“McNair released a second statement Saturday afternoon and insisted he wasn’t referring to the players with his “very regretful comment.” Instead he says he was “referring to the relationship between the league office and team owners and how they have been making significant strategic decisions affecting our league without adequate input from ownership over the past few years.”
He then apologized to NFL players saying: “I am truly sorry to the players for how this has impacted them and the perception that it has created of me which could not be further from the truth. Our focus going forward, personally and as an organization, will be towards making meaningful progress regarding the social issues that mean so much to our players and our community.”
As you may imagine, apologies are not good enough any more. The 79 year old owner is presumed racist and that will not be easy to overcome in our hyper-sensitive environment. I’ve heard reasoning that because a large percentage of players are African-American, this comment must be directed at those players – that McNair isn’t sensitive to the life experiences of black men. I get it. There are a lot of black men and women in prison. There are also a lot of other demographics, too, including white Americans.
So, then I read Sunday that the Texans were going to do a big protest against McNair before the game in Seattle. Left tackle Duane Brown led a call for the protest and successfully encouraged all but four players to take a knee before the game. I find it interesting that it happened at an away game, not in Houston. I have to think the response from the ticket holders would have been a bit different at home. I watched just enough of the broadcast to see that happen and listen to the announcers give me their hot takes on it and then I changed the channel. Yes, I only watched because I am writing this
Here’s the thing – I say, the more protests, the better. I’m a political person and I like discourse. I encourage all people to get involved and make use of their God-given rights, within our Constitution. What better way is there to honor the sacrifices of those who came before us? I have lots of veterans in my family, both living and deceased, who fought for my right to speak up.
Here’s the flip side of that – I utilize my right to protest with my feet and my pocketbook. Or, in this case, my remote control. I no longer support the NFL. When President Trump tweeted that players should be fired for not standing for the National Anthem and then the gesture escalated as the players reacted to that tweet, then I said, “I’m out.” A handful of players taking a knee doesn’t sway me one way or the other. This all began last season with a now unemployed social justice warrior disguised as a football player. Barack Obama was the president, if you remember. A couple of his teammates did the same and that was that. Now it’s just all about being anti-Trump or, now, anti-McNair.
I love politics. I love football. I hate politics taking over football. I watch sports to escape the current events of the day. I love competition. It’s a game, it’s not rocket science and it will not cure disease. It is grown men making lots of money playing a game for a living. Taking advantage of that high profile life to divide and not unite – the current cry from those doing the exact opposite – is wrong. I have stopped watching professional football and it makes me sad.
Thank God for the Houston Astros. I am a “bandwagon” fan as I watch the World Series. I was once a baseball fan, back in the day, but lost interest as the greats of my day retired. With this current Astros team, though, I have found renewed zest in watching them play. What a joyful team! These guys are young and talented and eager to win. It has been heartwarming to see the Astros and their opponents stand and sing the National Anthem, as is the custom. It is particularly wonderful to see all the players who are immigrants to America participate.
Go Astros. And, thank you.
(Note: this post was written by Karen Townsend and first appeared at Pondering Penguin)
It’s an embarrassment to have a Texas team’s players disrespecting the flag and anthem. No more Texan games for me.
Duane Brown comes back from holding out and leads the protest against the guy paying him? The Texans are not going anywhere under Bill O’brien anyway. He’s as timid as the protesting players are stupid.
That Astro’s game last night…or this morning was awesome though!
At least we have the Astros to watch. I turned of the NFL long long ago.
What a shame that a very nice old white man has been forced to his knees by a bunch of spoiled and overpaid black football players.
I broke out in uncontrollable laughter when I read his second apology in which he insisted he was referring to the relationship between the league office and team owners and not to the players when he made his ‘inmates’ remark. One thing is as sure as death and taxes – McNair was referring to the players!
As for those apologies, sorry Bob, but you’re a dollar short and a day late. Actually you’re a year late because the inmates are already running the prison and have been in charge ever since Colin Kaepernick sat out the anthem last season.
Here’s the proof they’re running the’prison’: Your own players that you are paying forced you to apologize by walking out of practice sessions. And the NFL team owners did not have the guts to order their player st stand during the playing of the National Anthem.
Of course McNair was only figuratively speaking. Anyone with half a brain knows McNair does not consider NFL players as prison inmates. But that did not stop a shitstorm of social media attacks by NFL players, wives of players and players from other leagues. There were many calls for McNair to be forced out of the NFL.
Had McNair used the more commonly used phrase about the ‘inmates running the asylum,’ which would have been more appropriate for the NFL, he would still have been battered by a shitsorm of accusations that he thinks NFL players are crazies.
Bob, you do not owe anyone an apology for the ‘inmates’ remark you made. Figuratively speaking, you were exactly right. But you do owe an apology for your failure a year ago to demand that Roger Goodell throw Colin Kaepernick out of the league.
Good point Howie. Not enforcing rules, hmmm. I wonder if there is a political point that could be made here. It sure seems like something as insignificant as not enforcing rules has led to so many other problems doesn’t it?
Illegal immigration? lot of federal rules not being followed there. Lots of problems to deal with now.
Men in wimmin’s bathrooms? lot of social guidelines being tossed to accommodate that isn’t there?
Baking gay cakes? make rules of accommodation apply only to conservatives and Christians. All else is a free for all. Including censoring speech that doesn’t fit the left narrative.
Statutory rape laws? Doesn’t seem to apply to gays and others on the left does it? No problem there right?
Providing powerful weapons illegally to Mexican drug cartels? what could possible go wrong? oh, dead US agents and hundreds of Mexicans? oopsie!
Weaponizing our federal agencies to harass citizens that don’t fit the left’s agenda? oh bother!
Deficit spending that defies the laws of economic gravity? pffft!!!
Here is the latest. That paragon of virtue, Jesse Jackson, believes McNair is a racist with a plantation mentality.
Jackson also made the absurd assertion that the kneeling players were not disrespectful of our flag, but were praying for social justice.
As a protest against their boss, almost all of McNair’s black players ‘prayed’ during the anthem before the start of the Texan’s game with the Seattle Seahawks.
Yep, the in mates are running the prison.
If the NFL inmates were interested in some real social justice protesting, they should announce that they are “taking a knee” to bring attention to the continued black-on-black carnage in gang-controlled Chicago neighborhoods. But that’s apparently too hard; better to take the easy path and criticize non-existent (statistically) “blacks killed by racist cops”. That obviously plays better than calling attention to black-on-black crime.
Here is some good news – Texans offensive tackle Duane Brown has been dumped by McNair’s management team in a trade to the Seahawks. Brown led the player revolt against McNair in Seattle. Now he can only hope that Seahawks owner Paul Allen is not an insensitive slave-owner boss like he thought McNair was.
Damn good riddance!
Yep. Texans lost me with that maneuver. What if he had said ‘tail wagging the dog’. More hurt feelings? And now the disrespect for the flag isn’t even connected to the original complaint of police brutality/racism. It’s for any whiney thing. I’m out.