Posted on 09/25/2017 1:15:24 PM PDT by RightGeek
Once upon a time, professional athletes not only came out of working-class, scrappy neighborhoods, but they also pretty much stayed working class their entire lives. Until as recently as the late 1960s, NFL lineman worked construction or loaded trucks in the offseason to pay their bills. Players with a college degree traded on their celebrity status to sell stocks or insurance. (The policy my mother cashed in when my father died was sold to him in the early 1960s by a retired New York Giants player). Many of today’s players, by contrast, live in a world of ostentatious homes, fast cars, and red-carpet celebrity appearances, far from the struggles of those whose support pays their salaries. These players have deemed themselves important enough to impose their political views on ordinary fans watching sports as a respite from life’s daily grind.
[SNIP]
Though the league at first discounted any relationship between the ratings and the controversy, subsequent studies have confirmed that the protests have in fact in driven away viewers who find the posturing tasteless. That should be no surprise to Giants owner John Mara, who observed that when his team was considering signing Kaepernick, fans were vocally opposed: “All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue: ‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game,’” Mara said. Over the weekend, Mara called Trump’s remarks “divisive,” but given what Mara himself has seen and heard over the last year, what did he expect?
[SNIP]
Players, sportswriters, and maybe even the owners seem to think that fans will find it impossible to give up football on Sundays in the fall. It’s not.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
Merlin Olsen used to work for my friends Father at a Beer Distributor in Los Angeles in the off Season back in the late 60’s. He wasn’t making the big bucks back then.
Yep. Shut up and play.
Whether Trump retreats or not is irrelevant. This is way beyond Trump. Once again he served as the voice of a lot of Americans who have been assiduously ignored by the MSM, who appear to be slow to recognize the size of the anthill they just kicked over. This started before Trump and is likely to continue for quite some time.
It's becoming clearer that to quite a majority of the MSM and indeed, to a majority of the pampered millionaires who are now sermonizing from the sidelines, this patriotism thing is shallow, outdated, and marginalized. None of them have ever had to make any sacrifices for anything but themselves. What a shock, therefore, to be forced to admit that to the unwashed they disdain, patriotism is real, and real things do tend to bite the unwary on the ass now and then.
Let them get real jobs.
I’m done with them.
Bonuses earned by NFL players in the 2016 postseason:
Super Bowl winner: $102,000
Super Bowl loser: $51,000
Wild-card round — division winner: $25,000
Wild-card team: $23,000
Divisional round: $25,000
Conference championship: $46,000
Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Michael Bennett put it bluntly when describing how winning a Super Bowl can help you take home more money before his team played the New England Patriots last season.
“If you win, you’ll get more money,” Bennett said. “If you’re a champion, people love you more. You get more stuff. You get to hang out. You get to be on TV.”
The winners of the AFL-NFL championship 1967, the first Super Bowl, each got about 7 grand.
Side note, at the Naval Academy he liked to stay late and throw the ball, after a while the only receiver that would stay around was one of the coaches sons, Bill Belicheck
I read some long article about his post-FB life and his discipline in general. I have immense respect for him.
A 5% drop in revenue does not equal a 5% drop in profits. Depending upon costs it could spell bankruptcy.
Not only that, but I can remember back when players felt the most important part of their job was to be the kind of (patriotic American) men that the young could and did look up to, as well as to be the decent and honorable Americans that parents wanted their children to admire and grow up to be.
Thanks. Great story.
I remember old baseball cards that said about the player, ‘During the off season, he sells insurance.’
Had a conservative of color around here who always wrote very conservative opinion pieces in the local paper. But he would use phrases like: my people, fellow blacks, African American etc. I went back and forth with him for quite some time in the comments section following his writings.
My point to him was that as long as your ethnicity comes before your nationality in describing yourself and others like you, you are being divisive. You define yourself first by your color or origins and by doing so you show where your true loyalties are. Instead of healing racial wounds you are picking at them and they will never heal.
He got it eventually and started describing himself as an American of African Descent.
I used to visit him as he was under Hospice care and he kept up his opinion pieces right to the end. Local lefties hated him with a passion as he refused to stay on the plantation.
I miss him.
Ditto that, Kelly.
My late husband and I owned a golf sport center with a pro shop and a driving range in Du Page County, Illinois (a GOP suburb just west of Chicago) years ago.
If they played on Chicago teams or if they were playing in Chicago for a week, many great names in sports came to our place in the 'burbs to hit balls....and many times they would come upstairs to chew the fat and have a Pepsi or a beer with us in our office, sometimes even staying on for a couple hours after we turned the range lights off at 10 PM.
I can't remember all the names.....Tony LaRussa, Tom Sievers, Early Wynne, Michael Jordon, Hawk Harrelson....you name 'em they came.
The great place kicker for the Chicago Bears, Bobby Thomas, was a regular. He lived in our county. In fact, we hired his high school son, Bobby Jr., to work for us on the range during the summer seasons.
We talked a lot of politics with them and they were patriotic Americans all, many were Republicans and conservatives.
When he retired from the Bears, Bob Thomas Sr. ran for Du Page County circuit judge as a Republican....later he ascended to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Oh, the fascinating behind-the-scenes sports stories I could tell....those were the days when these guys were the exact opposite of "snowflakes" and "victims".
I would wager that today not one of 'em would ever kneel when the Anthem was played in their various sports arenas, not one.
Leni
Those institutions, like the rest of society, were corrupted from above, mostly by the Supreme Court.
Your right of association is quite limited.
Leni
Importing 30 Million LEGAL immigrants during last 25 years, 90%+ of whom were sponsored by another legal immigrant, and 90% of them are low skills or low wealth or senior immigrants. They get government checks paid for by tax payers.
Did you know a senior immigrant qualifies for social security checks and Medicaid for life. Yes, I know this first hand!
Adding 10% of population with low quality immigrants has changed this country for ever, sadly. New Zealand has a smart immigration policy. Either you must bring $1.5 Million with you, or $10 Million if you are a senior, or have skills in demand in NZ with a job offer. Plus you must pass English proficiency test administered by NZ gov’t. Our immigration policy is horrible to put it mildly.
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