You can count me as one who does not and never did have an interest in
football. I have watched some boxing matches on television in the
distant past and I did find them more interesting than football, but not
by much. Football, baseball and other ball games, though, are less
interesting than watching grass grow. And yet people have always asked
me who I favor in some football game or other and when I tell them that
I don't care and am not even aware of the names of the teams playing
they are incredulous.
On 8/12/2017 7:08 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
My father was a very friendly man. Wherever we were, he found people to talk with. He worked in a factory
that produced women's hats in midtown Manhattan and he knew all sorts of people from the area where the
factory was located, other workers, politicians, gangsters, lots of folks. One day I was riding with him on a
subway train when I was about eight years old. HE saw a man on the train whom he knew, and he began talking
with him. I was really frightened of this man. He talked in a funny way. His movements were jerky and
strange. He could barely stand or walk. In other words, he just plain scared me. After my father and I left
the train, I asked, "Daddy, what is the matter with that man? Why does he talk so funny and look so
funny?" "Oh", my father answered, "He's just punch drunk from doing so much boxing, but
he's really a nice man". That was how I learned that all those boxing matches I saw in newsreels and
heard about on the radio, actually damaged people. I learned about how football players were hurt from
reading articles on the web in the pasts 11 years. Every man I've ever known, listened to or watched football
games.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2017 6:36 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: For the football fans on this list
When we had our first TV, back in 1950, the Friday night fights drew huge
viewing audiences. Including me. Gillette sold a lot of razor blades and
shaving cream. I knew that boxing was pure and simple violence, but I was
drawn to it like the moth to the flame. It took forced effort by myself to
break away from watching two men beat up on one another. And here I am again.
Football(American style) is dangerous beyond the limits of the risks taken in
most other sports.
Sure, you might be hit by a fast ball while standing at home plate, or a broken
bat could do some serious damage, you could slam into another basketball player
and break a leg. We watched a tennis player...I think she was at the French
Open, suddenly fall down in great pain.
Just running across the court she had torn loose her knee cap. But such things
happen to any of us going about our daily life. Football is now the only major
sport where the objective is to get the person holding the ball, not the ball
itself. And since most of those men holding the ball do not want to let it go,
and besides that they weigh as much as a young heifer, getting that ball away
from their grasp is no easy task. So how long will it be until I stop tuning
in?
Probably, since I'm cheap, it will happen the day that they tell me I'll have
to pay in order to watch the Sea Hawks play. I've never been to a live Sea
Hawks game. Once I won two tickets, back when they still played in the King
Dome. I gave them to my son and nephew.
I've never seen the Seattle Mariners play a live home game. We used to go to
Arizona and take in a few Spring training games. I don't even try to explain
what gymnastics my brain goes through, justifying watching something that I am
actually opposed to. I think I like the competitiveness of it...or something...
Carl Jarvis
On 8/12/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But the article raises another question in my head. When are all the
good hearted American people going to stop watching a sport which is
the cause of such devastating injury to the brains of young men? Is
the answer the same as to the question, When will people stop supporting
warfare?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2017 3:18 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: For the football fans on this list
When Donald Trump is finally nothing more than a chapter in the
History of the United States, and has been relegated to the place of
America's most outrageous president, Kaepernick will be a footnote
nestled among the chapter entitled, "Bravest and Most Fearless
Americans". Frankly, after a long lifetime of traveling among Trump
Clones, I would far prefer the company of those courageous heroes.
They are the "beautiful people".
Carl Jarvis
On 8/12/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Electronic Intifada
Colin Kaepernick pays price of standing up for justice
Michael F. Brown Activism and BDS Beat 11 August 2017
Outspoken quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been bypassed by inferior
players in Trump's America.
(Jasen Vinlove / USA TODAY Sports)
All-Pro Seattle Seahawk cornerback Richard Sherman is right. National
Football League (NFL) owners are telling Colin Kaepernick, "Boy, stay
in your place."
Kaepernick is the outspoken backer of the Black Lives Matter movement
who sat and then knelt during the national anthem last year and
cannot find a job for the 2017 season.
And the term "boy," used by white segregationists in the American
South to denigrate and belittle Black men, is no overstatement.
Team owners oversee a violent league with intense play that
frequently inflicts life-long brain injuries on players.
NFL players, nearly 70 percent of them African American, are used by
team owners and then discarded like unwanted property - often with
broken bodies and minds - after less than three years on average.
Reluctantly, the league has agreed to a $1 billion settlement that
could pay off the most injured players with as much as $5 million for
a tortured deterioration into dementia and suicidal depression.
