Archive for the ‘NFL’ Category

Why Did America Reject Colin Kaepernick?: How it Will Continue to Get Black Men and Women Murdered by Police

Friday, June 5th, 2020

by B. Austin

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#CauseAndEffect

Colin Kaepernick’s protest really is a noble and amazing footnote in history. The media commentary (social and terrestrial) told a tale of a country staunchly committed to its modern, diet-soda version of systemic bigotry and racism. How? Because there is little to no empathy (or at least an attempt at empathy) for those who must mentally, emotionally, and spiritually dwell inside of being Black in America.  So, there can be very limited compassion (if any at all), and ultimately, the effects far outweigh the cause for these people; People who look like me.  Fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, strangers are dying in the streets at disproportionate numbers, at the hands of institutions which are said to protect and serve. But who or what are they protecting and serving?  The African American community shares its pain, but it falls on deaf ears.  When we entertain society; when we adhere to being “good assimilated black folks”, allowed to live middle class, we are non-threatening, and our culture (and art) can easily be consumed for its entertainment value, then we are at our very best to White America.

Minneapolis-Minnesota-protest-kneeledBut I digress.  Kaepernick was to be one of those “good black boys”, but it didn’t work out that way.  Somewhere, in his soul, the warrior spirit took hold.  Somewhere, his thirst for justice and righteousness may have come to the forefront of his consciousness.  So, an NFL player consults a former serviceman on how to best approach protesting in an environment meant to celebrate servicemen and women.  Said soldier prays with Kaep and goes on to advise him of the best way to serve his cause and share his patriotism (civil disobedience, protest, etc – all examples of activities which purchase INTO the conceptual foundations of “America”).  Kaep takes a knee on a world stage to show his support to victims of police brutality and systemic racism at the hands of law enforcement.  Rather than have that dialog, White America (by and large) tells Kaepernick and the others joining him that this is wrong, disrespectful, and an affront to their patriotic sensibilities.  Nevermind what you are protesting (the cause).  We, the gentry of America…the people this great nation was formed for, and those that subscribe to our way of thinking, are going to dictate to you what WE find offensive, and it isn’t Black men and women dying at the hands of police.  We are going to ignore that and make this about the flag, the troops, the president, right versus left, “Black on Black crime”, any and everything EXCEPT the cause of your protest and your intended effect.  “Shut up and enjoy your millions, Kaepernick!”  “Stop disrespecting OUR flag!”  “You should be honored to live here.”  “Aren’t you a millionaire?”   “Why are you complaining?”  “Those men and women should have complied with police instructions.”  Never for one moment do these people stop and think about Kaepernick’s cause or the people for which he champions.  Just whining Black folks who should be thankful to reside in this “Land of the ‘FREE’” and “Home of the Brave”.

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So, here we are, Spring of 2020.  NYC is under curfew with rumors of pending martial law (though there have been reassurances that it WON’T happen), 77 years after the last time NYC was under curfew in 1943, which was also due to a white police officer murdering an unarmed African American man.

The cause is plain to see.  It isn’t important enough until it makes them uncomfortable, as it may indict their morals.  The effect: white America is far more comfortable focusing on the effects and assigning their own narrative to said effects.

 

B. Austin, of War Room Sports

Patriotism

Monday, April 27th, 2020

by B. Austin

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So…interesting thing I observed:

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The New England Patriots took very talented Kicker Justin Rohrwasser (Marshall University) in the 5th round of the 2020 NFL Draft. As is his right, he has expressed himself via tattoo with the markings of a neoconservative, right-wing, militia group co-founded by the late Michael Brian Vanderboegh, called The 3 Percenters (referring back to the three percent of people who took up arms against the British during the American Revolution).

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His tattoo is prevalent on his left arm, I believe. And now…he is being pressured to cover it up or remove it. This is SOOOOOOO wrong to me. He chose to tattoo this on his body and express himself. Why do we force people to hide who and what they are? We create a place for dishonesty, disingenuousness, and ambiguity to fester. People can hide in plain sight and not have to own what they claim to stand for. A HUGE part of the history and legacy of this nation is what these neoconservative, right-wing, white organizations stand for and believe in. It makes us uncomfortable to see and know this truth. It is unhealthy for us to force it “underground”. Allow this young man the opportunity to keep his tattoos intact. Allow Nick Bosa to continue sharing his thoughts and commentary. Don’t hide who and what you are!

 

B. Austin of War Room Sports

(Shout Out To Kyree, WRS Operation Battle Rap)

The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl Champions!!!

