the NFL football post season. Arthur Ashe followed by Venus and Serena Williams opened tennis to African Americans. Tiger Woods for many years was golf's best. Professional sports became perhaps the greatest force for racial and social equality in American culture. Of course, if African Americans could equal or excel whites in sports that took character, teamwork and intelligence to play, it was a public demonstration of racial equality. 

Following World War 2 America became more secularized and our government became more focused on collectivism. Since our government has liberated most of the World many embrace the liberal dream that government could secure the blessing of liberty to those of every race and creed who had fought together to secure them for people around the world. Professional sports became the great liberator where anyone from any class, creed or color could compete and win. It also took the place of religion, as the source of spiritual and moral fulfillment, for some. The justification for the huge budgets spent on Athletic Departments in secondary and higher education was that "sports builds character." Sports were supposed to provide the spiritual recrudescence Gen Douglas Mac Arthur said the world needed to follow World War 2. Participation in contact sports is supposed to shape athletes into all that is true and good. Those at the pinnacle of athletics, the professionals, are expected to be role models. Instead of transforming society professional sports in general and football in particular have become a false religion that has disappointed many. The myth is most clearly exposed in the story of O.J. Simpson.

The young man who rose from the ghetto to become a college and then a professional football star and mediocre actor, Simpson was an icon of the social transformation sports was supposed to produce. When confronted with the issue of civil rights on more than one occasion Simpson said, "I'm not black; I'm not white. I'm O. J." Many people saw his life as the penultimate example of someone who had broken down all the barriers and obstacles life had put in his way. The implied message was that "football" had transformed O.J. into the complete non-racial person, and, of course, their were similar stories in other sports as well. But football, played on the Sabbath at the same time that many people worshiped quickly, became a national religion. Then O.J. was arrested, and the image of both him personally and the football as the national holy grail was forever shattered. O.J. defense was to deny the very image he had built.

O.J. was found responsible for the deaths of his wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman in a civil trial, but not guilty in a criminal court. Only God and O.J. really know what happened that night, but one thing is certain; the tower that American Sports had built to reach God and to be the spiritual guide for the nation became confused. It was the criminal trial that drew public attention. It was the acquittal that tore down the idol football had become. The paragon of sports virtue, the one who represented the triumph of civil rights that football represented made his defense "race." He told the world that their religion was false and that his foibles were the result of an irreparably flawed white culture and (and by implication) an oppressive country. Football had been unable to fix O.J. He had been framed. A white-racist police department had assumed that a black man married to a white woman was evil. A conviction of Simpson would have been a racist version. It would not be allowed to happen. Football would no longer be focused on building character but on using it's influence to provide a way for the oppressed to overcome.

Liberal crusaders set out to reform the sport. If the most popular figure in American athletics was a wife-beater and a murdered, then sports in general and the NFL in particular was failing in it's attempt to shape character and to end racism. It was not only contributing to racism in America, but to misogyny. The game had to change in such away that it became the catalyst for sexual and racial equality.

About the same time the sports began to recognize the market that was present in it's female audience. Since women have entered the field of sports casting, the female influence on sports has been profound. Women who have swallowed the lie, that sports builds character, have realized that celebrating football would make them more attractive to men. Yet the sport appealed to women for a different reason than it did to men. Women were not as attracted to the sheer physical competition and contact of the sport. Men like football because of its aggressiveness. On the football field testosterone can rule. Football gives some men a social acceptable place to act like an animal. Some women enjoy the competition, the bravado of the strategy of the game, while quietly working to  turn football into a more nurturing event. Is it a coincidence that during the same time period that the female audience has grown the physicality and bravado around football in particular and sports in general has emphasizes nurturing environment. Soccer a supposedly less dangerous game has become the sport of choice for most children. Competition has been de-emphasized. In pee-wee football and little league every player now gets a trophy for participation. The sports news is just as often about well a player played; how hard he hits; how far he throws, as it is about the social challenge he overcame, the causes she supports, or some personal challenge they overcame in their quest for the gold. As sports executives sought to appeal to women, they found that some of their player's lives off the field was an affront to their growing audience

The domestic violence revealed in the Simpson marriage lead conclude that the aggressive masculinity played out on the football field made men, brutal, and lead them to treat their families cruelly. How the players lived off the field became more of a professional qualification for playing the game than their performance on the fields. Coaching a foot ball team became as about developing an athletes ability as it did about shaping their conscience. The league executives and owners appointed themselves as the nation's priest. So every personal or relational failure of a player was viewed as a performance issue. Every time a domestic incident was reported in the life of a professional athlete discussion ensued (principally but not exclusively by female fans, sports caster and league officials) about the athlete's unworthiness to play the sport. His action belied the myth that sports made one whole. The goal became the transformation of the sport into a safe, nurturing, encounter rather that a sweaty competitive aggressive battle. Now the play on field was suppose to represent live. It was to be  instructive of the way we interact with each other off the field. Football ceased to be a game and became a national cult. 

