by Andy Weddington
Sunday, 24 September 2017
When in doubt wear red. Bill Blass
Yesterday morning, along I-80, heading west, and along back roads, too, we passed fields and fields and fields of corn. The crop dry. Brown. Not yet cut.
Nearing Lincoln, the corn fields gave way to a sea of red.
Trucks and trailers and t-shirts and ball caps and giant red flags with a bold white N and most everything red.
The (Corn) Huskers of Nebraska were playing Rutgers.
The thought "Were they almost named Stalkers or maybe Shuckers?" crossed my mind.
And, "Why red?"
Anyway ...
We went downtown to the Haymarket area to witness the pregame hoopla, enjoy a cold beer or two and a bite to eat (grilled salmon avocado salad that I imagined as a double chili cheeseburger all-the-way with fries).
A manager apologized for dessert being late and picked up that expense. We'd not complained to anyone. But the bartender noticed (and must have reported). The young manager was polite and sincere. Refreshing. If visiting downtown Lincoln, patronize Lazlo's.
Red Sea - inside and out.
Tailgaters. Live music. Intoxicated fans. A lot of American flags.
It's been about 30 years since partaking in game day festivities on a campus (Ole Miss).
Not much has changed.
The 96,000 seat stadium was sold out. With tickets going for $100 to $1,000, no thanks. Especially in 95 degrees heat. So we departed for our hosts' home in time to catch kickoff on a big screen from the comfort of a recliner.
Didn't see any players take a knee before our flag and during our Anthem on Tom Osborne Field.
Rutgers beat themselves.
Home late last evening without bothering to catch any news.
This morning more "professional" athletes (and other celebrities) taking a knee. A Wonder took two. Good grief. But none of them can articulate why. Some mumbo jumbo about racism.
Seriously?
(Did you know) 75% of the players in the NFL are black and more in the NBA.
Baseball, tennis, golf, ping pong, and marbles far fewer blacks.
Conclusion?
The smaller the balls the less black athletes.
Draw your own conclusions.
The fan base percentages about the same but white.
(Did you know) 75% of the U. S. military is white.
And little more than 17% black.
So whites the protectors and defenders - of everyone; including knee takers.
A couple of other red seas came to mind.
Battlefields and cemeteries.
In closing ...
What a contrast in Saturdays. A week earlier I heard a SEAL speak of being wounded (head/brain injury) by a grenade while on his 12th combat deployment.
Yesterday a red sea of college football.
And this morning more idiocy about knees (that has me seeing red).
There's something dead wrong in America when men (and women), volunteers or not, make multiple combat deployments and other men (and women) living freely under their umbrella of protection take a disrespectful knee before national colors and song.
Want to take a knee?
Visit Arlington, a national cemetery, or any cemetery with a veteran's headstone and take a respectful knee - of gratitude for a man or woman better than you. Better, take both knees.
Our host in Lincoln quips the N on the Husker flag stands for (k)Nowledge.
Apply where applicable.
Today I'm wearing red - with USMC in gold across the chest. A patriot. No doubt. And because on the track across the street (from our home) service men and women - all branches - are completing a 24-hour relay out of respect for POWs/MIAs.
Watch football?
Not a chance in hell.
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2 comments:
As usual my friend, another great post. Read somewhere of late that there is, in fact, a decline of NFL Fans. My wife is in the living room screaming and yelling as she always does when her sport takes to the court. Women's Basketball. I watch occasionally as well. We both became Lady Vol fans while living in TN during the Pat Sumitt regime; actually got to meet that wonderful woman who did so much for the women's side of the sport. My Marine friends rib me for watching the women, they would never dare. I watch because it's true basketball, not where 9' giants beat each other up on the floor while they dunk and dunk and dunk. This is WNBA championship time and our team, LA, is in the match. Why LA? Because the Lady Vol Super Star, Candace Parker, who we've both met plays for them. And you know what, not a single player took a knee!
If indicators mean anything, then perhaps it is time that all of us re-think what we believe we know about professional sports. Let’s see ... for the most part we have immature young men being paid an insane amount of money to play a game —one involving an orb of some diameter. As already stated, the bigger the ball, the blacker the player. If one can believe the news, then a large percentage of these “men” enjoy slapping women around —and their children; it makes them feel as though they’re in control, but in reality, the opposite is true. They also do things such inane things as fight animals (dogs, roosters, and who knows ... maybe even rattlesnakes and mongooses).
There is also a lot of dishonesty in professional/collegiate sports, such as when “student athletes” are compensated to play their silly little games. Wanting a piece of the action, some of these yahoos actually want to form unions, if you can believe that. Maybe college athletics is about everything except learning something.
Seriously, are we at all surprised to learn that these “athletes” are low class scum who weren’t smart enough to get into college without a free ride through the athletic department? They’ll get picked up by a professional franchise in a few years ... making bushel baskets of money, but with character as low as their IQ, their life will remain in the toilet. And no one in America saw this coming? No one saw the likely consequence of placing morons on a pedestal, of telling them over and over how great they are, even to the extent of glorifying these imbeciles to our own children? Right ... the idiot Lawrence Tailor was a great example to our children, or Johnny Manziel, or the latest batch of morons.
So, now we have these beneficiaries of mainstream society’s unhealthy obsession with college and professional games —most of them black, by the way— accusing America of racism and refusing even to stand during the National Anthem. If anything, professional and collegiate sports is a snapshot of America’s darkest side (no pun intended). Don’t blame the athletes, blame those who are willing to spend obscene amounts of money to perpetuate this nonsense.
By the way, should anyone be interested in observing a great bunch of TRUE athletes, they should visit the nearest Marine Corps base and observe the training that goes on there every single day. If anyone deserves the support of the American public, these are those men.
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