Monday, February 3rd, 2020
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is doused on the sideline during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 54 football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is doused on the sideline during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 54 football game against the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

For Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl LIV gear, click HERE or click the link below.
Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Championship Gear

The Coach and the Police Chief

Thursday, December 5th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

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The Washington football team has now won two in a row and yet a co-worker and die-hard life-long fan of the team is furious!

Understanding her thought process can be very useful beyond sports.

Her thinking is something like this: such glimmers of better football are sure to be exploited by the team’s CEO, Bruce Allen, to convince the owner Dan Snyder that he need not make the radical changes that she is convinced must happen before the team can return to its glory days as a model franchise. Allen, of course, has a vested interest in selling such snake oil, since most fans, like her, are convinced that his head should be the first to roll in an organizational shake-up.  In other words, short-range success would add credence to the delusion that mere reform around the edges is all that is needed.

One of the primary aspects of the delusion is that it makes no distinction between possibility and probability. In this case, the NFC East is so bad that Washington, at 3-9, can still “possibly” win the division. This possibility is bolstered by the fact that Dallas hasn’t beaten a winning team and Philadelphia just lost to Miami. So as of today, if Dallas and Philadelphia go a collective 1-7, with the one win being Philadelphia beating Dallas, and Washington wins its last 4 games, it would win the division. On top of that, it would be the number 4 seed in the NFC, ahead of either Seattle or San Francisco, and host a playoff game.

A win this Sunday in Green Bay over a 9-3 Packers team would be the weekly lotto ticket hitting for $50. That is to say it would be just enough reinforcement to convince many to stay the course.

It is mathematically “possible”.

If you believe it is probable, you likely also believe in Santa Claus.

The delusional grasp at straws in a desperate attempt to either maintain a status quo or rationalize an aspiration.

My friend and co-worker has no such delusions, nor did she about the former coach Jay Gruden.

Washington finally gave the arrogant Gruden his walking papers earlier this year. He absolutely deserved to be fired. He was 35-49-1, with no playoff wins. As if one needed more reason, this genius deactivated future Hall of Fame running back Adrian Peterson, who at 34 years old, was still arguably their most dependable offensive weapon.

And yet as justified as Gruden’s dismissal was and as justified as Allen’s dismissal would be, non-delusional Washington fans understand that there will be no significant difference until the entire organization is changed.

When I said that there are lessons beyond sports, I especially had in mind the police chief in my and the Washington football team’s home of Prince George’s County.

There is a grassroots effort to remove Chief Stawinski as the police chief and the case is solid:

 

  • Citizen filed complaints about excessive force are increasing under his tenure, with little to no accountability;
  • Stawinski opposes the immediate release of all video footage audio and other recorded evidence of police misconduct;
  • Black and Latino Prince George’s police are currently suing the department for discrimination;
Chief Hank Stawinski

Chief Hank Stawinski

I am confident that eventually, the chief will be forced out. The value of that would be a win for those more interested in justice, rather than maintaining cozy relationships with the establishment. The foreseeable response to his ouster would be for the Prince George’s Black leadership to appoint a Black or Latino replacement as police chief… possibly even a female to appease the masses. He or she will be better at the PR aspects of being a police chief than Stawinski. However, the fundamental systemic factors that shield Prince George’s County Police from accountability will not change one bit. One such factor is the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights (LEBOR). A version of this exists in every state, in some form or another, all over the country, and essentially provides police with an additional layer of due process rights that you and I simply do not have. As a result, it makes holding police accountable much less likely and is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, which is the only organized labor faction supported by the Republican party. LEBOR needs to be abolished in its entirety.

The hope for both Washington football fans and Prince George’s County residents is that we have seen this story before and are wising up. The fans were as dissatisfied with CEO Vinny Serrato and coach Jim Zorn as they are with the current and most recent CEO and coach. Police brutality in Prince George’s County goes back decades and even as Black folks have pierced the county’s power structure, the outcomes have not significantly changed. The only rational conclusion that one can arrive at in both situations is that the primary issue is not the coach or the police chief. The primary issue is the organization and system. Until that is addressed, there is no reason to expect any meaningful change in the results.

Both factions see this and know, even if justified, that the removal of a coach, police chief, or even a president, will not be enough. Only the radical transformation of both entities will bring about the change needed.