A few years later when an Baltimore Ravens Running back Ray Rice was caught on video striking his fiance during an altercation in an elevator the pious pundits of professional football were outraged. The league was determined never to have another O.J., whose personal flaws were made public.  If their personal life could not be "true north" for those who navigated life, then that would make it evident that sports as the moral compass of the nation was broken. Rice was suspended, fined; the incident ended his career even though fans showed little concern. A few days after the event the fiance spoke publicly, admitting that although striking her had been an inappropriate reaction, she had intentionally provoked him to anger. She admitted her own proclivity to push Rice's buttons and took responsibility for her part in the conflicts. The events had made the couple realize how much they truly valued their relationship, and the unique difficulties that public life put on marriage. They were committed to doing the hard work to make their relationship work and were getting help. She begged the league and the public's forgiveness of both she and Rice, admitting what the video had failed to show: that she, too, had struck him. What more did the NFL have to do with it at that point? Why wasn't that enough. Rice was drummed out of the league, which continued to set itself up as the defender of virtue and the sanctimonious national morals police. Some people as recently as last Sunday insist that a statue of Rice, outside the Raven's stadium, be torn down. Who appointed the NFL as an arbiter of morality? What makes a football player a moral example for our children?

When a player inappropriately disciplined his child the league intervened. When  a player made a demeaning remark to another player and his feelings were hurt the league intervened. They ceased being the players employers and became their parents and their priests. Instead of a contract to play ball professional sports has become a social contract where football players are now the purveyors and prognosticators  of how everyone should live. When a basketball owner engaged in a lover's quarrel referred to his girl friend in a demeaning racial slur that was out of character for him his fellow owners made him sell the team. The sanctimony is especially strong in football, while baseball players and purveyors of other sports are as flawed as anybody, and at time the league has to discipline a player. Seldom does it destroy the players life and career. Barry Bonds despite his domestic issues is now coaching in the Major League. Aroldis Chapman was suspended and eventually released as a relief pitcher for the Yankees due to the embarrassment his domestic issues brought to the team. As he sorted through his issues and began to overcome his problems the Cubs picked him up and he became the winning relief pitcher in the amazing Cubs world series. To expect sports players to live as paragons of virtues to "a moral example" to our children is ridiculous. 

Our newspapers and televisions are rife with stories of human frailty. A beloved politician known for her integrity gets caught in a scandal.  Can someone explain to me why we celebrate the peccadilloes of the entertainment world; why do we overlook their faults and even legitimatize them when we watch their shows and movie, but have different standard for athletes. When a player's flaws become public and she overcomes them she can be an example of hope and recovery for people who's live are off track. Sports can display how the discipline and determination of athletic competition can give one the skills needed to recover from his own failures. Spectators are in an arena to celebrate athletic prowess. What a players does off the field is not the leagues responsibility to comment on or manage, period. As long as the player's actions do not hurt the game (which includes diminishing it's audience), then the actions are none of the leagues business. Sports icons are not the moral guardian of culture. The problem with moral pronouncement is they eventually become social statements which inevitably morph into political prognostications and protests. This is exactly how the NFL has gone from being an entertainment industry to being a political and social movement.

Sports used to be a venue where anyone could raise themselves out of poverty and injustice and celebrate the opportunities American had bestowed on the player. Today the players have chosen to wage dissembling protest that destroy their credibility with the American people. Sports in general and the NFL in particular has been a venue where minorities could overcome obstacle solely on their individual ability. The poor young Puerto Rican, Albert Pujols walked on to his junior college team and by shear determination became a baseball icon whom some would say is the best man ever to play the game. Professional sports in general and the NFL in particular has demonstrated the equality of the races and that the content of a person's character and the development of their abilities gives anyone in this country the ability to excel. And for that reason the flag and the national anthem has been the rallying point and the unifying theme of American sports.

Due to the huge television audience professional football has drawn in recent years political and social movements on all side of the political spectrum began purchasing adds during NFL games. Pro-life groups bought time to oppose abortion during the Superbowl. Last year's Superbowl adds were almost all championed some flaw or fault of American life. Half time shows have sometimes turned into social or political statements. Last years Superbowl advertising was almost entirely designed to make white conservative Americans males pariah's. The NFL, has become the pious demagogues of a liberal social agenda? 

