Free Republic

If your answer is, “you can’t be serious,” you’re not fully in tune with the contemporary landscape. On the other hand, your common sense quotient is high. The NFL scouting combine is basically an audition by more than 300 of the best collegiate football players who are eligible for the NFL draft. They come to Indianapolis each year to undergo on-field workouts, medical testing, interviews, and psychological testing.

Athlete activism and the NFL anthem protests in particular have received lots of looks from sports media, but the latest outlet to produce an in-depth documentary on the subject is a surprising one: NFL Network. “The Conversation”, which premiered Sunday night as part of the network’s NFL 360 series (and which will re-air Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern), is an excellent hour-long examination of those protests from all sides. The documentary involves NFLN’s Jeffri Chadiha travelling the country and talking to players who participated, fans, businessmen and police officers upset with them, military members, a law professor, a famed sociologist,...

It's been roughly six months since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest went public, and things haven't been the same since. More NFL players decided to follow his lead in bringing attention to the issue of unarmed African-Americans dying at the hands of police. Athletes in other sports also joined in, while police officers, military veterans and ordinary citizens talked about the problem from their own perspectives. There was plenty of dialogue and debate, fury and frustration. But what became clear in all this is something even Kaepernick couldn't have known: The world of sports was the...

Matt Elam, a Baltimore Ravens safety and former University of Florida All-America, got arrested in Miami-Dade on felony drug charges Saturday night. Elam, 25, was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Sunday on possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana; possession of marijuana with intent to sell/distribute/manufacture; possession of a controlled substance; and reckless driving, according to Miami-Dade Corrections records. The first three charges are third degree felonies. Also arrested (snip) were Calvin Stewart, 28, for possession of a concealed weapon and resisting an officer without violence; Fritz Narcisse, 22, and Abdud Narcisse, 23, each on misdemeanor marijuana...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The NBA is warning Texas over a proposed "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people that is similar to a North Carolina law that prompted the league to move the All-Star Game out of that state. The NBA on Friday joined the NFL in suggesting that Texas will be overlooked for future big events if lawmakers pass a bill requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. NBA spokesman Mike Bass says an environment where people are treated "fairly and equally" weighs heavily when the league chooses host locations. Texas has three...

The NFL Is Now Threatening Texas, But The Governor Of Texas Tells The NFL To Go Straight To Hell! A coalition of pastors known as the Texas Pastor Council that spearheaded the defeat of Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, known also as the “Bathroom Bill,” is now taking aim at the National Football League after the organization threatened to make Texas pay if the state passes a proposed transgender bathroom law introduced last month. Senate Bill 6, one of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities, would require everyone to use bathrooms in public schools, government buildings and public universities based...

New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis has been charged with felonies for his alleged role in an altercation that took place in Pittsburgh last Sunday. According to a statement released by the Pittsburgh Police Department (PPD), the incident began when an unnamed 22-year old man recognized Revis while walking at around 2:30 am. He then approached Revis, who hails from nearby Aliquippa, Pa., to see if it was really Revis. Revis confirmed his identity to the man.

Simpson has served eight years of a 33-year sentence O.J. Simpson has been incarcerated at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada since 2008 after being sentenced to 33 years in prison, all stemming from an incident at a Las Vegas hotel room from which Simpson attempted to forcefully reclaim memorabilia. The former Bills star and Hall of Fame running back, now 70, was charged with and found guilty on 12 counts, including conspiracy, burglary, robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. This summer, he may get out early. According to analysis from Sports Illustrated legal analyst and University of New...

Six Patriots ... will not partake in the tradition. [Snip] In the past, most players avoided controversy by saying their decision was based on other factors, such as a scheduling conflict or family commitments. But with Trump in the White House, that tone seems to be changing. And now that the door to openly challenge the White House is open, more athletes could follow suit, just as some did when Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality. If declined White House visits become more common, it would be a...

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett won't make a planned trip to Israel out of concerns the visit will be used for political purposes. Bennett, 31, was scheduled to go to to Israel along with several other NFL players later this month, but decided against it after an open letter to the players from The Nation on Thursday

From the start, it seemed like a partnership destined to bring the National Football League to Las Vegas. The Oakland Raiders, one of the iconic franchises in professional sports. The family of casino executive Sheldon Adelson. The Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee. Everyone involved with the plan described it as an alignment of the stars that seemed too good to be true.