So, in an odd way, the best thing for Washington football fans would be for the Cowboys to win tonight or for the team to lose to Green Bay, 57-4, to erase any illusions that the team is “close” to being a viable competitor. The phoenix bird rises from ashes. What is inescapable is that at some point, it had to be burned. No less will do for the entities of NFL Washington football or Prince George’s County Police.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Browns/Steelers: A Perspective

Thursday, November 21st, 2019

by Gus Griffin

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On August 22, 1965 the hated Los Angeles Dodgers were in San Francisco to play my Giants. As was often the case during this era, these were the two best teams in the National League. At that time, there was no wild card or even division winners to qualify for the playoffs. In fact, there were no playoffs. A team had to finish first in the league to advance to the World Series. It is against this backdrop and within the context of the heated rivalry between the two teams when it happened. According to the great Giants Hall of Fame pitcher, Juan Marichal, the Dodgers catcher John Roseboro was throwing close to his head when returning pitches, while Marichal was at bat.

JMHis reaction: he hit Roseboro in the head with his bat and thus what many consider the ugliest brawl in baseball history was ignited!

Marichal was suspended for 8 games, which in that era, meant he would miss 2 starts. My Giants would win 95 games that year, largely on the power of Marichal’s 22 wins and a league leading 10 complete game shutouts, and Willie May’s league-leading 52 homers and 2nd MVP season. And yet, a team with 6 future Hall of Famers would finish 2 games behind the Dodgers, in second place. The Dodgers would go on to win the World Series.

Juan Marichal was arguably the most stylish pitcher of all time. His elegant high-leg kick, reminiscent of a matador, and pinpoint control was legendary. He, not Bob Gibson and not Sandy Koufax, won the most games in baseball during the 1960s. I am a die-hard Giants fan and consider Marichal to be the most underappreciated Hall of Fame pitcher.

And yet he was dead wrong!

On June 28, 1997, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson had a rematch for the heavyweight championship of the world. Less than a year earlier, in the first match, Holyfield upset Tyson, whom manyMT considered to be “the baddest man on the planet”. Holyfield also had a boxing-wide reputation for using head butts as a deliberate tactic. Intentional or not, he certainly used this against the shorter Tyson in the rematch.

Most of you know how Tyson reacted: he bit Holyfield’s ear to the point of drawing blood.

Tyson was banned from boxing for 15 months and was never the same as a fighter.

I always liked Mike Tyson.

And yet he was dead wrong!

Fast forward to last week, November 14, 2019. Everyone reading this knows by now what happened in the Browns/Steelers game and thus repeating it here is not necessary.  I do believe the backdrop of this “rivalry” can be useful for understanding. I say rivalry in quotations because to call it that over the past 30 years from a competitive standpoint is beyond a stretch. I could not remember the last time that the Browns were actually favored to beat the Steelers, as was the case last week. You literally may have to go back to the Bernie Kosar era, which is 30 years ago. The Browns had lost 8 straight to my Steelers since 2014.

Think of the Browns like the weak kid who has been bullied year after year. He finally goes into the gym to bulk up in the way of getting Odell Beckham Jr, Baker Mayfield, and of course, Myles Garrett.

Think of my Steelers like the bully who has been smacking the Browns around whenever bored and takes their lunch money.

Last week, the Browns had finally had enough. They became the bully, opening a can of whoop-ass on my Steelers.

But apparently that gym work the Brown’s engaged in included something that drove them over the edge.

What is interesting to me are those who are equating the provocation with the retaliation.

In all three of these incidents, one can cite and validate the provocation. Roseboro later in life in his biography admitted to intentionally throwing near Marichal’s head, which surprised no one. That is how the Giants and Dodgers roll.

But all provocation and retaliation is not created equal.

MGOnce Garrett had Steelers QB Mason Rudolph’s helmet, dispatching it and a simple Floyd Mayweather combination would have been sufficient to put the unwise charging QB down.

Garrett chose the nuclear option! As a result, an outstanding player drafted 1st overall in 2017, who had 10 sacks through 10 games, and was going to be a viable Defensive Player of the Year candidate is gone for the season, without pay.

There has been a significant focus on the fact that all of the players suspended from the Browns/Steelers brawl were Black, and Rudolph, who is white, was not suspended.

He too should have been suspended. But some want to point to this as an example to prove that there are racial disparities in how the NFL and America meets out discipline.

To them I say that water is wet and there are so many more relevant samples that have already confirmed this reality.

In addition, this assessment fosters a selective analysis of what actually happened. To say that Rudolph initiated the whole thing is subjective and assumes knowing what Garrett was thinking when he took Rudolph down. No one, including myself, has a clue what Garrett was thinking at any point in the melee. What we do know is that Rudolph escalated the situation beyond what he could handle.

But some are sounding too much like the child on the playground after the fight, declaring, “He started it”.

If one demands proportionate discipline, I’m with you.

