The culture wars are here yet again. In one day, Trump trolled the NFL and probably decimated it for a decade or more to come, or maybe forever. At face value, none of this makes sense – or really, it doesn’t make sense in any way except to observe that we’re in some sort of mass self-destructive cultural hysteria. Last month it was confederate statues and Nazi’s hiding in every corner. This month its professional sports, maybe even beyond the NFL. God, what will it be next month?
First there was Black Lives Matter, a controversial and complicated amalgam of a movement. Then there was Kaepernick, all last season, whom by the way, remains unemployed in spite of all this outpouring. The NFL season starts with a few players taking the knee and no one really cares like they did last season about Kaepernick. Trump opens his mouth, the whole NFL lurches, and a huge chunk of fans are walking away, probably for a long time to come because the NFL has been tarnishing for awhile now anyway.
So who is Trump to the NFL or the players? Trump is a non-entity in the very deeply institutionalized race struggles facing the nation and yet with a single tweet, he can be projected to be anything that the hysteric public wants him to be. And Trump could care less. Trump is a confirmed narcissist who is genuinely oblivious to much angst that goes on around him.
What about patriotism? In today’s vernacular, patriotism is at best deeply unpopular to half the country, akin to Fascism. How ironic that it was patriotism – bold, simple, sometimes even jingoistic patriotism that inspired millions of small town boys to go fight against Hitler. Trump invokes patriotism and he may as well have decreed genocide – such is the weird mindset that took hold of so many NFL players that were following other players that did not have the fortitude to stand on their own.
I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the pro-uniformed service crowd either as the vast majority of them have been as reactionary as those they oppose. A thousand memes correctly point out that we all have the right to peaceful protest, even if misdirected, but diss the uniform, and you are suddenly the lowest anarchist life form imaginable. Millions upon millions following each other in disgust over symbolism while real suffering goes ignored.
I guess you can say the NFL players are ‘heroes’ because in a matter of about 24 hours they deeply jeopardized the long-term prospects of an entire industry to make a point about a narcissist that they blame for 400 years of racial woes in the new land. They’re giving up their paycheck for this when a few years down the road, several zeros come off their paycheck and when their sons never have the opportunity to play for that kind of money. Selfless… sure. But meanwhile, black boys are still being shot. Nothing changed there.
The NFL this week; brace yourself for next week’s riot, wherever that may fall.
Commentary by Lee Jones