Similarly, returning US troops face inadequate and inappropriate
treatment for depression, suicide risk and post-traumatic stress
disorder, but white fans who roar that Kaepernick is disrespecting
the troops appear to have far less to say about the wars and their
consequences for US military forces, let alone for civilians in the
invaded countries.
No doubt players and fans love the game, but questions are fast
emerging in the minds of both about the wisdom of involvement in the
sport and the morals of cheering as minds and bodies are destroyed.
The treatment of Kaepernick is apt to concentrate the minds of more
players on the relative risks and rewards of football and how willing
owners are to abuse players' bodies while discounting the substance
of their views.
A year ago, Kaepernick, then playing with the San Francisco 49ers,
dared to protest during the national anthem, telling a journalist
with NFL Media his views on police violence: "I am not going to stand
up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people
and people of color."
He added, "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be
selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the
street and people [police] getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Should the regular season begin on 7 September with Kaepernick still
unsigned, player leaders will have important decisions to make about
how to proceed.
Questions to the NFL Players Association from The Electronic Intifada
about Kaepernick's case went unanswered.
"Cowards"
Seahawk defensive end Michael Bennett, who this offseason said he
would "not be used" by the Israeli government in a planned propaganda
trip to Israel, argued that Kaepernick's treatment "shows the racial
divide in the league."
He added, "Racism is the biggest issue in America."
Malcolm Jenkins, a safety with the Philadelphia Eagles who stood with
fist raised during the national anthem last season, called the NFL
teams "cowards."
Jenkins dismissed the argument that Kaepernick is no longer good
enough to play in the NFL. "I think it's safe to throw out that
talent argument, and basically focus on the fact that he doesn't have
a job solely because he didn't stand for the anthem last year, even
though he already expressed that he planned on standing this year."
Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers in March, but has
found no team willing to sign him to a new contract.
Racism in the NFL
Meanwhile, teams have signed inferior quarterbacks, supercharging
concerns of bias and even possible collusion.
Serious questions are being put to the Baltimore Ravens and Miami
Dolphins following injuries to their starting quarterbacks.
Baltimore, of course, has been much in the news of late on account of
the sort of police misconduct Kaepernick has highlighted.
And some fans of the Dolphins along with Florida-based sports pundits
have criticized Kaepernick over his views of Fidel Castro after the
quarterback praised Cuba's investments in promoting literacy and
universal healthcare, as opposed to incarceration, as well as Cuba's
support for the fight against apartheid in South Africa.
The Dolphins chose to replace their injured quarterback with Jay
Cutler who is widely regarded as a weaker quarterback than
Kaepernick, albeit one who previously played for the Chicago Bears'
offensive coordinator Adam Gase, who is now the Dolphins' head coach.
Cutler's politics, in contrast to Kaepernick's, have proven to be no
obstacle. "I'm happy with the results," Cutler said after last
November's election. "I've supported Trump for a while. I'm not going
to dive into it.
I know it's a sensitive issue. I like where it's going."
These are telling and prescient remarks from a white quarterback who
would come out of retirement the following year to secure a one-year
contract worth $10 million in a hateful political climate nurtured by
a president who has repeatedly given nods to white supremacists and
has bad-mouthed Kaepernick.
But white supremacy is increasingly normalized in today's politics; a
quarterback speaking out against racial injustice is perceived as a
danger by too many NFL owners.
Of course, it is not recalling ancient history to remember that this
is a league that long stuck with white quarterbacks over African
Americans.
Black
players were kept in what The New York Times' Michael Powell termed
"apartheid positions." Seventy percent of the players in the NFL
today are African American yet discrimination remains a reality when
one looks at the quarterback position and coaching ranks.
Sending a message
Team owners - who are almost exclusively white - are also sending a
message to other players to be very cautious about speaking up about
police abuses and other issues not in line with the perceived
sensitivities of white fans.
Even if Kaepernick finally gets offered a contract this summer, the
message has been delivered to athletes: keep your mouths shut on
social justice issues, particularly when the national anthem is being
played.
Kaepernick is best known for his support of Black Lives Matter, but
has wide-ranging social justice interests. For example, earlier this
year he retweeted a message critical of Israeli apartheid.
Though on a San Francisco team that struggled mightily throughout
last season - which likely contributes to undercutting Kaepernick's
perceived value - the quarterback's off-the-field work was
enthusiastically received in many communities.
As law professor Khaled Beydoun noted, Kaepernick held 'know your rights'
camps for youth, pledged $1 million of his own money to nonprofits
working against oppression and helped fight famine in Somalia.
