Knee slappers
Hypocritical athlete protests demand deeper investigation
WITH protests now as common as Ethel Merman imitations, it’s time to examine the protesters, starting with those who have exploited the TVreliant NFL and our national anthem to protest alleged police brutality by racist cops (of all races), one week, President Tweet, the next.
Oakland’s Marshawn Lynch made big news and noise last Sunday in Mexico City, where he respectfully stood for Mexico’s anthem but then again showed his rude side to the U.S. anthem.
And if one read and/or listened to reports of this “protest,” one could logically conclude Lynch is a legitimate social activist, an advocate of right over perceived wrongs.
But if one were to apply Lynch’s NFL bio, his ascension to conspicuous and now international social protester would be — or
should be — reported as preposterous.
In 2008, Lynch, with the Bills, was driving his new Porsche at 3:30 a.m., when he struck a pedestrian then fled. He pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and had his license revoked. But he was still able to play — and for millions of dollars — in the NFL. There’s nothing he can do to prevent that.
In 2012, Lynch was arrested for DWI then pleabargained to a reduced charge.
Three times Lynch “celebrated” a TD by grabbing his crotch. In 2014, the NFL fined him $11,000 for his vulgarity, but Lynch did it again before a national TV audience in the 2015 NFC Championship.
This season, Lynch was fined for making an obscene gesture during a game.
Yet, none of this was heard or read in the reports of his “protest” in Mexico City. And although it’s doubtful that any of us could remain employed with his bio, Lynch continues to be employed, this time, a $9 million contract plus “incentives.”
As a practical matter, protesting players concede that the NFL is a business. Yet, when signing Colin Kaepernick is avoided as a bad business decision — one that will diminish a team’s customers, thus revenue — it’s presented by the wishful as a racial matter, although the league is predominated by well-paid African-Americans.
Want to take a knee in protest of something before a game? Try this one:
The annual — as in 89 years — Thanksgiving Day football game between N.J. high schools Neptune and Asbury Park, now mostly attended by African-American kids, last week was postponed before its 90th year in anticipation of “credible threats of violence,” interpreted as gang warfare.
Throughout the country, high school football and basketball games are now postponed, canceled or ordered played before no spectators due to concerns based on previous violent episodes.
Also escaping protest examination was that nineday, one-game shopping trip to China taken by UCLA’s basketball team of student-athletes.
The three players nailed for shoplifting were explained on ESPN as having “made a mistake.” As reader Howard Heller, asks, “Have you ever made a ‘mistake’ stealing from stores? I thought a mistake is driving past your exit or buying expired milk.” Stealing is a conscious choice.
And as reader Luis Rosell notes, UCLA is among those schools to declare it would not play in states that have not approved LGBT-sensitive legislation. Yet, UCLA traveled to play in China, known to the Western world for reprehensible human rights deprivations, incarcerations and disappearances.
As for UCLA’s highminded no-travel LGBT stance, declared late in 2015, last season it was unexpectedly scheduled to play in one of those banned states, Tennessee — in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
With all that dough at stake? UCLA played in Tennessee. Didn’t hear anything about that on CBS and TNT, did ya?
But examine the protesters at your own risk. The con job is now King.