If your demand in this situation is for equal discipline, I can only say to you: don’t be that guy.

That guy who defends the road-rager who runs a motorist off the highway in retaliation for getting the middle finger.

Don’t be that guy who defends an occupying military force that levels an entire city because a few teenagers, who actually have a right to be there, threw rocks at the soldiers.

And don’t be that guy who says “when you play with fire you get burned”. Fire does not have the capacity for self-constraint. People do…and the more we rationalize the failure to exercise that constraint, the more we invite others to bypass the capacity altogether.

Having said all of that, I can’t wait until December 1st when the Browns come to Pittsburgh!

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Football and Imperialism

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019

by Gus Griffin

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San Francisco Forty Niners Defensive End Nick Bosa has come up with a thing that is sure to catch on with football fans. During the team’s “conquering” of the Cleveland Browns, he symbolized planting a flag after sacking QB Baker Mayfield. He described it as payback for what Mayfield had done in college when the Oklahoma Sooners went into Columbus to beat Bosa’s Ohio State Buckeyes.

Speaking of college football, one of its fastest growing media components in popularity is something called “College Football Imperialism”. It began in 2017 and almost overnight became one of the most anticipated sports-related posts on the internet. The rules for the “Imperialism” map are pretty simple: each team is given the counties that they are closest to at the beginning of the season. If a team beats a team who was on the map the previous week, they take over all land that the team owned on the previous map.

Make no mistake about it, we football fans love the concept of Imperialism. This has long made me ponder a question that I am not sure many other sports fans consider:

Can a nation as obsessed with football as America ever reject its Imperialist foreign policies?

To ensure understanding, let’s look at the definition of Imperialism:

Imperialism is a policy or ideology of extending a country’s rule over foreign nations, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

Football versions of this would be anytime a team wins on the other team’s home turf. One such very memorable example was in 1983. Washington was the defending Super Bowl champions and opened the season on Monday Night Football against their long-time hated rival, the Dallas Cowboys. Washington jumped out to a 23-3 halftime lead, only to eventually lose the game 31-30.

The Cowboys had planted a flag at RFK Stadium.

Later that season in December, Washington traveled to Dallas with many of the players literally dressed in military fatigues to symbolize the pending war. The game was essentially for first place in the NFC East and likely the top seed in the playoffs. Washington crushed Dallas 31-10 and the baton for conference supremacy was officially passed from Dallas to Washington.

Washington had planted a flag in Dallas.

Washington Hall of Fame offensive lineman Russ Grimm best summarizes the idea of football domination in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech when he said, “there is no greater feeling than to be able to move a man from point A to point B, against his will”. He made this statement with the familiar intoxicating aura of power, and rightfully so, because Grimm and that whole era of Washington football, like Imperialism, was all about power.

America’s history, particularly since World War II, is riddled with examples of Imperialism. When the former Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, it marked the end of the only viable military check on US hegemony. As a result, Imperialist policy was accelerated, usually with a pretext of “spreading democracy” or “confronting terrorism” or “defending human rights”, and of course, disarming “weapons of mass destruction”. Long before World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. drew from the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially declared all of the Western Hemisphere to be the domain of the United States. Since the two aforementioned events, this mindset of American Exceptionalism has been extended all around the word. If that history does not convince you, consider that the U.S. maintains over 800 military bases in over 70 foreign countries and/or territories…the latter being a term in and of itself that derives from Imperialism.

One can learn as much from the fate of those who have resisted Imperialism, be it Haiti, North Korea, the Congo, Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, Grenada, Nicaragua, and this list is by no means complete. The best current example is Venezuela.

Some of you may be asking why is what happens in a foreign country important to me here? A good friend of mine suggested, with good reason, that people largely have an ALAINIMBY (as long as it’s not in my back yard) attitude toward such issues. That is the precise attitude toward the environment that has led to global warming and today’s crisis. The fact is that the current immigration issues at the U.S. border cannot be correctly understood without understanding U.S. foreign policy and its underlying corporate business interests in the country of origin of the migrants. Specifically, in Mexico and Central America, a direct line can be drawn between NAFTA, adopted in the 1990s, and today’s immigration from those regions.

Martin Luther King came to ponder the same question about U.S. Imperialism. He concluded resources being used to try to suppress the self-determination of the Vietnamese people was taking away from what could be used to combat poverty in the U.S. That was the selfish truth. The broader humanity truth is as he said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

Today, even though a critical mass of the American public has been convinced and “outraged” about Soviet interference in the 2016 elections, there is not anywhere near as much outrage over continued U.S. Imperialistic policies abroad. Even if one believes completely in the Soviet interference narrative, can you honestly say it wasn’t anything that the U.S. has not done all over the world on a routine basis?

