I will never be a fan of football, but the NFL earned at least a modicum of respect yesterday.
Not only did they not to punish the players for exercising their right to free speech, but the league agreed to fund a Social Activism Boot Camp next February that will be open to professional athletes from all sports. While it certainly would have been preferable if the NFL had agreed to finance such boot camps on a regular or permanent basis, this is a huge step forward for them. Even if the team owners and commissioner aren't genuinely sincere (which I suspect they aren't) in supporting their players, they have at least acknowledged and validated to a certain extent the player's concerns for achieving social justice and combating white supremacy-based policing.
I loathe football, and still view the NFL (perhaps unfairly in retrospect) as an inherently brutal, misogynistic, Redneck-oriented, conservative institution whose barbarous product celebrates everything that is inherently aggressive, backward, anti-intellectual and lowbrow about our culture. However, the fact that they have not caved to their considerable (and perhaps majority) deplorable fan base on this the most important social issue of our generation is praiseworthy.
It must suck to be a deplorable now. They can't even live vicariously through their favorite athletes any longer or enjoy their beloved Concussion Bowls without being reminded by those same athletes of what hateful, bigoted trash they are, or of what an ineffectual, abysmal failure and scorn-worthy punchline their beloved Dotard-in-chief is.
I love it!
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