They got Booed

Last night the NFL came back. The Texans played the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs.

I don’t know if anyone else has seen people’s responses to the NFL as of late but oh my gosh. Some of the comments on articles that newspapers and channels posted about the return of the NFL were gross.

My company sent out a generic “Ready for Tailgating?” email and people took time out of their day to reply to that marketing email with things like “Not the NFL! I won’t watch another game” and “Seriously? The NFL. Wake up guys!”

All those emails come directly to my inbox and I got about five of them. Which is a lot. Generally, we get maybe one or two replies to those emails and it’s usually centered around “Can you help me with this customer service issue?” and “I found the grill for cheaper on Amazon.”

I didn’t watch the game last night. I just don’t care enough about the NFL right now. I don’t have any energy to devote to sports because I’m too busy focusing on things like *gestures at the US on fire literally, politically, and socially.*

But considering the comments I had seen on those Facebook posts and the replies I got to that VERY generic football and grilling email, I knew that last night’s game was probably going to have some drama.

The game was in Kansas City. The Texans decided to come out after the National Anthem (spoiler alert: teams used to do that ALL the time. They came onto the field after the Anthem.) After the National Anthem, they played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which is usually called the Black National Anthem. Then they did something that people thought was radical.

The two teams took the field, linked arms at center field, and observed a moment of silence.

They got booed.

The winners of the damn Super Bowl last year got booed on their own damn field for observing a moment of silence.

We’re going to skate past the fact that for some godforsaken reason, 17,000 fans were admitted and allowed in the stadium during a PANDEMIC, and focus on the booing.

Some statistics for you:

- 70% of the players in the NFL are Black

- Fewer than 10% of NFL coaches are Black

- One general manager is Black

- There are zero Black Owners in the NFL

Clearly the NFL has a race problem and after years of saying “We don’t have a race problem,” they finally had to deal with it after the nation erupted in protests against police brutality after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers.

So the NFL said they were wrong about telling players they couldn’t kneel or show signs of solidarity. They said that Black Lives Matter and that they were going to start addressing racism seriously.

Just as a note, they did NOT apologize to Colin Kaepernick which is an issue in and of itself, but we’ll leave that for now like the fans in the pandemic stadium.

I have a lot of thoughts on this and instead of replying back to individual people on those Facebook posts, I decided that I’d just write all the thoughts here.

To people saying “I liked it until they brought politics into it:”

Is it just because they aren’t your politics? And is it “politics” for the 70% Black players to stand up and say “Hey, stop killing us.” That just seems like a basic human response to a population being systemically oppressed and killed by the people effectively ordained by the state to protect and serve.

(Also before you say “but cops kill more white people!” Yes, by the numbers, police officers kill more white people, but that’s because there are more white people (76%) in the US than Black people (13%). If you look at the people killed by police in the US, police disproportionally kill Black people. Police kill Black people at a rate of 32 per million and white people at a rate of 13 per million. You are over 2.5 times more likely to get shot by a police officer if you are Black than if you are white.

Sources: https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1123070/police-shootings-rate-ethnicity-us/

Okay. Now that that’s over with. Let’s continue.

To people saying, “They get paid millions. Just focus on the game:”

Effectively the “shut up and dribble” argument and guys…gross. Players can’t just leave they race at the door. These Black athletes have to contend with the fact that they are playing some silly, meaningless game while their communities are being ravaged and your response is “shut up and play”?

You know how terrible that sounds right? That’s screaming, “Entertain me!” at people who are seeing their brothers and sisters killed in cold blood. Also, you realize how much this sounds like slavery right?

Play the game for white coaches and white owners and white leadership with the white fans scream at you about showing any signs of being Black and wanting to take part in being the solution to address racism. Ew. Read a history book.

To the people saying, “Kneeling is disrespectful:”

What do you want them to do? You get mad about them talking about racism on social media. You get mad at them for peacefully kneeling. You get mad at them for staying in the locker room. You get mad at them for wearing shirts and hats with “Black Lives Matter” or “I Can’t Breathe.” You get mad at them for raising a fist. You get mad at them for moments of silence. You get mad at them for linking arms.

You get mad at them for peacefully protesting and then try to cram “free speech” down “dissenters” throats when we call you out for being bigoted and racist.

So…only your speech matters? Not theirs? Not the people who want to stand in solidarity with them?

That’s some serious mental gymnastics.

Finally, to the people saying “I’ll never watch another game:”

Fine. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. 75% of the US population supports Black Lives Matter. You are being left outside to look into the windows of us trying to rebuild and fix society.

Also Ken and Karen, we KNOW you’ll be back to watching your team in a week or two. We know you aren’t going to burn those jerseys. We know that you’ll keep checking the scores online. We know you’ll probably still play fantasy football. So like…what’s the point? You want to rage against people calling for an end to racism and police brutality?

You know that you’re on the wrong side of history, right? I mean look at the photos of white people screaming at protests when schools were segregated and dumping food and milkshakes on people at lunch counters. Look at the horrifying images of the brutality that the Freedom Riders faced and the horror of the KKK lynching people.

You are splashing all of that onto the internet. It’s zooming into the cloud. People will be able to access it FOREVER. And you want to enshrine your racism and bigotry like that? Yikes.

I know this was long and ramble-ly, but I just had to get all this out on paper. I had to say something.

If this maybe helps on person reconsider their stance, I’ll take it as a win. We have to speak up. We’ve got a lot of ground left to cover.