Why use football as the platform to discuss this? Because the best way to engage people is to tap into that for which they already have passionate vestige. It is a huge part of how the current occupant of the White House got to where he is. If we can raise awareness about such issues, then we would have a chance to convince fans to invest a fraction of their passion for football toward informed critical thinking about our imperialist foreign policy. At that point, there is at least the chance of making some positive changes for the betterment of the world collective.

Another reason to compare and contrast football with imperialism is football’s built in anti-imperialist policy skewed toward the less developed team called the draft. The weakest teams get to pick first because they have the greatest needs. It is the polar opposite under Imperialism, where greed takes priority over need. The rich get richer, the strong get stronger, under a might makes right anti-humane endorsement of Darwinism.

To embrace America’s Imperialist foreign policy is like proposing that the New England Patriots should get the first 10 picks in the NFL Draft.

So, can American football fans reject the nation’s Imperialist foreign policy? The answer is yes.

The following two things can start the process:

  • Commit to constant independent education about world matters and the source for such education cannot be corporate media; and
  • Join an organization committed to pushing back against Imperialistic policies and pro-Imperial narratives

The wonderful part about this, is that it is not an either/or proposition. I am going to be giddy when my Steelers roll into Baltimore in December and plant a flag at M&T Bank Stadium. No one will die, nor will the human right to self-determination of those who live in the Baltimore area be usurped. In football, a visiting team can conquer with none of the real-life collateral damage of Imperialism. In world affairs, this is not the case. Our humanity moves forward when we can recognize the similarities and differences and take action accordingly.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Hope for the Hopeless…Even the Jets and Dolphins (9/21/2019)

Thursday, September 26th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

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(Originally Published on September 21, 2019)

As we enter the 3rd week of the NFL season, there are nine teams that have yet to win a game. As early as it is, this typically brings about what I call “panic analysis”. This is not always a bad thing. In 1993, an 0-2 start is what prompted Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to cave to the holdout of running back Emmitt Smith and sign him to a new deal. The “Boys” would go on to repeat as Super Bowl Champions and win again after the 1995 season. That was the exception. For the most part, it’s basically Chicken Little/the sky is falling type of talk. While it is true that starting 0-2 does not bode well for a team’s playoff hopes, some just get carried away with the doom and gloom. The fact is, if a team can figure out WHY it is winless, there is enough time and football remaining to correct the problems…provided you have a decent amount of talent and GREAT coaching.

Now, of the nine teams, the Dolphins and Jets are in especially dire straits. The Dolphins have lost their first two games by a combined score of 102-10. Both games were at home. Even with the addition of the great LeVeon Bell, the Jets were already offensively challenged. Now they are down to their 3rd QB. Las Vegas sees the futility of these two teams, making them both over 3 touchdown underdogs. It is extremely rare for any NFL team to be a 3 touchdown underdog. In my nearly 40 years of being an investor on some level or another, I cannot recall two teams being this big of underdogs in the same year, let alone the same week.

With all of that said, there are historical examples that provide hope for all 9 teams to include the Dolphins and Jets to make the playoffs.

New Orleans Saints v Pittsburgh Steelers1989 Pittsburgh Steelers: This is the 30th anniversary of one such example. My Steelers had not made the playoff in 5 years and only had 1 winning season during that span. This was the longest drought in the tenure of Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll, whose teams won 4 Super Bowls in 6 years in the 1970s. He is still the only head coach of the Super Bowl era to repeat twice. They opened up the 1989 season getting trounced by the Cleveland Browns at home, 51-0. The team then went to Houston to lose to the Oilers 41-10. The spoiled fan base of Steeler Nation was calling for the legendary Noll’s head.

Then he turned it around.

The Steelers would go to Cleveland and beat the same Browns team that had throttled them in the season opener, 17-7. The team finished the season 9-7 and made it to the playoffs, earning another trip to Houston, where the Oilers awaited. Houston had swept the season series from the Steelers. The Steelers would win 26-23 in overtime. It would have been especially satisfying for Noll given that he absolutely detested Oilers coach Jerry Glanville.

The next week the Steelers would go to Denver and come up just short of John Elway and the Broncos, 24-23.

A team that had one of the worst starts in NFL history ended up winning 10 games, to include a road playoff victory. I considered it to be Noll’s single greatest coaching job, which is to say a lot. When the all-time greatest coaches are mentioned, Chuck Noll’s name is omitted too often.

