Penalties for Kneeling Being Considered

Can you explain this one?

 

What about Ray Lewis is admirable? Why wouldn’t Kaepernick garner more respect?

And, by the way, Kaepernick hasn’t made a spectacle of himself like a few other players and owners have. As poster children go, he’s better than most.

The media is gonna media, though. I personally think it speaks more to the desire of some to elevate sports into something more important than it is, rather than some anti-everything Trump sentiment. YMMV.

 

Sure.

Whereas once athletes were appreciated most for what they did on the court/field/arena and audiences largely desired to respect them just for that, athletes today are more admired than before - and, arguably at times, more admired than what they do on the field - for social or political causes they represent. Usually these causes are liberal. The sports media, more full of liberals than perhaps any quadrant of media, cheers and embraces this. It’s part of telling the “human” story of these celebrities, illuminating their causes.

For example, the recent defense of LeBron James, and who he is, compared to Michael Jordan. Personally? I find James’ sociopolitical thoughts to be eye-rollingly bland. But that’s me. Many in the national sports media are enthralled by it.

A few years back, Gary Smith had a call-to-action piece in SI about why athletes don’t speak up more. It struck me as a little strange, but it marked what was to come: An age where athletes used their celebrity status to weigh in on social and political issues. They’re entitled like everyone else, of course. We just live in an age where the media eggs them on and makes excuses when they do or say dumb shit. (Like Kaepernick did, more than once, after he started kneeling.)

 

No, it’s about Trump. More to the point, it’s about liberalism. I’m sure you can cobble up 10 MLB or NFL players who are staunch defenders of gun rights, or are anti-abortion rights. I’m not sure you’ll be reading that story though, post Tim Tebow. He’s uncool now. (I’m not some huge Tebow fan, either.)

 

So you're comparing Kaepernick unfavorably to Lewis?

 

So, as a result of sportswriters relentlessly pushing their liberal agenda, people now respect a guy speaking out against police brutality more than they respect a guy who was an accomplice to murder, but was better at playing football?

I think I'm OK with that.

And I'll take LeBron's bland thoughts over Jordan's steadfast refusal to ever utter a word that could negatively affect shoe sales.

 

The guy involved in the double homicide?

 

I disagree, but if we’re speaking the truth here, you’ll be right and decent at least 90 percent of the time if you simply oppose Trump on everything.

 

Within the vacuum of being a football player, anyone would. He’s perhaps the best inside linebacker ever.

But Lewis had largely improved his image from more than a decade ago, and was widely respected for his play and leadership qualities.

Until the Kaepernick tweet.

 

While I would agree that Lewis' public image had improved from the period immediately after he was involved in a murder, I'm not sure many people viewed him as anything other than a buffoon and a fraud.

 

Certainly valid to differentiate them on the field, as players.

But have to agree that the sincerity of Lewis's post-plea-deal public rehabilitation is up for debate, while Kaepernick, right or wrong, is genuine in his convictions and his commitments and has sacrificed tens of millions of dollars adhering to them.

 

Yes, I know that. You are not alone. Many in the media would.

That’s why I wrote it.

FWIW, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, athletes stepping into advocacy. I just suspect we’re getting the advocacy the media prefers to cover. A media that is by and large liberal. Which, in more cases than not, I track with.

Im just naming it. The media largely has a side. That side loves gambling, hates the NCAA and skewers the NFL. It’s a side, it has an argument, and you either agree with that argument, or you’re uncool, and there are places, such as Deadspin, where you would not be able to work.