First off, NFL player Michael Bennett uses a photo of Martin Luther King to smear Israel. Ironically King was a fierce Zionist and passionate supporter of Israel. So Bennett is not only a tool but a fool. Secondly, he stands with the enemies of Israel- the same ideology that holds his people as slaves, still, to this very day.

One of the most pressing topics that the NFL league office will discuss this offseason is how to either increase, or at least stop the slide in ratings seen over the course of the 2016-2017 season. This may be a good start. Tennessee Titans offensive tackle Taylor Lewan thinks the NFL should allow brief unmediated fighting similar to what the NHL allows.~SNIP~The only foreseeable issues would be punching a player with a helmet and facemark with your bare knuckles is not typically a good idea. Also, the NHL allows fighting generally until one player goes down to the ice,...

The NFL is expressing sharper warnings about a Texas ''bathroom bill'' targeting transgender persons than statements prior to the Super Bowl in Houston. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy on Friday raised the prospect of Texas losing out on future Super Bowls if there were laws ''discriminatory or inconsistent with our values.'' He said such measures ''would certainly be a factor'' taken into consideration. That's more forceful than an NFL statement earlier this month that more generally endorsed inclusiveness.

Halftime at the Super Bowl, once merely a forgettable 30 minutes to get another beer or join the line at the restroom, is now more entertaining. It sometimes gets different reviews from different generations. But this year, everyone could find something to be dazzled by in Lady Gaga's terrific patriotic pop. She was a dazzling Peter Pan, a hip Mary Poppins, a sparkly SpongeBob SquarePants, floating through the air like the man on the flying trapeze, shimmering drones illuminating an American flag in the night sky behind her. It was testimony to high-tech triumphalism to match the magic on the...

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots didn’t give Roger Goodell the finger after the Pats’ miracle 34-28 Super Bowl LI win over the Atlanta Falcons, but one of their supporters gave the NFL commissioner a metaphorical one in Maine. The anticipation for the Goodell/Patriots meeting at the podium after all that happened with Deflategate was one of the big storylines heading into Sunday’s game, but there was only one vague mention of the saga from Pats owner Robert Kraft. But if the NFL commissioner wants to head to his vacation home in Scarborough, ME, now that the 2016 season...

The exciting recent Super Bowl meant that fans paid more attention to the game than to the commercials. But there were some doozies, including the 84 Lumber commercial that sympathetically depicted a Latina mother and her young daughter trying to cross the border and enter America, only to encounter a foreboding wall. Hint, hint: President Trump wants to build a wall on the southern border. But at least two other commercials stood out. An Audi commercial highlighted the alleged problem of women receiving unequal pay. A male voice says: "What do I tell my daughter? Do I tell her that...

lbany Former NFL player Michael Sam said he always felt like an outsider — the deaths of two older brothers, the bullying he endured by other family members and even his mother's religion, Jehovah's Witness, made him feel apart from his peers. But nothing made him feel more like an outsider than being gay in the NFL. "I had to prove myself, to show that I was one of the guys," said Sam, who spoke Tuesday night as part of Sexuality Month at the University at Albany. "I was cut from the Rams, even though I was in the top...

The Super Bowl delivered its smallest audience among adults 18-49 in at least ten years. Super Bowl 51 between the Patriots and Falcons delivered a 37.1 rating and 47.6 million viewers in the adults 18-49 demographic, down 2% in ratings and a fraction of a percent in viewership from Broncos/Panthers last year (37.7, 47.9M) and down 5% and 4% respectively from Patriots/Seahawks in 2015 (39.1, 49.7M). It was the lowest rated Super Bowl in the demo since Steelers/Cardinals in 2009 (36.7) and the least-watched in at least a decade. Since hitting 52.5 million in 2011, Super Bowl viewership among adults...

It’s no secret many in the New England Patriots organization aren’t huge fans of Roger Goodell and how he handled the DeflateGate situation. You can certainly add Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to that list. That is Patricia in the blue shirt. A blue shirt that sure looks like it has an image of Goodell on it with white face paint and a big red clown nose.