Politics and football. Gotta keep football in there, of course. But Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn’t giving up the social commentary.
We noted it after the game. Not many fans seemed to comply with the team’s request to lock arms in a show of unity in the stands during the national athem. And let’s be honest — unity in this country, right now? Fat fucking chance.
That’s what happens when a damn buffoon runs it. The only thing he’s been successful at thus far is misdirection. Don’t pay any attention to my terrible record of delivering things I promised… let’s spark outrage over the NFL!
Great plan.
Hell, everyone has taken it, hook, line and sinker.
It’s embarrassing. And despite the slowdown in ratings, it doesn’t sound like anything is going to change. Personally, I don’t care. I have always been an advocate for free speech.
However, when the organization that rules a Trump state releases a statement disparaging his remarks about their players, well, you know you’re in for a mound of bullshit. Because opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one.
We know the NFL isn’t going anywhere. At some point, the orange buffoon will, though. I’m not here to champion the NFL. I like the Green Bay Packers and have since shortly after I was born. If you’re boycotting the team, you weren’t ever a fan to begin with.
What I will always champion is free speech. And you do realize that saying or doing what you believe in will always piss someone off? That doesn’t make it any less of a right.
Maybe the members of the Packers who asked for unity were misguided. That doesn’t exist anywhere but on a sports team anymore. But at least they respected the right.
“It was an invitation to join us,” Rodgers said. “Beauty is, it’s a free country so they can choose to do it or not. The messaging towards this unfortunately needs to continue to be redirected, I think. It’s never been about the national anthem. It’s never been about the military. We’re all patriotic in the locker room. We love our troops. This is about something bigger than that — an invitation to show unity in the face of some divineness from the top in this country and I’m proud of our guys.
“This has been a galvanizing situation for us. In the locker room there’s been — and outside the locker room if you saw Jordy’s comments — there’s been some great conversations that have been started. As much as some people want us to just shut up and play football and keep the politics to politics, sports and politics have always intersected.”
Right. Muhammad Ali, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, Tommie Smith, Jim Brown, Colin Kaepernick, to name a few.
Oh, wait, but those are all black guys. So who gives a fuck, right?
It isn’t really about unity. It’s about equality and that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Racists, rednecks and so forth. I guess on the positive side, at least they’re making themselves known.