SAN DIEGO, :  Coach Bobby Ross of the San Diego Chargers watches his team play the Arizona Cardinals 09 December in San Diego, California. Ross, who led the Chargers to their first Superbowl last year, is struggling to get his team in the playoffs this year, with a 6-8 record. The Chargers lead, 28-17, in third quarter.                            AFP PHOTO   Vince BUCCI (Photo credit should read Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images)

1992 San Diego Chargers: This team started the season 0-4. It had gotten so bad that head coach Bobby Ross was introduced by the team’s play-by-play announcer as the director of the Laurel and Hardy Show.

Then he turned it around.

The Chargers would go on to win 11 of the final 12 to make it to the playoffs, where they would beat the division rival Chiefs before bowing to Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins in the conference semi-finals. That Chargers team is the only team in NFL history to start a season 0-4 and still make the playoffs. NOTE: My Steelers would have pulled the trick in 2013 but for a bad call between the Chiefs and Chargers, even by the league’s admission.

This is just but one reason (in addition to his college record at both Maryland and Georgia Tech) why I consider Bobby Ross to be the most underappreciated coach in football over the past 50 years.

Of the nine teams, the one with the best chance to turn things around, in my mind, would be the Carolina Panthers. They have the best QB, when healthy, enough proven players on the defensive side from the 2015 conference champions, and are in a relatively speaking weaker division.

Does all of this mean that there is hope even for the Jets and Dolphins?

HELL TO THE NAW!  LMAO

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Five Things to Take Away from the Antonio Brown Drama

Thursday, September 12th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

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The latest news about Antonio Brown are sexual assault allegations. If true, and all data indicates that false allegations occur less than 10% of the time, this is more disturbing than any of the five items that I will list. While the emails certainly don’t make Brown look good, at the time of this writing I simply do not feel I have enough information to speak on this.

There are at least five things I do feel comfortable speaking on as take-aways from the Antonio Brown drama.

In no particular order, they are as follows:

 

  • THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS ARE IN THE HEAD OF THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!

That has been clear for some time on the field, even before Sunday’s 30-3 thrashing. As great as Brown has been against the rest of the league, against the Patriots he has been “Ok”. The team is 2-5 against them since his arrival and he has averaged under 5 catches per game and has only had one 100-yard game. The fact that the Steelers may have actually passed up a better compensation package from the “Evil Empire in the Northeast” to keep Brown away from them speaks volumes. And yet he ends up there anyway, as did LaGarrett Blount and James Harrison before him;

 

  • HE LEFT $20 MILLION IN GUARANTEED SIGNING BONUS MONEY ON THE TABLE

Even if winning a ring is more important to Brown than money, is it really $20 million dollars more important? As a friend noted, this is generational wealth. The dude has 4 children. It wasn’t just about him… or at least it should not have been just about him. The thing about this on the money side is Brown could have gotten it without all this drama. Julio Jones just became the highest paid receiver in NFL history and I wouldn’t know his voice any more than Kawhi Leonard’s.

 

  • VALIDATION OF HIS NARCISSISM

The two finalists in America for Narcissist of the Decade are Donald Trump and Antonio Brown… and Brown has a chance to pull off the upset! Other than being rich, if you are on ANY list with Donald Trump, you need to take a good, long look in the mirror and not to admire yourself. If Brown, in fact, got what he wanted, this whole process has emboldened him as is. The thing to remember about the narcissistic personality type is that it is unfulfillable. Trying to satisfy and accommodate it is about as likely as filling up a black hole with dirt. For Brown’s sake, let’s hope an older and wiser Terrell Owens can connect with him about the long view and the price to be paid for one’s narcissism. The reality is that even the great Michael Jordan was humbled by the Wizards. Bill Gates is white…and was the richest man in the world when a court told him that he could not do whatever he wanted to do. Everyone must answer to someone.

 

  • THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE OF DRAMA PIMPING

The column that I was initially going to write was going to be called, “What the F%$#* is wrong with Antonio Brown?”

I reconsidered for two reasons: 1) It would be low hanging fruit, unlikely to bare any perspective not already commonly discussed and most importantly; 2) What if Brown really does have a personality disorder and isn’t just being a petulant clown?

The second is what concerns me most. I want no part of contributing to the already too neglected collateral damage from drama pimping. By drama pimping I mean the exploitation of human grief, struggles, and pain for profit.

Some will say I am embellishing the issue. If it’s just for entertainment, what’s the problem?

