Well, the Miami Dolphins gave me the topic for my first editorial blog of the NFL season. I was going to talk about Daniel Snyder and the ridiculousness of the Washington Who-Cares, but I can put that off for a later week.
So, earlier today, the entire Miami Dolphins team blasted the league's "equal time" decision to play both the National Anthem and the unofficial Black Lives Matter anthem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" at all opening weekend games. The players have stated that they will remain in the locker room rather than participate in "fluff and empty gestures." Instead, the Dolphins want the league to use their considerable influence and call political leaders to FORCE change.
Excuse me, what change do you want the league to do? Isn't this the same league that players criticize and deride as "out of touch" with social needs when they discipline players for drug use, beating on their girlfriends, and violating team rules? If you don't think they have any social consciousness, just what type of social change do you think the league would consider? From past experience, it would apparently be something that the players wouldn't like, because the league believes in setting and enforcing rules regarding responsible behavior, something solely lacking in a large number of professional football players. Just what were the Dolphins players thinking? Oh, wait, that's right, they're football players. They DON'T think. Their brains are all splattered due to frequent helmet hits so they have no cognitive ability left. Hmm, brain scientists have determined that the main factor that separates human beings from the rest of the animal community is their ability to think rationally. Since football players don't think, wouldn't that make them animals instead of humans? No wonder all of the team names reference animals; it's kinship for the players.
Truthfully, I have learned during 40 years as a football fan to ignore most of the (frequently incoherent) garbage that comes out of the mouths of these players. I wish other fans, and especially the sports media, would learn to do the same thing. If there was no audience for these ridiculous statements, the players would eventually shut up and most of them would go back to their actual (overly-)paid JOB -- playing football.
If there is justice in this world, the Miami Dolphins will finish dead last (or close to it) this season, a scenario not out of the realm of reasonableness, then draft a hard-nose socially-minded college star who doesn't practice and fails to contribute any value to the team (not unlike a certain be-afroed former 49er I have discussed in my columns previously) and continues the Dolphins streak of futility on the field.
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