The sports which at one time the jewel that stood for what was good in America, became a model that anyone could raise themselves out of poverty and injustice and celebrate the opportunities America offered. But since last suffer the NFL has chosen to re brand itself through dissembling protest that destroys their credibility with the public. Prior to Colin Kapernik's decision to publicly diminish the national anthem the National Football League protected the brand, and has never been concerned with player's First Amendment rights. When a Miami dolphins player made a machismo slur about another player a few years back he was fined and demeaned for being mean. A player that wanted to remember 911 was denied the opportunity to do so. When the Dallas Cowboys sought to honor 6 Cops slain in the line of duty the league censored them. Use the preliminaries of a football game as a locale for a protest of injustice seems ingenuousness when the National Football league has never allowed the game to be politicized.

We all know this began with Colin Kapernik's attempt to draw attention to himself after his 15 minutes of fame waned. He chose to demean the country, it's flag and it's principles. He appointed himself, as did those who followed in his path' as the righteous sages of our culture. At the time of his protest he and others argued that a reference to slave in galley of a war ship in the third verse of the Star Spangled Banner (by the way whoever gave serious thought to the third verse before he brought it up) was a racist tribute to a racist nation.  While Francis Scott Key, who is no longer around to give insight to his meaning, was a slave owner, some scholars draw another  interpretation that is more consistent with the ballad. The lyrics of the anthem is a ballad recounting the United States naval victory at the Battle of Fort McHenry in the port of Baltimore. Kapernik and those who claim the third verse is a defense of slavery completely show their complete ignorance of the issues surrounding the War of 1812. They interpret the song in it's modern context rather than its historical one.

The War of 1812 began because Britain, having refused to recognize the U.S independence, partly due to slavery,  authorized it's navy to capture any US vessel commandeer it, seize its crew, putting them in service to the queen. So did Key, himself a slave owner right these words to extol the virtues of the slave trade which would continue in the US if they won. Or were those words meant to remind people of the tyranny they had suffered under British rule, now demonstrated by the slaves now held  in the hull of the British ships? You decide, but the latter is more consistent with the theme of the song. It is an anthem to the small insignificant colony that overthrew the British tyrant, and a declaration that this country is "the land" of those who have the freedom to be what they can be and are "brave" enough to fight the battle for what is right. Far from celebrating America's flaws it declares that Americas strength is the character of her people.

It is the American ideal, still unrealized for many, who are the theme of the anthem, and whom those who would protest it are treating as pariah's . It is a sad day for the NFL and a sad day for America when a group of privileged sanctimonious players whose country has given them the grandest of opportunity disparages the vary system that has made it possible. There are many things we need to protest in America. Many African Americans have legitimate complaints, and there are scars in  our history. The anthem celebrates "the struggle that always defined this nations life," we are country that has never provided freedom to everyone, but we are country that has sought to open the door and light the path of liberty to everyone. The Star Spangled Banner asks a question these players should consider: "Oh, say, does that star Spangle Banner yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave?" They anthem honors those who have found the promise and those who are striving to achieve it 

When Africans sought to use South Africa's rugby team to promote civil rights Nelson Mandela warned that such a protest would be counter productive. This nation has given these NFL football players 1/10th of 1% of the wealth and privilege in America. The league is 70% African American. They play their sport before an audience of 70% white people most of whom will never have the privileges and opportunities these young men have, and who give them unlimited support and unqualified respect. The problem with the protest is it's the wrong audience, at the wrong time in the wrong way. The protest seems to declare that this nation is duplicitous and those who died for it, died in vain. It come across, whether intended or not to, answer the question in the negative and to declare that the country is flawed. Yet those fans who bought tickets or watch the games on a device at home, or those millions of tax payers who have subsidized the business, or the donors who have provided the scholarships that have given minority players their ladder out of poverty would see their actions as oppressive. Unless these players, owners and league executives realize the wrong headed nature of this protest it will not have a unifying affect but will continue to divide the country along the lines of those who affirm the anthems message and those who disavow it. 

Last Sunday  was a sad day for America and a sad day for the NFL. On a day when 59 American of every race, religion, sex, and political orientation died exercising their liberty, some in the NFL sought to demean it. Come on guys after these people lost their lives exercising their freedom is it unreasonable for you to take a moment and honor yours. If the league continues to allow this then the league will be continue to be perceived as anti-American. As for me I am going to go watch the National League Wild Card game.