It ended with a statement from the leader of the ownership group, Dave Checketts, Wednesday afternoon. It was pushed along by the NFL commissioner, the head of the players’ association, no less than two team owners, the head of the NAACP and (as always) the Rev. Al Sharpton.
But the very first pushback against Rush Limbaugh’s bid to own part of the St. Louis Rams came from a couple of dumb ballplayers.
Well, it’s obvious now, not so dumb.
But the very first pushback against Rush Limbaugh’s bid to own part of the St. Louis Rams came from a couple of dumb ballplayers.
Well, it’s obvious now, not so dumb.
Mathias Kiwanuka of the New York Giants and Bart Scott of the New York Jets spoke out, without hesitation or reservation, without prodding or calculating from their agents or their team P.R. personnel and without fear of backlash or retaliation or condemnation from anybody. They made it so clear it had no chance of misinterpretation, manipulation or pulling out of context. No way, they said, would I ever play for a team owned by that guy.
Without Kiwanuka and Scott, maybe this remains in the realm of talk-show banter and comment-section ranting, and Limbaugh stays in the group, untroubled by any of his past words or deeds, probably boasting to his “Dittoheads’’ about how he’d now be getting even richer off the very people he’d mocked and belittled for two decades.
But those two players decided not to stay quiet, and then a few more spoke up or s
pelled it out, and then Dee Smith, the head of the NFLPA, took their collective refusal to Roger Goodell. Next thing you knew, nobody in authority in the NFL could avoid taking a stand on it. And that groundswell washed Limbaugh overboard, where he’s now bobbing in the waves trying to convince everybody that he swam out there on purpose.
To repeat: it was the players who got that wave rolling.
Yet to hear some, this was impossible. Because athletes are selfish. Greedy. Stupid. They’d play for whoever waves the biggest check in front of them. They zip their lips and would never threaten their livelihoods by taking a stand on anything controversial. They’ve tuned out the outside world, never engage in society at large, and don’t have anything close to the guts the Alis, the Smiths and Carloses, the Jim Browns and Bill Russells had in the ‘60s.
It’s a lovely myth, and it has incredible staying power. It gets repeated in every corner of the sports world as if it was taught and memorized in first grade, and now it’s taken as scripture. It’s comforting, it’s self-assuring, it’s never going to get much of an argument, because, c’mon, look at the facts.
It is worth noting, by the way, that on CNN Wednesday night, when time came to discuss the Limbaugh ownership flop, it was not one of the outspoken active players answering questions. It was Sharpton. Maybe none of the NFL’s 2,500 or so players was available that night, or maybe on issues like this, the contact lists of the major “news’’ networks have only one name in them.
The player revolt against Limbaugh, of course, should never have happened.
Except that it happened a few months ago, when NFL players – mostly in a flurry of tweets – objected to the possibility that Goodell would not re-admit Michael Vick, or slap an additional suspension on him. But that was an exception to the rule, one shot in a million.
Except that it happened a year ago, when athletes from all sports spoke up in support of Barack Obama’s presidential quest, campaigned for him, attended his appearances and debated their teammates and reporters over him, then expressed their joy and pride about his victory and the fact that they could now tell their children that anything truly is possible.
But that was a special case, an anomaly. Except that it happened three years before that, when the government’s (in)actions during Hurricane Katrina left them and other wealthy celebrities as the chief benefactors, in money, contributions and hands-on assistance, of the victims – and prompted them to say exactly how hurt and angry they were to see their homes and their people left to suffer and die.
But that was way out of the ordinary for your average ballplayer. Except that it happened two years before that, when college and professional players answered honestly that they did not like the United States invading Iraq.
Still, you should never let facts get in the way of a good story. Of course, one fact did, in hindsight, doom athletes for the rest of eternity: Michael Jordan uttering the words he later admitted he regretted – “Republicans buy sneakers, too.’’ We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of that quote. Proof that ballplayers speak and act fairly often is spilling out of every corner of the sports universe since then; again, the above examples are just from this decade.
Yet the assumption that every jock mindlessly follows that one example of the world’s biggest athletic star recusing himself two decades ago, will live forever. Google “Michael Jordan Republicans Buy Sneakers Too’’ and you come up with 61,400,000 hits. Not all the stories are about Michael Jordan.