The problem is when manufactured drama for the exclusive purpose of entertaining is conflated with real life human struggles that are rooted in genuine mental health issues, the general public has a hard time telling the difference. Add to that the ignorance and stigma about mental health and such compounds the problem of getting those really suffering to seek treatment. Shows like Iyanla Vanzant’s Fix My Life are ground zero for this conflation.

 

  • THE PATRIOTS ARE VULTURE CAPITALISTS

The Canadian writer Naomi Klein wrote a book called the “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. The book basically describes the process of how vulture capitalist takes advantage of disaster victims in desperate situations. They swoop in and devour the last bits of flesh off the carcass of the victims. They did it in Haiti, New Orleans, and are hovering over the Bahamas as we speak. The Patriots are the sports version of vulture capitalist. They rummage through the dysfunction of other organizations and when the time is right, swoop in and secure an asset for pennies on the dollar of its actual value. It’s actually a great tactic when limited to the sports world. Beyond the sports world, it’s predatory and inhumane.

The Patriots were already one of the favorites to win yet another Super Bowl. Now they are the favorites to win. It’s not as if some of the reclamation projects that the Patriots have attempted have all worked out. Chad Johnson and Albert Haynesworth come to mind. But Brown is the first of such to still be in the prime of his career and could very well push them over the top.

Like I said, none of the take-aways are good…unless you are a Patriots fan.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Why Expanded Replay Will Not Fix NFL Officiating

Sunday, September 8th, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

IR

This year will be the 20th anniversary of the NFL using replay to “get the call right”.

I don’t know anyone old enough to remember officiating before the installation of replay who thinks that it has improved the game. And yet, in no small measure to the tipping point of the Saints getting “jobbed” out of a Super Bowl appearance, the league is not only set to expand replay, but expand it in a way that second guesses the previously sacred “judgement calls”.

Last March, teams voted 31-1 to adopt a rule that will make pass interference reviewable. Based on that margin, the NFL has no idea of the Pandora’s Box it is opening.

The only thing for sure, I believe, is that this will lead to longer games.

The fundamental problem is one of mis-diagnosis. Sure, there are bad calls, and nothing can completely eliminate those. The more specific problems are the “No-calls”, which is what happened in last year’s NFC title game, and almost certainly sent the wrong team to the Super Bowl.

When the diagnosis is wrong, so too will be the treatment.

I’ll go as far as to say that expanded NFL replay will not only fail to improve officiating, but that replay in and of itself has made officiating worst.

To understand my contention, we should leave the realm of football and consider entertainers of another type:

The Flying Wallendas.

As many of you know, the Wallenda family has been walking high wires for years. One of the things that attract many to their exploits is the lack of a safety net. Either they get it right or they could literally die, as was the case with Karl Wallenda in 1978. As tragic as that was, given that there have been seven generations tempting fate, it is beyond remarkable that there haven’t been more fatalities. I attribute that to the conditions and environment in which they perform. Because there is no safety net, there is no place for complacency. Focus is not optional but is a lifesaving necessity.

In the NFL, instant replay has become a safety net for officials. I don’t necessarily believe this to be a conscious thing. In fact, I believe that the subconscious is even more intractable. Just as I do not believe the Wallendas would be as focused if they knew that there was not a safety net below them, I do not believe that NFL officials would miss as much if they did not have instant replay.

To put it another way, I do not believe that Prince would have taught himself how to play 27 different instruments had the technology of today existed when he came up. Necessity and conditions greatly influence performance.

Add to this the fact that officials were emboldened during their last work stoppage by how abysmal their replacements were and the embarrassment it caused the league. There is a correlation between one’s notion of how much he is needed and his complacency.

In the case of many, such as recently retired Ed Hochuli, who is an attorney and worth about $6 million, officiating was never vital to his financial wellbeing.

So how do we fix NFL officiating?

 

  • I believe the answer is counter-intuitive. We don’t need to expand replay, we need to reduce replay. It should be limited to inbounds, scoring, and turnovers. That is it. Some may contend that first downs should be included. If you do you are extending the game;
  • Fire the bad ones. A $200K a year weekend gig in which you keep your league paid travel miles and only work 6 months out of the year is a privilege, not a right. Most officials are like Hochuli and have day jobs. They will survive.
  • Understand that perfection is not the enemy of the good. No system is going to eliminate all bad and missed calls. If you want to make EVERYTHING reviewable within the last 2 minutes of the game, fine. That would have corrected the missed call between LA/NO.

An acronym for the NFL is “not for long”. Players and coaches have long known this if they did not perform. It should have the exact same meaning for officials.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Charlie Brown and Those Who Believe in the Jay-Z, NFL Partnership

Friday, August 23rd, 2019

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

JZ

Over the past 3 years, I have written 6 different columns related to Colin Kaepernick.