Yet so far, many fans calling sports radio and writing letters to the
editor have indicated they would rather field a quiescent team and
lose than one calling for equality and win.
"Racial attitudes had a notable relationship to white opposition to
athletes' protests," Tatishe M. Nteta, Brian Schaffner and Matthew C.
MacWilliams wrote in The Washington Post in April.
The three political scientists said their polling demonstrates a
strong relationship "between holding negative stereotypes of Blacks
and strong opposition to the protests."
Powerful tradition
Kaepernick's calls for social justice and against police misconduct
follow in the powerful tradition of athletes addressing important
issues of the time. These protests have been fitful because of the
powerful backlash they face.
Muhammad Ali, whose image can be seen emblazoned from time to time on
a Kaepernick T-shirt, was one of the most famous of these protesters
and paid a heavy price. Ali, a conscientious objector, was first
stripped of his heavyweight title and then fined $10,000, banned from
boxing for three years and sentenced to up to five years behind bars.
He managed through appeal to stay out of prison.
Ali's words from the time, however, live on: "I ain't got no quarrel
with them Viet Cong." A supporter of Palestinian rights, Ali - first
debilitated by Parkinson's disease and now just a vibrant memory - is
currently heralded by mainstream media that spoke against him half a
century ago.
Eminent sociologist Harry Edwards, who advised Kaepernick last
season, said in May: "Ali created a conversation."
He added: "when the world champion steps forward and says, 'No Viet
Cong ever called me a (expletive), and we have some issue we need to
deal with here, not over there in a war that make no sense,' it moved
the discussion to another level."
According to Edwards, Kaepernick similarly "sparked a national
conversation about race."
Trump takes credit
For all the talk of the American "meritocracy," there is seeming
satisfaction in Trump's America with whiteballing a superior athlete
on account of his upholding the rights of African Americans and other
people of color.
Even the president has not been silent on the case. Apparently peeved
that Kaepernick dared to call the Republican presidential candidate
"openly racist" - at the time, Kaepernick also criticized Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for her racially charged
"superpredator" comment
-
Trump told a radio program that perhaps Kaepernick "should find a
country that works better for him."
As president, Trump also played to the crowd by indicating NFL owners
were afraid to sign Kaepernick lest they be on the receiving end of a
Trump tweet.
"It was reported that NFL owners don't want to pick him up because
they don't want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump. Do you
believe that?" As the crowd's roars of approval subside, Trump
exults, "I just saw that. I just saw that."
Trump has not lacked for support from NFL owners. Team owners Dan
Snyder of the openly racist Washington Redskins, Stan Kroenke, Bob
McNair and Shahid Kahn all contributed $1 million for inauguration
festivities. So, too, did Robert Kraft who has been active in
promoting propaganda trips to Israel by current and former NFL players.
Trump-connected Woody Johnson, owner of the Jets, for his part signed
a weaker option in Josh McCown to play quarterback for his lackluster
team.
According to The New York Times, the team owner "opined that he did
not think much of Kaepernick's protest." Notably, Johnson will be the
next US ambassador to the UK.
Writing in the The Hollywood Reporter, retired basketball superstar
and former US global cultural ambassador Kareem Abdul-Jabbar raised
concerns about the political leanings of NFL owners as a factor in
Kaepernick's
situation: "Perhaps a contributing factor is that the NFL owners tend
to contribute more money to Republican political campaigns and
therefore have more of a philosophical interest in not wanting to
hear the players'
messages about social injustice."
The owners undoubtedly have a friend in Trump. Not only does the
president extol the virtues of getting rough with people detained by
police, but he scoffs at football concussions as "a little ding on
the head" that should not stop players who are supposed to be "tough."
He is moreover surrounded by advisers who engage in racism and are
dismissive of social justice concerns.
Next steps
It remains to be seen whether we have reached a tipping point for
players concerned not just about brain injuries, but their right to
speak freely.
Will players such as Kaepernick, Martellus and Michael Bennett, and
Malcolm Jenkins continue to speak out and find more teammates to
support them or will the retaliation against Kaepernick have a
chilling effect?
Edwards, the sociologist who advised Kaepernick, says, "If they are
stupid enough to make a martyr out of Kaep, it's going to get even
more interesting."
Civil rights groups and filmmaker Spike Lee have announced a rally
outside NFL headquarters in New York on 23 August in support of
racial justice and free speech.
An online petition to boycott NFL games until Kaepernick is signed to
a contract has already garnered over 150,000 signatures and is
growing quickly.
