NFL Season Kicks Off – “Moment of Unity” Booed

Well, in case you missed it the NFL season kicked off last night with the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Houston Texans.  Cowboys and indians?

I tuned into the pregame show but found it was dominated by politics and discussion of racial inequality and how the NFL was dealing with it.  Players are allowed to display names of individuals that died in the hands of police.  The Black National Anthem was presented.  Then, the National Anthem followed with the singers, Chloe x Halle, wearing t-shirts with photos of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor.

I expected this to some degree but it was dominant.  I was surprised but also saddened that politics has now injected itself in a big way into the NFL.  The next logical step is for players to refuse to play over an incident just as the NBA did.  Some feel this is appropriate but others, like myself, yearn for the old days of the separation of politics and sport.

The Chiefs stayed on the sidelines for both songs, with only one player kneeling while raising his fist for the National Anthem.  The Texans elected to stay in their locker room for both songs.  This is being criticized but I think it is more a case of if they can’t all be on the same page, they avoid any distraction.

Many, and probably most that don’t even care for football, are counting and observing.  I’m sure they will be able to point out an indiscretion that can be attributed to a racist tendency.

What I found interesting was when the Chiefs and Texans lined up in the middle of the field, arms locked, and the announcer invited all to participate in “A Moment of Unity.”  I felt this was a very cringe-worthy moment, like fingernails on a chalkboard.  It came off to me as very contrived and cheapened the moment.

In my opinion, fans agreed with me and the 20% that occupied the stands gave loud ‘boo’s.

Like clockwork, the media jumped on this narrative today, offering this moment up as proof suggesting that we are a racist society.

Chiefs fans disgustingly booed during moment of unity before NFL season opener

But there was a terrible moment before kickoff, as the fans at Arrowhead could be heard booing during a moment of unity in which the two teams locked arms in the middle of the field.

Apparently many fans in the crowd don’t enjoy seeing people coming together to raise awareness for critical issues and just to support, you know, unity and equality.

Because this was disgusting:

I guess an alternate view was not considered – one that I hold – in that we came to see a football game and not to have politics shoved down our collective throats. So please, can we get back to the game?   No, no… it had to be racist.

The irony is also lost in that Colin Kaepernick kneeled but the message was lost because the act was not specific and subject to interpretation… I don’t know, like ‘boo’ing.

So now we have a stadium with 20% occupancy that is now labeled ‘disgusting’ based on an interpretation of ‘boo’ing.  With the media’s help, fans are now being targeted as terrible individuals.

Maybe the message would have been well received if 1) a little less time was dedicated to it 2) it wasn’t adorned over helmets, goalposts and jerseys and 3) the moment of participation was a lot less “corny” and contrived.

But here again, if you disagree with the message delivery you are lumped into disagreeing with the message.  This is why there should be a separation of politics and sports – because it is a slippery slope.

Mark my words – there will be a boycott/refusal to play in our near future, if COVID-19 concerns don’t gut the NFL first.  They say that one of the hardest thing for a business to do is attract back customers they have lost.  People learn to live without the product and find it is not that necessary in their lives.  This is what the NFL risks.

The NFL finally got the message with domestic violence and teams tend to cut players that are involved with domestic abuse.  Ray Rice never played again.  However, it’s ironic that the names adorned on the back of helmets, jerseys and on t-shirts are now held up and idolized.  I fully understand the distinctions but it doesn’t diminish the irony.

My point is that once you open the door, once the camel gets his nose under the tent, the arguments about ethics can freely fly.  The NFL has now taken that turn and there may be no turning back.  Now, I cannot cheer the boos because nobody will understand my message, so I will just leave it here in this blog.

Category: Politics