My guess is that anyone who wanted my view could go to War Room Sports to read them and get a pretty good idea about my thoughts on the matter. Simply put, I am not sure that I have anything new to add to the discussion about the recently announced Jay-Z partnership with the NFL. Ironically, the column that most reflects my thoughts about this union wasn’t actually written about Colin Kaepernick.

CBIt was about Charlie Brown and Lucy.

Essentially, I compared sports fans of Washington DC teams to Charlie Brown trying to kick the football held by Lucy. No matter how much history and evidence that she would always pull the ball away just as old Chuck approached, the fans believed this time would be different.

Those who believe in the Jay-Z and NFL partnership are like Charlie Brown.

They go through intellectual contortions to rationalize embracing it as a substantive response to the issues raised by Kaepernick. Contortions that the great gymnast Simone Biles could not reproduce.

The most common tropes are as follows:

  • This is chess not checkers; as if Jay-Z has some Machiavellian strategy that will secure the elimination of police brutality and other forms of oppression;
  • If you are not at the table you are on the menu; which makes merely being in the presence of power the goal rather than wielding power toward the elimination of cannibalism; or
  • Let’s give it a chance and wait and see; which sounds like a form of faith described in the book of Hebrews. The problem with this is that there is no substance of what is hoped for, nor evidence of things not seen.

Then there are those who espouse that maybe Jay-Z will secure some business set asides. To that I ask, for whom? The other Black folks who are among the 1 percent, which are not as impacted by the issues Kaepernick raised? Or maybe preferential hiring of Black folks for seasonal minimum wage jobs with no benefits in stadiums, that essentially codify the working poor?

Upon what track record are these hopes based? It seems above question that Jay-Z has been very supportive of the families directly impacted by police brutality. That is a positive contribution that should not be dismissed.

It is also on the back end of the oppressive process.

JZ

To the extent that poverty has been criminalized in America, gentrification and the displacement that accompanies it is one of those foundational issues. Any analysis of the construction of the Barclays center in Brooklyn must conclude that Jay-Z was the primary pitchman for the project to the community and little to none of the promises made to sell the project were kept. In the process, a whole bunch of Black people were moved out. They are no less homeless or otherwise displaced just because a Black face was central in the causing their exodus.

Jay-Z’s take away: less than 1% percent ownership in the Nets plus whatever profit he gained from its eventual sale. Should we be hopeful because it amounts to more than 30 pieces of silver?

I just don’t understand what about this warrants hope. In fact, this partnership is about as organic as an arranged marriage. I would go as far as saying it was foreseeable and straight out of the textbook on Sedating an Uprising 101. In chapter 1, it is clearly outlined that the ruling class throw the masses one whom they like to quell the revolt. That person discourages any further radical descent suggesting that any and all solutions must come from the very systems that are at the root of the problems to begin with.

In the end, the only people to benefit will be Jay-Z, his class comrades, who will be the only ones to make out from any business goodies secured, and the NFL shield, which provides cover for the “owners”.

As sobering as it is to come to the reality of how little this partnership will make a difference, it is as important to understand those who espouse the aforementioned tropes. They are as follows:

  • Affinity cheerleaders are those who think that Jay-Z will advocate for them just because he is
    Black….the demographic disproportionately adversely affected by the issues raised by Kaepernick. If you believe that you are engaging in willful naivety. Same skin is not always kin. It should be remembered that affinity is broader than just race. It can include gender, religion, etc.;
  • Cult of personality followers are those who are so obsessed with the person that they refuse to engage in any critical analysis of the person’s behavior and record. Anytime the word cult is used to describe a group, it is not good;
  • Opportunists are those who know nothing of substance will come from the partnership but see the platform as an opportunity to advance their own individualistic agenda. In this sense they are not Charlie Brown. Such are among the least trustworthy personalities in that they are not driven by any set of principles or have any interests in changing the systems of oppression, but only advancing their own place within such systems;

An underlying factor in all of the above is a lack of class analysis, which explains why poor Black folks think a billionaire rapper is on their side.

There is a hope.

Within 2 months of writing the Charlie Brown piece about the futility of Washington sports fans rooting for their teams, the Capitals won their first Stanley Cup title. So maybe I don’t know what the hell I am talking about! So, to all of those who believe that this partnership is something positive, go ahead take a run and try to kick the damn ball yet again. Lucy represents Jay-Z and the NFL. Charlie Brown represents you!

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports