No, I have not abandoned my idea of posting a Part 2 of "The Three Kinds Of Communists (Or, A Democrat Is A Socialist Is A Communist"). This is just a brief interlude -- a calm before the storm.
While this National Football League (NFL) protesting subject is hot, I figured I might as well strike, too.
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It was 1972 when I fell in love with football. We were at my Uncle's house to celebrate a holiday (Thanksgiving or possibly Christmas), and I overheard my Pa and his Brother discussing some football team that no one could beat. That, of course, appealed to my 12-year-old male mind. And that started my love affair with the MIAMI DOLPHINS. (The '72 Dolphins are still the only professional football team to ever complete an undefeated season).
Before long, I was eating, drinking, and dreaming Dolphin football, and writing my favorite player's number on almost everything I owned. #39: Larry Csonka. Csonka and fellow running back Jim Kiick were nicknamed "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid", and Csonka ran just like his name sounded [link]: ZONK!
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As far as I know, Larry Csonka is the only athlete to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine flipping "the bird" to the camera. Yep. Not kidding. Momentarily scroll back up to that photo at the top of this blog bit and take a closer look at Csonka's right hand. Yes, he did it deliberately, and Sports Illustrated didn't catch it until after that issue had been released to the public. Ha!
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I loved fullback Larry Csonka because he ran the football like a real man -- it was like seeing Rooster Cogburn or Pike Bishop in a football uniform.
Here's my all-time favorite quote about my boyhood football idol:
"Throughout his career, Csonka played fullback like a horse ploughs a field: doggedly, with a high pain threshold and with great determination."
If you need proof, here it is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvRQ0QKUMk
The first pro football game I ever attended was a preseason game that my Pa took me to. It was at the Los Angeles Coliseum ('73, I think - or perhaps '74). I got to see "The Zonk" run in person, and it was a memorable bonding event with my Pa (even though the L.A. Lambs actually won that preseason game.)
My interest in sports (primarily Baseball and Football) waned years ago due to the rampant use of steroids and human growth hormones totally skewing everything about natural athletic competition. For many years now, I've only watched the really big sporting events, and very often, not even those. (I'd rather read some great nonfiction while drinking a cold Mojito than watch ESPN.)
But now, I am 100% done watching football forever -- including the Super Bowls. I'm sure you're not living under a rock and have heard about the "National Anthem Protests" that started last year (in 'Crisco, California) and have since become headline news. Professional football is now hemorrhaging and in the process of dying because the SJW players and the idiotic Commissioner and owners underestimated the patriotic fervor of the average American football fan.
Tom Brady, you can stick a fork in your already deflated football. The end is near!
As is almost always the case, the brilliant thinker and writer Selwyn Duke has accurately analyzed this NFL public relations disaster and explained it succinctly in the following, brief articles.
In this first article, Selwyn Duke wrote:
"The football players are protesting at work, on their employers’ dime and time, something no one has a right to do (lamentably, NFL owners are now enabling this unpatriotic behavior)."
This is a point that so many people who are shouting out that the football players have First Amendment rights to do what they're doing are completely missing.
When you are "on the job" and representing the company that has employed you, you are required to follow their code of conduct or risk being fired.
As a personal example, the sort of work that I do requires me to wear a uniform which includes the company's logo in various places. I absolutely abhor abortion and it is my First Amendment right to express my thoughts and feelings about abortion on my own time. But if I want to wear a pin on my uniform shirt that states "Planned Parenthood Murders Babies", my company has a right to fire me if their rules stipulate that personal political stances are not permitted to be expressed on their company uniform.
Here's the great Selwyn Duke:
WHILE NFL KNEELS, COP INVESTIGATED FOR CALLING BLM "TERRORISTS"
In this second article, Selwyn Duke quotes the NFL's own printed rules which specifically deny the players the right to do what they've been doing (i.e., kneeling, locking arms, or refusing to appear on the field during the playing of The National Anthem).
