The NFL Owners Might Have Bought Their Way Out of the Anthem Protests
I’ve said from from minute one that the Anthem protest is the worst issue of our times. Just a toxic cocktail of the most foul-tasting elements of sports, politics, race, social issues and patriotism that brings out the worst in everybody. Seriously, I would gladly spend the rest of the year talking about Pete Rose or steroid guys getting into Cooperstown if it meant ignoring this soul-crushing, completely fun-free topic.
But finally it’s taken a turn I can get behind. A group of players has gotten together to get rid of this one the old fashioned way. By letting the owners buy them out:
WaPo – Owners have been hopeful that an agreement with the players on activism would lead all players to voluntarily stand for the anthem. But divisions on the players’ side that became evident earlier Wednesday could lead to the protests continuing even with the deal in place. …
The league and teams are to provide approximately $90 million between the onset of the arrangement and 2023 to social causes deemed important by the players, focused in particular on African American communities. …
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been active in the discussions and has been dealing directly with players, especially those in a group known as the Players Coalition led by Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and former NFL wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Earlier Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid and Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas announced they were withdrawing from the Players Coalition, citing differences with Jenkins and Boldin about how discussions with the league were proceeding.
OK, now we’re talking. Finally here’s something that makes sense. That’s actually doing something on both sides instead of just posturing and pissing off everyone on both sides. What do you do when you’re confronted with a room filled with billionaires who love to buy their way out of problems? You give them a problem and let them buy their way out. That’s how everybody goes home happy.
And let’s be clear, here. Crystal. I’m not questioning the motives of any of the players involved. But if you want to get your issues addressed in any kind of a real way, you take the money and spend it on causes. Anything less is just for show. And if anyone thinks it’s immoral or they’re allowing themselves to be bought off, your heart might be in the right place, but your well-intentioned head is up your ass.
In college I had to read this play by George Bernard Shaw called Major Barbara. Which is unique in that Shaw wrote a preface that in no uncertain terms lays out what the point of the play is. It’s about a Salvation Army outfit that’s broke and gets offered a bunch of money from a guy who got rich selling munitions. And the Salvation Army people have this moral dilemma over the fact that, while they’d put the money to good use, as pacifists, they’d be profiting from evil. Shaw’s point was that it’s immoral not to take money and use it for good, regardless of how ill-gotten it may be.
The NFL owners, with a few exceptions, are either evil, bloodless, corporate weasels like Woody Johnson or the lesser sons of bold men of vision like Mark Davis. And they will lie, cheat, shakedown taxpayers and pay $40 million a year to Goodell to do their evil bidding. So you’re damned right the players should take their money. If fact, they should hold out for more. By my math, $90 million divided by 32 is about $2.4 million per team. Spread out over six years, that’s just north of $400,000. Or the money they’d make if they raise beer prices a nickel. The Players Coalition is nuts if they don’t squeeze every last dollar they can. As soon as they reach a deal, I’d go right back to Goodell and give him the old mob boss “This is a nice Anthem you’ve got here. I would be a shame if anything were to happen to it. You don’t want the President Tweeting out about it. …” To do anything less? Now that would be unAmerican.