I’ve always loved America. I’ve always loved sport. But I never really loved American sport. I couldn’t find them engaging or interesting. Basketball bored me. Baseball was glorified rounders. American Football was a poor man’s rugby.
Now though, I’ve realised that the only reason I didn’t like them, was because I didn’t watch them. When I was younger, there wasn’t much opportunity for me to watch the NFL, or the NBA, as no British broadcasters had the rights to air them. I watched the more traditional ‘British sports’ such as football, cricket, rugby, and so on, simply because they were the most accessible to me.
With the advent of universal streaming platforms however, this began to change. People around the world were being given the opportunity to watch programmes that had never been broadcast in their country. And, as these platforms began to garner some serious popularity, they began to dip their toes in more and more content, inevitably making a splash in the world of sports.
As a result, when Amazon Prime came along and subsequently released their All or Nothing docuseries in 2016, my attitude towards the NFL, and towards American sports, was changed. I was exposed to the world of American Football in a way I’d never experienced before. I was shown the cogs behind the wheel of the game I’d dismissed as ‘too slow’.
All or Nothing made me understand and appreciate the meticulous level of detail that makes American Football what it is. I now understood why the game had so many stoppages, so many ads and so many pads, and why it was ‘America’s Game’. It had me hooked from the first episode.
As I began to immerse myself in this previously unknown world, my understanding and interest just kept growing. I decided, for better or for worse, to support the Arizona Cardinals. I began to keep an eye on mock drafts and I started reading up on players I should look out for.
I say all of this with a caveat however, and, given everything I’ve written up until this point, I would understand if you found yourself confused. In short, as much as I love the sport, the NFL organisation and administration is morally bereft and inherently flawed.
If this wasn’t made obvious by the league’s past dismissal of the health risks playing the sport posed to its stars, then I implore you to look at the example of Colin Kaepernick as a more contemporary example.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Kaepernick’s story, he was the first footballer to protest racially motivated police brutality by ‘taking a knee’ during the national anthem in 2016.
As a result, he started a social movement, the scale of which hadn’t been seen since that of Martin Luther King. Hundreds of other NFL stars followed his example, taking a knee or raising a fist, reminiscent of Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s pose at the 1968 Olympics.
Kaepernick’s reward for taking such an admirable stand, was to be made a pariah by the NFL and the wider community. Having opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, he has not been picked up as a free agent by any team, despite winning the NFC Championship and leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012. He remains, in effect, in exile from the NFL.
You may be thinking that this is fair enough. You could easily argue that Kaepernick poses too much of a financial risk to most franchises in the league. If Kaepernick, no matter how just his protest may be, alienates the fans who pay good money for tickets, then it makes financial sense not to hire him.
My problem with Kaepernick’s unilateral exclusion is not with the NFL’s decision never to hire him again, but with its decision to make him unique in this regard.
When you have the likes of Kareem Hunt, Ezekial Elliot, Ben Roethlisberger, Reuben Foster, and Julian Edelman, all still playing in the league, you can understand my frustration. Allow me to elaborate.
Kareem Hunt, former star running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, was cut by the team in late 2018 after a video surfaced online of him throwing a woman to the ground and kicking her. He was handed only an 8 game suspension by the NFL, and was signed by the Cleveland Browns shortly afterwards.
Dallas Cowboys phenom, Ezekial Elliot, enjoyed a particularly turbulent year in 2017, when he consistently denied multiple domestic violence accusations. The NFL found enough evidence to hand him a 6 game suspension, which he appealed. His appeal lasted for months – during which time he was allowed to play – until November the 15th, when he eventually dropped it. Throughout this time, he was supported by his team, and he remains a Cowboys player.
Ben Roethlisberger, veteran star quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was accused of sexual assault on two separate occasions. The first in 2009 and the second in 2010. The first charge was settled out of court, whilst the second victim elected not to press charges against Roethlisberger. The NFL handed him a 6 game suspension which was later reduced to 4. He remains the Steelers’ starting quarterback.
Reuben Foster, the 2017 first round draft pick for the San Francisco 49ers, was cut from the team after he was arrested in November 2018 on a domestic violence charge. This is following a spate of other incidents involving Foster in 2018, including more domestic violence and weapon charges. He was picked up by the Washington Redskins shortly after.
Julian Edelman, wide receiver at the New England Patriots, was found guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs and handed just a 4 game suspension by the NFL, which he served at the start of the 2018 season. During that season he went on to win his 3rd Super Bowl with the Patriots, earning himself the Super Bowl MVP award. Unsurprisingly, he is still with the Patriots.
The NFL is a machine fuelled by greed. These players weren’t kept on by their respective teams or signed by others because they believed their sides of the stories, they kept them on because they simply didn’t care. As long as they have the potential to win them games, and as long as fans keep paying to see them, NFL franchises don’t care what skeletons their players might be keeping in the closet.
And yet.. was Kaepernick not a game winner? Had he not achieved success with the 49ers? In this case, you could argue that it wasn’t the NFL that made the decision to exclude him. Their hand was forced by the only people that can hold any sway over the all-powerful organisation; the fans, the people who keep them in pocket. When they turned against Kaepernick, they sealed his fate.
So now we come to the real problem with the NFL, and more importantly, the real problem in America. What does it say about these people, these fans of the NFL, that they are willing to crucify a man whose only crime was to stand up for something he believed in, and yet they will worship drugs cheats, sexual abusers, and the uncontrollably violent?
It speaks volumes for the societal mindset in America, when millions of people across the country are outraged by a man kneeling during their national anthem, a harmless act in a peaceful protest, but will turn a blind eye to the unnecessary violence and discrimination that he is trying to prevent.
So much for the American Dream, eh?
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