In fact, Dr. Eowyn of the blog Fellowship Of The Minds has also made this same point HERE:
Here are the NFL’s rules governing the National Anthem, found on pages A62-63 of the NFL Game Operations Manual (Time):
The NFL Commissioner and NFL team owners have been permitting the players to break the League's own rules. Therefore, the Commissioner and the owners are also to blame for this incredibly widespread public backlash. (Many fans are burning jerseys, team banners, and season tickets and vowing never to watch NFL games again.)“The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
This whole National Anthem protest began over the accusation that Blacks were being specifically targeted and shot by cops. In this next article, Selwyn Duke addresses that subject as well, with inconvenient facts and statistics:
NFL NOT PROTESTING TRUMP, THEY'RE PROTESTING AMERICA
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In an American Thinker article by William Sullivan, he observed...
The ... "free speech" argument touted by defenders of the NFL and the protesters fails on another front, beyond the immediate substance of the First Amendment. That is, the NFL is quite comfortable censoring free speech, though it's unmistakable that the speech they choose to prohibit runs afoul of a leftist ideological impulse. In 2016, the NFL threatened to fine teams who decorated their cleats with a "Never Forget" logo commemorating the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. They prohibited the Cowboys from wearing helmet decals honoring the five police officers killed by a Black Lives Matter advocate.
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In a different American Thinker website article, I felt the following commenter made an excellent point:
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...and I have always worn it on Christmas days, since it was around Christmastime in 1972 when I first became a MIAMI DOLPHINS fan. Well, last night, I scissored that shirt into about 4 rags that I can now use to wipe up the slop I make in my kitchen and bathroom.
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Me? NFL football? Done.
For all I care, you can stick a fork in your pigskin and your neck, Cheatriot Tom.
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Al Bondigas here. Great video!!! Those were the days man. I remember you had 39 written on everything. All the footballs had 39 on them, every T-shirt you owned. I loved the phins too back then but also the skins. When they played against each other in The Super Bowl, I rooted for the Redskins. Can’t remember why though. Maybe because I was a Larry Brown fan. Well, I’m done with the NFL too. Didn’t miss it at all last week. Didn’t even know the results of the Dallas vs. Az Monday night game until yesterday (Friday). Talk about killing the goose huh? Are these people really that stupid? Anyway, rulin’ fer boycott. That’s it!! That’s my rulin’.
ReplyDeleteJUDGE AL ~
DeleteYour rulin's are always spot-on declarations of judgment and good law. But this one is especially timely and righteous.
"BOYCOTT!"... now and forever. Adios, NFL (which stands for Now Fully Libtarded).
You know what? I STILL don't know who won that MNF game between the Cowgirls and the Dodo Birds.
Yep, I remember you being a Larry Brown fan. And those were indeeed "the days". I miss them. The family all together living in the paradise of "Dogtown". All the baseball games and timeless Summers.
Muh Bruhthuh, I suspect Heaven is going to be a lot like going back to 1974 and getting to relive it.
See ya there! You bring the Abba-Zaba and I'll bring the RC Cola.
~ Stephen
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
Yes, it is all very sad. At least for me.
ReplyDeleteI have been continually and extremely interested in football for decades. It was the release... the outlet from politics and the normal stresses of ACTUAL life.
Last week was the first week I've not watched professional football in a decade. I have no plans to watch again, and cannot envision how this will change. These stupid nitwits have killed their sport. They have spoiled everything. I have actually spent good money every years on merchandise and that is done. While I'm not at the point that I'm gonna cut up my Wilson jersey (yes, I bought one a couple of years ago), I'm buying any more stuff nor watching.
My football day is now SATURDAY. I've never been into college ball, but I'm starting. I watched a great game last night with Wazzu beating the SoCal Condoms.
And I STILL don't know the outcome of the Dallas/AZ game. I didn't know they played.
Boy, do I hate those low-info protesters!!!
If they were kneeling in protest (after gaining approval from their bosses to do so at work) at some ACTUAL and REAL action of the government... it would not be so objectionable. If, say, they said "I am kneeling in protest at the illegal snooping into affairs of US citizens, as revealed by Snowden on May 12th, 2015..." Well, ok. at least that is something the government ACTUALLY did. But these nincompoops truly believe the narrative of BLM, et al, such as "hands up"-"don't shoot!" I am no fan of cops, but almost all of the incidents Colin Crapernick was protesting were justifiable shootings.
And I don't want any politics at all in my sports. Screw 'em!!!!!!!! I'm out.
