By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
ATLANTA — The job has its benefits, starting with the current annual salary of $35 million a year. The job — or at least the person holding it — has its critics, and it always has.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
So there are people in the NFL hierarchy who confuse praying with protesting. But of course. In the modern world, it’s perception that counts, instead of actuality.
Get off your knees, guys, or Papa John’s sales will never rebound.
The league deals with the actual game, banning certain tactics on kicks, wedge blocking or running starts by the kicking team, with the idea of improving safety.
Then it turns to political football, trying to placate the demands of a one-time wannabe NFL owner named Donald Trump
Trump is president of the United States. He wishes he were commissioner of the NFL, which on Sundays from September to February may be a more important position, if not a more enviable one.
Yes, the commish, Roger Goodell, earns something around $40 million a year, but many of his employers are deeper-pocketed, short-sighted individuals more worried about first downs than the First Amendment.
That particular item states that Congress will make no law prohibiting free speech or press or the right of people to assemble peaceably. Presumably that includes those in uniform on the sidelines.
But because Trump contends that certain maneuvers, such as kneeling during the National Anthem, displease him, and because the owners are his wealthy pals, the league recently voted that players either must stand during the anthem or stay hidden, in the locker room.
Not very intelligent, says our old friend Harry Edwards, the Cal professor emeritus in sociology who helped lead the revolt of the black athlete in the 1960s.
“Some of the owners, including Jerry Jones (of the Cowboys), are confused,” said Edwards. “They own the franchise. They don’t own the players.”
And the players, in a league that is mostly African-American, have taken it upon themselves to use their status to call attention to what they feel are injustices against blacks in America.
Colin Kaepernick, then with the 49ers, took a stand by not standing for the Star Spangled Banner. Other players followed, Trump screamed and the owners caved, in a typically incongruous manner.
Either you stand or you stay out of sight.
“We want to honor the flag,” Edwards said, speaking for the protestors. “We just want to show we’re better than the 147 black men being shot down.”
Edwards doesn’t blame Goodell, who he says is more observer — ever try to tell a billionaire anything? — than director. Some in charge are wiser than others. When Bill Walsh coached the 49ers to their championships, he brought in Edwards to ease problems, racial or otherwise, between players and management.
Edwards looks at the NBA as a league far ahead of the NFL. “The Warriors,” he said, “that’s the way to run a team.”
The Warriors, certainly, made it clear after winning the 2017 NBA title that they didn’t want to go to the White House and meet Trump. Now it’s the Philadelphia Eagles, as Super Bowl champions, who made it clear that they similarly did not feel comfortable visiting with the president.
Trump then withdrew the invitation.
“They disagree with their President,” said Trump of his dis-invite to the Eagles, “because he insists they proudly stand for the national anthem.”
After that, Trump added a tweet: “Honoring America, no escaping to Locker Rooms.”
Interestingly, no Eagles player last season went to his knees during the anthem. And receiver Torrey Smith, denying that the Philly players wouldn’t show at the White House, tweeted: “So many lies. Here are the facts. No one refused to go simply because Trump insists folks stand for the anthem.”
The players, he said, countering a misconception, are not anti-military. They are just opposed to those who restrict their rights and ignore law enforcement brutality.
“The league handled the issues very poorly,” said Edwards. “To players, little things matter where the differences among teams is so slim. One player stays in the locker room, another doesn’t — that could split a team.
“Athletes now have a bigger stage than ever.”
And more to say from that stage.
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
MINNEAPOLIS — The National Football League was created in August 1920, virtually 98 years ago. You'd think by now they'd have figured out what constitutes a catch.
But, given the controversies of the past season, it's apparent the issue remains debatable. And maybe unsolvable.
Copyright 2018 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — The question is what will happen if the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI on Sunday and — a laugh is permitted — quarterback Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft receive the trophy from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Nothing out of the ordinary, if history means much. It would be an old production with new performers.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com
HOUSTON — The Raiders still are in Oakland and may be for a while despite attempts to move to Las Vegas, San Diego or Los Angeles. That is one way to interpret the words of the man in charge, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, at his annual Super Bowl news conference.
Goodell, for the first time tieless but certainly not clueless, at a session held on Wednesday instead the traditional Friday, said there is work to be done before the Raiders plan to shift from the East Bay to Vegas could become a reality.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
So the big boys from the NFL — the owners, not the players — come to The City by the Bay seeking peace and a new extra-point rule. Of course. Isn’t this the cool, gray city of love? Wasn’t the United Nations Charter signed in a hotel on Nob Hill?
Didn’t there used to be a pro football team playing in San Francisco?
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange
NEW YORK — What a brilliant idea bringing the Super Bowl to greater New York, where a feta cheese omelet at Lindy's costs $18, the tabloid stories that haven't been about Peyton Manning have been about brother Eli, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell makes the concession, "We cannot control the weather."
And we mistakenly believed the league could do anything it wished.
COPYRIGHT © 2014 The Sports Xchange
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
Someone had to make a stand. Someone had to make us believe the rules in sports, as the rules of society, were created for a reason, and just because the country is full of scofflaws and liars and thieves who masquerade as businessmen – yes, you Bernie Madoff – we should keep winking and nodding.
These are serious times in football, the game, although wildly popular, undercut by the stories of concussions and dementia, of Dave Duerson shooting himself, but not in his head, so medicine could research the effects of a lifetime of tackling and blocking had on the human brain.
© RealClearSports 2012