Just as Sharpton is the go-to spokesman for the lazy interviewer (and it’s high time everybody stopped blaming Sharpton for that), Michael Jordan is the go-to reference for the lazy analyst. Michael never did this, Tiger never does that, and all athletes are just like them.
Mathias Kiwanuka, Bart Scott and more than a few of their colleagues made liars out of those who themselves mindlessly follow that theory. And when the next group of athletes defies the conventional wisdom, the conventional wisdom will shout them down again, and it will be as if Kiwanuka and Scott had never done a thing.
Without Kiwanuka and Scott, maybe this remains in the realm of talk-show banter and comment-section ranting, and Limbaugh stays in the group, untroubled by any of his past words or deeds, probably boasting to his “Dittoheads’’ about how he’d now be getting even richer off the very people he’d mocked and belittled for two decades.
But those two players decided not to stay quiet, and then a few more spoke up or s
pelled it out, and then Dee Smith, the head of the NFLPA, took their collective refusal to Roger Goodell. Next thing you knew, nobody in authority in the NFL could avoid taking a stand on it. And that groundswell washed Limbaugh overboard, where he’s now bobbing in the waves trying to convince everybody that he swam out there on purpose.To repeat: it was the players who got that wave rolling.
Yet to hear some, this was impossible. Because athletes are selfish. Greedy. Stupid. They’d play for whoever waves the biggest check in front of them. They zip their lips and would never threaten their livelihoods by taking a stand on anything controversial. They’ve tuned out the outside world, never engage in society at large, and don’t have anything close to the guts the Alis, the Smiths and Carloses, the Jim Browns and Bill Russells had in the ‘60s.
It’s a lovely myth, and it has incredible staying power. It gets repeated in every corner of the sports world as if it was taught and memorized in first grade, and now it’s taken as scripture. It’s comforting, it’s self-assuring, it’s never going to get much of an argument, because, c’mon, look at the facts.
It is worth noting, by the way, that on CNN Wednesday night, when time came to discuss the Limbaugh ownership flop, it was not one of the outspoken active players answering questions. It was Sharpton. Maybe none of the NFL’s 2,500 or so players was available that night, or maybe on issues like this, the contact lists of the major “news’’ networks have only one name in them.
The player revolt against Limbaugh, of course, should never have happened.
Except that it happened a few months ago, when NFL players – mostly in a flurry of tweets – objected to the possibility that Goodell would not re-admit Michael Vick, or slap an additional suspension on him. But that was an exception to the rule, one shot in a million.
Except that it happened a year ago, when athletes from all sports spoke up in support of Barack Obama’s presidential quest, campaigned for him, attended his appearances and debated their teammates and reporters over him, then expressed their joy and pride about his victory and the fact that they could now tell their children that anything truly is possible.
But that was a special case, an anomaly. Except that it happened three years before that, when the government’s (in)actions during Hurricane Katrina left them and other wealthy celebrities as the chief benefactors, in money, contributions and hands-on assistance, of the victims – and prompted them to say exactly how hurt and angry they were to see their homes and their people left to suffer and die.
But that was way out of the ordinary for your average ballplayer. Except that it happened two years before that, when college and professional players answered honestly that they did not like the United States invading Iraq.
Still, you should never let facts get in the way of a good story. Of course, one fact did, in hindsight, doom athletes for the rest of eternity: Michael Jordan uttering the words he later admitted he regretted – “Republicans buy sneakers, too.’’ We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of that quote. Proof that ballplayers speak and act fairly often is spilling out of every corner of the sports universe since then; again, the above examples are just from this decade.
Yet the assumption that every jock mindlessly follows that one example of the world’s biggest athletic star recusing himself two decades ago, will live forever. Google “Michael Jordan Republicans Buy Sneakers Too’’ and you come up with 61,400,000 hits. Not all the stories are about Michael Jordan.
Just as Sharpton is the go-to spokesman for the lazy interviewer (and it’s high time everybody stopped blaming Sharpton for that), Michael Jordan is the go-to reference for the lazy analyst. Michael never did this, Tiger never does that, and all athletes are just like them.
Mathias Kiwanuka, Bart Scott and more than a few of their colleagues made liars out of those who themselves mindlessly follow that theory. And when the next group of athletes defies the conventional wisdom, the conventional wisdom will shout them down again, and it will be as if Kiwanuka and Scott had never done a thing.
(Photos: nj.com, baltimoresun.com)
(Standing and clapping.)
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