For at least the past decade, Americans have been treated to the horrors of “identity politics”. We are not allowed to characterize ourselves as Americans, but as one of this or that or the other group. Much of this bastardization of America started with the Civil Rights Act that separated Americans into specialized grievance groups. The problems associated with identity politics grew with hate speech laws and rules used to condemn, demonstrate against or violently suppress uncomfortable opposing ideas. Freedom of speech itself, in Article 1 of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, has been called into question.
In Europe, hate speech laws are used by various governments to punish opposing views. If you think homosexuality is a bad idea and you say something about it, you will be arrested, fined and even imprisoned as happened to a Swedish pastor who read from the Bible regarding homosexuality. If you think Islam is dangerous, you will be quickly silenced. A British citizen who mocked ISIS received a visit and a warning from the UK constabulary. From my perspective, similar ugly things are happening in America.
Rather than try to cover the waterfront, let’s turn to the NFL situation. Here is the most successful of the professional sport’s industries. For some utterly unknown reason, they decided to get into the “identity politics” business with all of its grievance and victim minefields. Missed, or more likely deliberately ignored, was the fan.
Here is my take on the American citizen fan. During the week, the fan goes to work to serve customers, as that is how he keeps his job. When he comes home from work, he has family responsibilities like shopping, kids activities, and more. The opportunities to relax are rare. When he turns on the news after dinner or before bed, he is besieged with “identity politics”, non-stop complaints about the unfairness of life, the cops, the military, President Trump and America. Often, the only relief he gets during a seven-day week is to watch a mindless professional football game after church on a Sunday.
With infinite arrogance and in a typically condescending fashion, the NFL decided to impose upon the fans yet another “identity politics” grievance display. They used the opening ceremonies of all the pro-football games to do this. Not unexpectedly, angered fans rebelled. Of course, excuses were quickly made. (The players weren’t protesting, they were praying was one of my favorites although anybody with a brain knew that was a “crock of sewage”.) Apologies, explanations, pleas for understanding, confusions and contradictions, embarrassments, insults, on and on were made in what appeared to be a mass panic throughout the NFL, their advertisers, and their sycophants in the media. All such protestation basically dug the crisis hole deeper, and deeper, and deeper.
I studied and taught crisis management. One of the key points in a crisis is things are never what they were before. Good decisions suddenly become bad. Bad decisions suddenly become good. It is best to shut up and hold on until you actually see some “light at the end of the tunnel – which may not be a tunnel but the barrel of a shotgun”. The NFL has a self-inflicted crisis that will make for numerous case studies in every business school in the country.
Is there a way out? Well, in the short term, the situation is irretrievable. The entire NFL management team needs to go. This crisis is too big for a simple apology to the fans and a large scapegoat or group of scapegoats is needed. (I suspect this mass firing will happen fairly quickly if the fan boycott hits the NFL as hard as I think it will.) Second, a new NFL Commissioner with broad powers to remove owners from ownership, coaches from coaching, and players from the league will be needed. You mess with the fans and you lose. Or, as one rather sage individual has been quoted as saying “Rule #1: The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is wrong, see Rule #1”.
Is the situation irretrievable in the long term? This is where it gets quite tricky. A significant if not fundamental bond of friendship has been broken. You may be able to repair the friendship somewhat, but there will always be a scar to remind everyone of what happened. Time does heal wounds. We will see what happens with the NFL.
19 comments
Goengo, what a dumbass you are. You said you didn’t watch the Redskins game today? Well, that’s just great, because neither did anybody else, because they didn’t play Sunday.
Please, just go somewhere and be a good little Democrat.
My second week of not watching the NFL; didn’t miss it at all.
Do you think the NFL is monitoring political blogs to see if you are watching? Not watching the NFL is not tangible.
Calling their advertisers on Monday morning and telling them you are not going to purchase their products, and following thru, that is tangible.
“But a sponsor like Budweiser ending its support of the league would be a devastating blow.
And if the company’s hotline is to be believed, the NFL has something to be concerned about.
When customers call the number, 1-800-342-5283, they are greeted by a recording which gives, as its first option, a chance for anyone for or against the player protests to voice their opinions.
“If you are calling with questions or comments about Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship of the NFL, press one,” the recorded voice says.
“At Anheuser-Busch we have a long heritage of supporting the nation’s armed forces, veterans and military dependants,” the voice says. “The National Anthem is a point of pride for our company and for the 1,100 veterans that we employ. Please feel free to share your feedback after the tone.”
The helpline was inundated with so many calls, the company was forced to temporarily take it down Friday.”
Please, PLEASE take the time to CALL the number.
USE the tools of the left against them.
BOYCOTT!
Boycotts are great, but whether fans are watching on TV is also significant. Of course the NFL knows whether we’re watching! They get the ratings on viewership, and those ratings will matter. The sponsors will also know if the shows they advertise on have a smaller audience than normal, and will eventually stop sponsoring a show if viewership remains low.
But boycotts and phone calls aren’t enough if viewership remain high. Sponsors have to know the fans are serious, and only turning the game off will do that. I didn’t watch the Redskins today, and I won’t be watching them next Sunday either.
I didn’t watch the Redskins yesterday either because they are playing tonight instead. Roger Goodell nonetheless seems to be trying to cover up the whole anthem issue now however by continuing to sell the time before each game in which the players are supposed to stand-up for the national anthem to advertisers, (with the sole exception of the league’s Thursday night games). But is this hypocritical or just business as usual? Fans know that individual teams need money to employ better talent, but league rules stipulate how the players are supposed to stand during the playing of the national anthem before each game according to pp A62-63 in the rookie handbooks. When these rules are violated as they are. however, both individual players and teams are supposed to be subject to “discipline, fines, suspensions and loss of draft choices.” Can you even imagine what affect actually meting out such punishments would be IF the league would follow its’ own rules.
Probably have the same affect as if this country enforced it immigration laws.
Rush Limbaugh just reported on his radio show that the national anthem will be shown by ESPN before tonight’s contest after all.
Yeah, it might actually end the players’ acting out for attention and focus them on football instead.
Game is on now – and I’m not watching.
While the NFL doesn’t monitor blogs, they know about weekly viewership for sure. As viewership tanks, the sponsors have to start wondering why they are pouring advertising dollars down the drain, and they will take their goods over to NASCAR – where the viewers are!
The management isn’t going anywhere, the players aren’t going to change their behavior, and absolutely nothing will change, unless the fans revolt with their wallets. Do the fans have the stamina to outlast the players? We will see.
You hit the nail right on the head. Will the fans punish the players by staying away? I hope they do. This whole BLM movement is all media instigated and built on a lie. Michael Brown was a bully and a thug. He got into a life and death struggle with a police officer and lost. What is really sad is that millions and millions of blacks allow themselves to be pawns of the white liberal media . Blacks are fed an avalanche of overblown and hyped up statistics by the white liberal media which deliberately ignores cases of innocent whites being killed by police or blacks killing cops. The American public is only fed one side of the story by a diabolical media controlled by the globalists whose main goal is to divide and conquer us. They are doing a very good job.
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I think that I ran into this fellow at a Southern 500. Just funnin
Well said. Goodell is responsible and must go
“The entire NFL management team needs to go.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/roger-goodell-agrees-nfl-contract-extension-turmoil-article-1.3429763
I feel sorry for you people. You cannot even recognize an establishment con job.
Goodell’s contract was renewed before last weekend, so I’m not sure what your point is except perhaps that Goodell is unlikely to get fired. You don’t still believe this is all a NFL conspiracy for publicity, do you?