Freedom of Speech does not come with freedom of consequences. Sentiments such as these, expressed by people making money and living a life of privilege few can even dream of, does not result in anything positive for either the individual or those they represent.
At the beginning of this current season (2016) a whack job down in California, Colin Kaeperpick, decided to inject HIS politics into football. Other jocks in the NFL joined his juvenile antics of kneeling during the National Anthem before a football game.
This kid, getting paid millions of dollars to play a game, made a spectacle of himself... and others soon joined him. The NFL, in the face of dramatically lower ratings, did nothing. Kaeperpick's team, the 49'ers, did nothing.
The following week, a Seahawk player emulated his multi-millionaire colleague who had never known a day of oppression in the entirety of his life and who was, in fact, raised as a child adopted by a white family in Fond du Lac... hardly straight out of Compton.... in besmirching this moment to pay tribute to those who have bled for this country and for what this country stands for... by the name of Jeremy Lane.
Like millions of others, I found their actions to be insulting, juvenile and designed to bring attention on themselves as individuals. You see, it's difficult to sympathize with millionaires who, up to that point, had done little to nothing for those they were expressing so much concern about and even after the fact, had done little more to address the issues most important in their respective communities... in Kaeperpick's racial community, that of the half white/half black football player who's half-black brethren are apparently oppressed while his half-white brethren are apparently not.
For my part, I waited for the NFL to act. I waited for the Seahawks to act... and by act, I mean to act against the mixing of politics with the playing of a game.... and by "act," I mean to act to make sure these protests stopped.
Nothing happened.
And like millions of others, my interest in the game I played as a child... through high school... for all too brief a time in college... and in the military at the professional level... my support for a football team that had been unwavering for 40 years... vaporized.
By failing to act against these multi-millionaire punks, the NFL was expressing support for their actions and their positions.
An organization who fined football players for wearing the wrong shoes... fines in the thousands for wearing the wrong headband or some other symbol they didn't happen to like... did nothing to stop their self-inflicted bleeding.
For the year, we're told TV Ratings are off 8%. This, we're also told, "...led to a great deal of consternation and study in the NFL's League office in New York."
But having identified at least a part of the reason for their bleeding... what have they done about it?
Nothing.
And the bleeding continues.
Added to that today was the recent public pronouncement from Russell Wilson, a pretty good quarterback and self-anointed political expert who said this:
At the beginning of this current season (2016) a whack job down in California, Colin Kaeperpick, decided to inject HIS politics into football. Other jocks in the NFL joined his juvenile antics of kneeling during the National Anthem before a football game.
This kid, getting paid millions of dollars to play a game, made a spectacle of himself... and others soon joined him. The NFL, in the face of dramatically lower ratings, did nothing. Kaeperpick's team, the 49'ers, did nothing.
The following week, a Seahawk player emulated his multi-millionaire colleague who had never known a day of oppression in the entirety of his life and who was, in fact, raised as a child adopted by a white family in Fond du Lac... hardly straight out of Compton.... in besmirching this moment to pay tribute to those who have bled for this country and for what this country stands for... by the name of Jeremy Lane.
Like millions of others, I found their actions to be insulting, juvenile and designed to bring attention on themselves as individuals. You see, it's difficult to sympathize with millionaires who, up to that point, had done little to nothing for those they were expressing so much concern about and even after the fact, had done little more to address the issues most important in their respective communities... in Kaeperpick's racial community, that of the half white/half black football player who's half-black brethren are apparently oppressed while his half-white brethren are apparently not.
For my part, I waited for the NFL to act. I waited for the Seahawks to act... and by act, I mean to act against the mixing of politics with the playing of a game.... and by "act," I mean to act to make sure these protests stopped.
Nothing happened.
And like millions of others, my interest in the game I played as a child... through high school... for all too brief a time in college... and in the military at the professional level... my support for a football team that had been unwavering for 40 years... vaporized.
By failing to act against these multi-millionaire punks, the NFL was expressing support for their actions and their positions.
An organization who fined football players for wearing the wrong shoes... fines in the thousands for wearing the wrong headband or some other symbol they didn't happen to like... did nothing to stop their self-inflicted bleeding.
For the year, we're told TV Ratings are off 8%. This, we're also told, "...led to a great deal of consternation and study in the NFL's League office in New York."
But having identified at least a part of the reason for their bleeding... what have they done about it?
Nothing.
And the bleeding continues.
Added to that today was the recent public pronouncement from Russell Wilson, a pretty good quarterback and self-anointed political expert who said this:
Wilson was speaking while sitting in a barbershop chair, streaming the experience on Facebook Live. After soliciting sports topics for conversation, such as the upcoming Super Bowl (“The Pats will win”) and Serena Williams (“One of the greatest athletes of all time”), the three-time Pro Bowler said he wanted to move on to “world issues,” specifically his country’s new leader.
“Donald Trump becoming our president, despite anybody’s political issues or views, everybody has the right to choose who they want to vote for, but this thing is getting out of hand,” Wilson said, alternating between looking at the camera and at others in the barbershop. “It’s getting out of hand, people."
“I don’t care who you voted for — just so you know, I voted for Hillary [Clinton] — but, when you think about it, it’s only been what two weeks? Or even less than that. . . .
“Basically, I think that when you think about all the negativity that’s happened within a 10-day period, or however many days it’s been, it’s already too much,” Wilson continued. “It’s already crazy. It’s already affecting people’s hearts and souls and lives in such a negative way, in my opinion.”
Wilson then brought up the large protest over the weekend at Los Angeles International Airport, one of many across the country, of Trump’s executive order barring travel into the United States by citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries. Saying that “there’s people all over the place fighting for their lives and protesting,” the quarterback noted, “If we’re gonna be a nation that says we’re equal, we have to be equal.”
“Obviously you have to be smart, but you also have to treat people fairly, you have to be able to love everyone,” Wilson said. “I know from even my own faith, the Christian faith, you still have to love everybody. No matter what our issues are, we still have to find ways to love people and care for people.”
“I think that’s the thing that’s been crazy already. I don’t even know if he’s going to be able to last four years, in my opinion.
“You don’t want to wish bad upon anybody, because if he doesn’t last four years, that means that something went wrong. So hopefully nothing goes wrong, any more than what it’s already doing, but it’s just been a crazy 10 days already.”Parsing Wilson's words isn't difficult: it appears he wants Trump dead or otherwise incapacitated, a sentiment shared by a large portion of Hillary supporters.
Wilson then issued a plea for the return of the president Trump replaced, exclaiming “Barack! Come back, Barack! Come back, Barack!”
Obama was praised by the Seahawks star for how he “was able to deal with situations,” with Wilson positing that “people have a greater appreciation of his class” and that of former first lady Michelle Obama.
Wilson, then, is a leftist, a leftist using his celebrity as a Seahawk to babble about issues that he knows little to nothing about like so many out there today. He lives in his own multi-millionaire cocoon in the middle of one of the fringe-left centers of the universe, Seattle/Bellevue/Mercer Island... a place as far away from the real world as the 12th dimension.
That Wilson would even consider wanting arguably the worst... and among the least popular presidents of all time to return to office shows that his positions are either race-based or partisan-based,
If I were in the market for someone to run an offense, Wilson likely would have been among my top picks for consideration.
But his ignorance and partisanship (He voted for Clinton) show both a lack of knowledge and how his reaction to voting for a loser has infected his perspective.
He babbles about what he happens to see while ignoring what the rest of us both see... and know: that millions support Trump's efforts and that, as of this writing, no Clinton supporter, including Wilson, has come up with a better idea.... or for that matter, any idea at all.
As a high-profile individual representing more than one organization, Wilson should have known better. A fringe-left media will naturally use his words as yet another arrow in the leftist quiver to attempt to stop Trump from doing the many things he said he was going to do as a part of his campaign.
But everything he says and does reflects on those he works for. The good Wilson does with sick children at Seattle Children's Hospital, for example, reflects quite positively on the Seahawks organization.
His political ignorance and partisanship? Not so much.
Does Wilson have the right to express these views, as moronic as I believe them to be?
Of course.
Do I have the right to bury whatever allegiance to his team that I've built up over the past 40 years even deeper as a result?
Absolutely. And I have.
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