SIXGUN McITCHYFINGER ~
DeleteYou are so correct in every point!
For sure the NFL is now in panicked Damage Control mode, but I still don't think they even realize just yet how completely they slit their throat -- or have killed the goose that laid their golden eggs (as Nappy referenced above).
All week long I was all over the websites and reading extensively in the comment sections and to say that many NFL fans are pissed and leaving is a huge understatement!
I was seeing fifth generation Steelers fans (now called "The Kneelers"), Raiders and Cowboy fans burning championship banners and taking razor blades to car window decals. This anti-NFL backlash is "YUGE!"
You and 6-B are the biggest football fans among my friends and BOTH OF YOUZ GUYZ are out now. And believe me, you are not alone! From what I was seeing on the Internet all week, I think there are MILLIONS and MILLIONS of former football fans who are now dropping out. I don't think the NFL is even going to realize just how bad the damage is until TODAY is over. I think last week was just the start of the backlash -- the snowball starting its roll down the mountainside.
One would think that the NFL would have learned from seeing how ESPN was dropping like a stone in a river after it got all political, but... NO!!! The brain-dead mastodons in the NFL were incapable of learning from anyone else's obvious mistakes.
I was very sorry to see that Russell Wilson did not break from team protocol and do what was right (i.e., take the field during the playing of the National Anthem, and stand at attention). It was you, a few years ago, who really made me aware of Wilson, and I did come to like him. I thought he was a good, classy, "stand-up" guy (pun intended). And I'm sure it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to "stand" alone when your entire team chooses to hide out of sight. But I thought Russell Wilson was the sort of guy who did have that much intestinal fortitude and the necessary moral compass. But, alas, he is not quite the "leader" I'd come to think he was. Oh, well. He had a lot of boneheaded company when the NFL shot itself in both feet last weekend.
Brother, you'll find better things to do with your Sundays, I'm sure. Heck, I haven't really paid much attention to football for years, and I'm still standing. (Except for when I've drunken myself under a table. I'll toast your honor with my next Mojito, Sixgunboy!)
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
It wasn't just Sundays. It was Sunday evenings, Monday evenings, and Thursday evenings also. Plus, I recorded a couple of ESPN football shows each day and watched at least part of them daily, such as during lunch. I watched Showtime/CBS Inside the NFL too.
DeleteAnd when I would drive anywhere, 90% of the time the radio would be on sports talk.
So I'm gonna have to find something else to do with a LOTTA my time. Of course, most of it was spent multitasking with meals, driving, email writing, etc., but still… Maybe I should take up drinking like you!! I could spend all the extra time exploring the universe of booze, and I'd have the money available from not buying NFL merchandise.
Like you, my estimation of Russell Wilson has dropped. He was already on the downswing having done a few things I think stupid over the last couple of years. And now this. Disappointing.
I will say, though, that this issue would be very hard to navigate for a football player with a conscience. When 70% of the league is black, and apparently most of them believe the BLM commie narrative, you could piss off three quarters of the team just by not participating. Let alone that the teams seem to have this group-think, all-for-one mentality. To buck that - even though you knew you were standing up for your beliefs - would take a remarkable person.
Even Peter - so steadfast that Christ said: "... thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church" - denied knowing Christ three times in one night. Peter knew darned well the importance of what he was denying. A player or owner might know very well that he was being dishonest by going along with this kneeling crap, but still might not see a way to avoid it without blowing up his life. And these chumps are not “Peter quality” by a long shot. So I guess them chickening out is not that surprising.
Still, I know you or I would blow everything up anyway and stand for the anthem! Maybe not so much because of our “high quality.” Maybe because we are troublemakers!
It is ironic: one of the more admirable characters in all this is Ben Rothlisberger. I have friends that still refer to him as "the rapist." After the Pittsburgh Kneelers stayed in the locker for the anthem and the one lineman came out and held his hand to his heart, Rothlisberger said he really regretted not being out there for the anthem.
They will get me back when they stop this crap, they admit they made a mistake, and they apologize. In other words: never.
Hokey-Smoke, SIXGUNBOY, you really WERE invested in the NFL (Now Fully Libtarded), weren't you? I didn't know it occupied THAT much of your time and attention.
DeleteYeah, by all means, take up boozing. Sitting at a bar yakking with others is a good way to sop up that extra time. (Of course, you won't be yakking football with the guys. But there's always politics! :o)
Your remarks pertaining to NFL players and Saint Peter were insightful. Off the top of my head, I think the ONE (former) NFL player we probably could have counted on to buck the brainwashing and stand respectfully would have been Kurt Warner.
When you get a chance, take a look at this post:
http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=84601
I'd never heard of this website before this morning. Somehow I just surfed my way to it and started looking at some of their other posts as well. Pretty interesting, so far. (They even made mention of some big games being fixed which, as you'll recall, I became highly suspicious of a couple years ago.)
This may be a website worth checking out more thoroughly.
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
I just came in from the fields. Ha...but the truth
ReplyDeleteI'll have to read up on your other posts that I missed becuse I'm a junkie for political posts.
This one....good post. All the facts that I know. Not that I even give two hoots about sports (in spite of the fact that my husband owned a ball club) I do care and read about politics and I'm embarrassed that big overpaid dopey lunkheads are setting a pathetic example for young kids who worship them.
I am more patriotic than July 4 and apple pie. I remember how we waited and followed (when we could) my father's navy experience through the full 4 years of WW2, him, having ship after ship blown out from under him. We went to the movies often, mostly to see the news, "The eyes and ears of the world."
Everyone cheered and stood up when the flag appeared on the movie screen. My Mother and I always cried. We had just come through the greatest depression, ever, scratching in the old potatoes fields for a gold nugget of a potato. Then all the guys went off to fight for our country and our small town had hardly a male left and the only ones walking down the street were in uniform.
And now these jerks, using our anthem, our flag for their aggrevience, shame on them. Go out and carry signs, carry bb bats and smash things like other protesters do BUt leave my flag out of it. My generation paid dearly for that flag. The world sees Trump all wrong. Even though he's rich, my gut tells me he has true love for this country and for all the people who fight for it.
I gotta run. Winter is fast approaching and I still have
bounty to bring inside.
Thanks Stephen
Howdy, BELVA! Happy to see you here again, my friend!
DeleteYou are my only reader who "comes in from the fields" where you've been harvesting "bounty". I love it! You're like my Thoreau. (And I loves me some Thoreau!)
Did you see that some Pop Warner and/or Pee-Wee football league coaches were having their little kids kneeling during the National Anthem?! In other words, not only are the NFL jerks and lunkheads setting a bad example for the kids, but some dopey dads are even forcing them to EMULATE the stupid pro players!
Wow! Sounds like your Dad should have written a book! Scary stuffs he survived, thank God!
Actually, sounds like YOU should write a book, too! I'd be the first to buy and read it.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, and for the kind words. If you like political blogs, well, this one is always going off on someone or something. Ha! (I like to keep my blood pressure and my dander up. Ha!)
Stop by any time, BELVA! The door is always open here and I'll leave the light on for ya!
[:^)}
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents 'Battle Of The Bands'
I've never been a football fan though not for lack of trying. In all honesty I never tried to like football that much. My father took me to see a Charger's game in San Diego back in 1962 or so. I've had some strange dreams about that experience over the years, but I couldn't tell you anything about the game that I watched. In my 66 years of life I don't guess I've watched more than five football games in their entirety and those I don't think I paid much attention to and didn't get what was going on. Several years ago my mother tried to explain to me how the game worked, but even her explanation didn't help much. I've apparently got some kind of resistance to football which is kind of justified under the present circumstances.
ReplyDeleteLast night I heard some black sports spokesman explain that the players were not disrespecting the flag but praying. Yeah, praying--I find that a hard one to swallow. They should be praying and praying that they are so fortunate to live in our country and be able to be making a fortune playing a silly game.
I totally believe that the current display of kneeling for the anthem has turned into an anti-Trump protest as have all of the other displays against U.S. history and the tradition that goes along with it. Everything anymore seems to come down to anti-Trumpism and racism. It's beyond absurd--it's becoming dangerous.
I've got a BOTB post up today and so far it looks like I'm the only one. Depending on the response for this Battle, I'll have to decide whether I'm going to keep doing 2 per month or go to just the one on the 15th. I'm pretty apathetic about a lot of things these days.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
LEE, I chuckled a little when I read the bit about your Mom trying to explain football to you.
