My name is Roger Murdock. I’m an airline pilot.
I think you’re the greatest, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don’t even run down court. And that you don’t really try, except during the playoffs.
The hell I don’t! Listen, kid. I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
As you probably know Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid have reached a settlement in their collusion suit against the NFL the exact terms of which have not been disclosed at the insistence of the NFL.
There are rumors that Kaepernick is being looked at by several teams in the AAF League and that his asking price is $20 Million per season. There are also reports that the Patsies are considering him as a backup for Brady who is not getting any younger.
The NFL’s settlement with Kaepernick should just be the start of making amends
by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Guardian
Sat 16 Feb 2019
In one of my favorite sports movies, Vision Quest, the varsity wrestling coach tells his students they can challenge the best wrestler in any weight class if they want to take his place.
“Fairest thing in the world,” he smugly tells them. As soon as one kid raises his hand to make that challenge, the coach quickly dismisses the team, pulls him aside, and says: “You’re out of your mind!”
That’s how I see the NFL. The league talks a very public game about fairness, community, and patriotism, but its moral convictions are bottom-lined based. Now, instead of having played fair with Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid because it’s the right thing to do, the league has been forced to settle a grievance launched by the pair that alleged the NFL’s team owners had blackballed them for protesting during the national anthem.
While the settlement is a win for Kaepernick and Reid, it’s a severe loss for the meaning of sports in America.
We constantly question the appropriateness of athletes as role models in America. Do they show the qualities of character that we would like our children to embrace?
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Because of that important influence, we should be vigilant in who we promote as heroes. Hall of fame quarterback Joe Montana did some damage to that ideal when he told a reporter in 2015 that the Super Bowl winning 49ers were known to skirt the rules. “They always say, ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.’” The New England Patriots’ Deflategate saga didn’t help, either.That’s why we need to apply the same intense scrutiny to sports teams and their owners as we do to the individual players like Kaepernick and Reid.
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(T)he NFL is putting all that in jeopardy when it refuses to take a leadership role in standing up for the constitution – and the rights of athletes like Reid and Kaepernick to protest peacefully – instead of cowering in the ticket booth counting money, afraid to offend people who place entertainment over ethics.Compromising the integrity of the sport teaches kids the wrong lesson, which is especially damaging when football is facing such a shaky future. The National Federation of High School Associations’ recent survey, for example, showed a decade-long decline in football. Some of that decline can be attributed to fears over concussion, another topic in which the league has often failed to cover itself in glory.
Even more significant is that professional football has a crisis of conscience – in that it doesn’t really have one. The now familiar on-field patriotic displays and fighter jet flyovers are patriotism-for-hire: the military pays millions to have soldiers parade around the field and sing God Bless America before games. If it were authentic patriotism, wouldn’t the NFL allow these displays to be made for free? And when the league does contribute to the community and social issues, it’s usually to help smooth its image after bad publicity. Following the player backlash to the NFL punishing players who took a knee, the NFL and a group of about 40 players reached an agreement that the league would contribute $89m over seven years to fund projects dealing with criminal justice reform, law enforcement/community relations, and education.
The NFL is like a naughty kid: is it sorry because it did wrong or because it got caught?
In related news-
Sports store that boycotted Nike over Colin Kaepernick ads forced to close
by Adrian Horton, The Guardian
Thu 14 Feb 2019
Last fall, the launch of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” advertising campaign, which starred ex-NFL star and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick, generated plenty of criticism. Vitriol poured on to social media; some disgruntled customers burned their Nike shoes on video.
Stephen Martin was upset enough with the choice of Kaepernick – the quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism – that he stopped selling Nike products in his Colorado sporting goods store.
Now his store, Prime Time Sports, is going out of business after 21 years. “For everybody that has offered help and support through the ‘Honor The Flag’ memorial wall and Nike boycott, now is your time to help me liquidate,” he posted on Facebook on Monday.Last fall, the launch of Nike’s 30th anniversary “Just Do It” advertising campaign, which starred ex-NFL star and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick, generated plenty of criticism. Vitriol poured on to social media; some disgruntled customers burned their Nike shoes on video.
Stephen Martin was upset enough with the choice of Kaepernick – the quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and systemic racism – that he stopped selling Nike products in his Colorado sporting goods store.
Now his store, Prime Time Sports, is going out of business after 21 years. “For everybody that has offered help and support through the ‘Honor The Flag’ memorial wall and Nike boycott, now is your time to help me liquidate,” he posted on Facebook on Monday.
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“Being a sports store and not having Nike jerseys is kind of like being a milk store without milk or a gas station without gas. They have a virtual monopoly on jerseys,” Martin told KKTV Colorado Springs.Martin has been a vocal critic of Kaepernick and the protest he launched during the NFL’s national anthems. In 2016, when Kaepernick, then the starting quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, started kneeling during the anthem , Martin cancelled an autograph signing with Broncos star and fellow kneeler Brandon Marshall.
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At the time, Martin said that 50 to 60% of his business involved Nike products, so boycotting the brand would likely have dire consequences for his store.“Probably won’t be able to keep the doors open,” he said. “I really doubt that I can survive without Nike.” Time has now proved himself right.
Duh.
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