Is This The Best the NFLPA Can Do?

If I'm a union member in today's day and age I want intelligence and reason from my top representatives. The NFLPA head four years before the contract is up talking about the negotiations being headed for "small a armageddon" makes everyone look foolish. This the same week as NFLPA President Eric Winston saying that the revenue side of the game is the owners issue to deal with. "I think that’s their responsibility to make sure that people are watching this game, that the revenue continues to be generated. They always say, “We’re the business side of this, we’re the ones that produce the revenue,” so they need to go produce it. That’s the way I look it." I know the players are hoping for big changes to the CBA in 2021 but with these two in charge I don't like their odds.

NFL Players and the National Anthem

Below is the post I put up almost a year ago about Colin Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem. I still support those sentiments however I don't feel that it's working. I say this for a variety of reasons: First of all it bothers me that the method of delivering the message offends so many others. There are many methods NFL players could use to raise awareness of the issues of oppression, violence, race relations etc. I'm not sure choosing one that makes people so uncomfortable is the most effective. Secondly I think it's difficult to get others to join in with helping share your message when the delivery method you choose is so controversial. Michael Bennett wants white players to join in the protests to add credibility. If I'm an NFL player I would support the idea of working to raise awareness of these important issues, however there is zero chance that I would sit during the anthem. Finally, and probably the biggest reason I think this is no longer succeeding, very few of the discussions I hear about players not standing for the anthem actually mention why they are doing this and none discuss the issue in any depth. The message is being lost because of the controversial delivery method.

Last year's post: I don't love Colin Kaepernick's delivery method for his message but I'm glad to see a football player using his platform to raise awareness of an issue. There will be those who say it isn't effective but that's simply not true. The 49ers pledged a million dollars to organizations that work on issues of racial and economic inequality. That is just one example of the positive reactions.
Some feel it's disrespectful to veterans to not stand during the anthem. I respect that opinion. Mine is that those heroes fought (and continue to fight) to give us freedoms. Arguably the most important of those is freedom of expression.
Some comment that he makes X number of millions of dollars a year how can he be oppressed? By that logic I have to stop supporting the local food bank because I have a house full of food.
"The purpose of influence is to stand up for those who have none" Rick Warren

LeBron's Comments

Really disappointed that the media is focusing on LeBron's shot at Trump rather than the positive message he put forth. There are a lot of young people who look up to LeBron and I have a lot of respect for him using the platform available to him. For those who didn't hear it, here is the text:

"I have this platform and I'm somebody that has a voice of command, and the only way for us to be able to get better as a society and us to get better as people is love. And that's the only way we're going to be able to conquer something at the end of the day. It's not about the guy that's the so-called president of the United States, or whatever the case. It's not about a teacher that you don't feel like cares about what's going on with you every day. It's not about people that you just don't feel like want to give the best energy and effort to you. It's about us. It's about us looking in the mirror. Kids all the way up to the adults. It's about all of us looking in the mirror and saying, 'What can we do better to help change?"

Thoughts from Cuba

     I returned yesterday from a seven day trip to Cuba. I know all inclusive vacations are about the relaxing and getting away but going to another country I think what you learn and how it changes you and hopefully the way you live your life is important. 
     The drive from the airport was an eye opener for the kids. Seeing the style of the houses, stores, towns etc. was a big change for them as they hadn't been anywhere other than Canada and the United States. As we rode the bus and looked at the houses I asked the kids whether they now understood why I say we're rich. Their responses indicated that they understood the point. 
     Driving through the three towns on the way to the resort it hit me that at all the houses we drove by where people appeared to be home the people were either sitting and watching TV or sitting on the porch with a drink. I commented to my wife that even in a country that looks and lives so differently at the end of the day the people come home and sit and watch TV or sit out on the porch. 
     Ultimately the things that really made me think came from a friendship I formed with Henry a Cuban guy who worked at the resort. The kids and I played a lot of chess with him and it turned out we had a lot in common. We were close in age, had similar childhood experiences and both had young sons. Henry and I had good conversations about life, raising children and what's important. He had some experience traveling to other countries due to a past as a competitive swimmer and spoke reasonably about what he viewed as the positive and negative aspects of each of our cultures. His views made me realize that the Cuban life was a lot different than what I envisioned. Our conversations also made me realize that at the macro level we really weren't that different. Two men who go to work every day, come home and try to do the right thing in raising our children and the way we live our lives. A lot of micro level differences but establishing that friendship was an eye opener for me.
     The lack of access to technology, certain foods and some freedoms etc. were definite concerns of Henry's about the Cuban life. However he also raised concerns with the Canadian system's potential lack of fairness in raising children based on parent's money, influence etc. Also about the impact of video games and similar technology to raising children versus what he referred to as the more natural way his son would be raised in Cuba playing sports, fishing, camping etc. The most interesting conversation points between us though were about Canadians spending their lives chasing consumer goods and the stress it can create. 
     To me this is the real value of traveling to other countries and understanding other cultures. The things it makes you consider and hopefully the resulting positive changes that you make in your own life. I hope I can use the knowledge and perspective that I gained to improve my life and that of my family. 
     
         

Freedom

     This Christmas I'm thankful for freedom.  Specifically the ongoing increase in freedom from bigotry and prejudice that our society is experiencing.  I'm thankful that a male friend got engaged to his boyfriend and it was only interesting because he got engaged. I know there is still a long way go but right now  I'm thankful for how far we have come.

Life is lived forwards but can only be understood backwards

Paraphrasing a bit but heard a great life lesson the other day: A guy stops and asks someone for directions. The guy giving the directions says: keep going the way you're going and you will come to a narrow bridge with Dave's restaurant on the left. The road you want is on the left about half a mile before that. The guy crossed the bridge and started watching but didn't come to the road. He eventually repeated the directions to himself and realized the error. As he was driving back the way he came to find the road he thought to himself how similar it was to life: Many times we don't know know which way we're supposed to choose until we're already past the road.

Redskins

Sometimes I think our society goes too far with the idea of political correctness but I'm with football writer Peter King on this one:

A note from me about the use of the nickname “Redskins.”
I’ve decided to stop using the Washington team nickname. It’s a name you won’t see me use anymore. The simple reason is that for the last two or three years, I’ve been uneasy when I sat down to write about the team and had to use the nickname. In some stories I’ve tried to use it sparingly. But this year, I decided to stop entirely because it offends too many people, and I don’t want to add to the offensiveness. Some people, and some Native American organizations—such as the highly respected American Indian Movement—think the nickname is a slur. Obviously, the team feels it isn’t a slur, and there are several prominent Native American leaders who agree. But I can do my job without using it, and I will. My 2,400-word story on Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and his unique approach to the read-option Thursday proved you can write about the team (insightfully, I hope) and not make a big deal about not using the nickname.
I have no idea if this is the right thing to do for the public, or the politically correct thing to do, and I’m not going to sit here and
ry to preach about it and tell you if you like the name you’re wrong or if you hate the name you’re wrong. I can just tell you how I feel: I’ve been increasingly bothered by using the word, and I don’t want to be a part of using a name that a cross-section of our society feels is insulting.
I’m not speaking for my staff at The MMQB, or at Sports Illustrated. I haven’t ordered anyone who works at our new website to not use the name; it will be up to each person to decide. We had some discussions as a staff about the nickname in August, and I said in those discussions I didn’t want our site to use it. But I felt after some thought that it’s not my place to order people who I work with to do something they may not be comfortable doing. So I decided to make my own decision, then allow the other writers and editors on the site to do what they want. Also, we won’t be changing quotes to eliminate the name in stories, or editing it out of pieces from outside contributors who choose to use it. It will also appear in web tools that categorize stories for searches.
Some of you will view this as grandstanding. Some of you will wonder: You’ve covered the NFL for 30 seasons, and just now you realize this nickname is objectionable? All I can say is, you grow in your business, and you grow as a person, and you try to always be open to ideas and to what others are thinking. I told someone the other day: “That’s right. I changed my mind about it—just like I changed my mind and voted for Art Monk for the Hall of Fame.’’ Some will say you won’t read me, or the site, anymore. That’s okay. It’s a free country. Here’s what it came down to for me: Did I want to be part of a culture that uses a term that many in society view as a racial epithet? The answer kept coming back no—and now that I have been charged to run a website, I thought I would finally do what felt right to me.