DeleteBut then again, my Ma was a huge sports fan and knew more about baseball than the majority of guys, and was fully knowledgeable about football, too. So, yep, some women really do get it and love it.
For sure, no one can really learn to love a game until they understand the goals and the rules. (In his earliest years, Andy Griffith used to do a comedy skit called "What It Was Was Football", in which he described the game from the viewpoint of a person who didn't understand it at all.)
I'm not much of a sports fan anymore, for a variety of reasons. And I have no intention of watching football again... ever.
I'm glad you gave me a heads up about your BOTB. Honestly, after I dropped off my rent, I didn't think about it being the 1st again until you mentioned your BOTB installment.
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...
I saw what you said to Sixgun above, and it's true, so to anyone reading this, let me paint a picture.
ReplyDeleteI've been a Broncos fan since I was a little kid. The Broncos were all we watched in my household. And let me tell you, we were no bandwagoners. We were watching all the way back when John Elway was but a horse faced rookie throwing pick after pick and we were wondering why the hell we kept him around.
I've been a fan long enough to remember when this joke aired, live, and my whole family laughed at it, because well, it was true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpOY4u8hL_E
Denver won its first Superbowl in 1998 (I was in middle school). It was such a big deal, that when we went to the AFC Championship game (vs the Steelers) our entire class spent a whole day making a giant poster in support of the team. Back then, the Steelers' big rusher was Jerome Bettis, aka The Bus, who steamrolled through opponents. We made a giant cardboard bus, put on all kinds of busted up features, and had Broncos riding it comically. The caption: BEAT THE WHEELS OFF THE BUS. We hung that sucker up on the front door of our school, and it stayed up there even through the Super Bowl.
That was Super Bowl 32, and anyone who knows me knows that 32 is my lucky number. It's come up in other instances, but this was its first significance for me.
I don't believe, even since back in the 80s when I was a kid who didn't even know what was really going on (and always yelled 'sack him, sack him!', not fully understanding what a sack was) that I've ever missed watching a game, during good times and in bad.
So, with that said, let's fast forward to this year. I just put up a post about football, in which spoiler alert, we are not watching. And I actually had to Google to see who Denver was playing, because I genuinely had no idea. I also had no idea what our record was. Oh. We're 3-1. That's pretty good, I guess.
I haven't seen a single regular season game this year, and have no desire to. And ultimately, that's what this is all about. NFL numbers are plummeting, and it's not just fairweather fans that are leaving, it's guys like me that used to live and breathe football. Who have football in some of their fondest memories. The real fans.
And the irony, of course, is that these players are all virtue signaling for a cause that doesn't even affect them... but it soon will. These are all one percenters, but if the NFL loses money hand over fist, then they won't be one percenters for long, will they?
~6-B
JULIO SEIS-ABEJA ~
DeleteI was not aware that you had such a long personal history with the Broncos. I don't know why, but I thought your interest was a more newish thing.
"WRONG!"
Well, the world around us is changing drastically, ain't it?
When I think of how big a baseball and football fan I was years ago, it's like I'm a different person now. (Well, I am. All those cells have died and been replaced since then.)
Steroids and HGH really ruined baseball for me, but I will ALWAYS cherish that '88 season. At that time, only Jose Canseco and maybe a few other players (none of them Dodgers) were doping.
And football... well, back in the golden era, I had my boyhood heroes, the Dolphins. And then later I became a Los Angeles Raiders fan, and I will always remember fondly that Super Bowl against the Redskins, which the boys and I watched at Bay Street. You can try to imagine how loud that place was that day. When Marcus Allen reversed direction and ran for a touchdown, I think the roof on the Bay Street house lifted up about three feet during our cheering!
Sports were great, and there were so many really neat life lessons that one could find in them. Like [Link> JIM RYUN FINISHING THAT RACE AFTER FALLING DOWN. That inspired my determination in many ways for many years!
Sadly, now sports are just one more spoke in the Culture War wheel. Everything is in the process of decaying, and sports are no exception.
Oh, well. We'll always have Paris. (And Kirk Gibson, Marcus Allen, and Jim Ryun.)
~ D-FensDogG
Stephen T. McCarthy Reviews...