I should disclose that as a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, I stopped watching NFL games years ago.
Still, I’m fascinated to watch the spectacular self-destruction of what once appeared to be one of the most powerful cultural institutions in the US.
It is hard to explain exactly why the NFL leadership and team owners thought that jumping on board the protest bandwagon would help their brand, but clearly that’s what they are doing.
Maybe it has to do with Donald Trump. He has an amazing knack for generating irrational opposition to whatever he says. If Trump tweeted that hitting oneself in the head with a hammer was un-American and that he thinks everyone who does it should be fired, I’m pretty sure youtube would be inundated with videos of defiant progressives angrily giving themselves concussions.
Because #Resistance.
Anyhow, the ongoing implosion reminds me of the way the Dixie Chicks self-destructed a decade or so ago.
Younger readers may not have heard of this ensemble, but once upon a time they were a trio of country musicians who developed broad mainstream appeal. The very name of the group was an advertisement for their southern identity and rejection of radical feminism.
Alas, though they knew the southern culture, they were not truly of it. They spoke the language, but didn’t really share the sentiment.
So it came to pass that like so many celebrities, they contracted Bush Derangement Syndrome (the earlier, less virulent version of Trump Derangement Syndrome) and badmouthed the president on foreign soil.
This brought them a deluge of criticism and the media industrial complex (which had looked askance of them before) now rallied to their cause, offering them glowing profiles and interviews. Initially apologetic, they reversed course and doubled down, sure that their new friends would save them and the controversy would blow over.
It didn’t.
It wasn’t anger that turned their fans so much as a sense of betrayal. “We thought you were one of us, we thought you respected us, but you don’t. Screw you.”
The same thing is happening with the NFL. Fans are realizing that football players – who used to be thought of a blue-collar, hardworking guys – are just as spoiled and out of touch a the rest of the wealthy elites. They are a mirror image of the Hollywood actors who prattle on about global warming while flying around the world in private jets before retiring to lavish and energy-intensive estates.
Once that sense of commonality is gone, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to get it back.
BONUS QUISLING NEVER TRUMPER UPDATE: The question of whether politics should be injected into sports was once a no-brainer for folks calling themselves “conservative,” but since the Trumpening, these characters are falling over themselves to apologize for the left.
EXIT QUESTION: Does Combat Lawyer and Failed Electoral Stalking Horse David French wear a ball-gag when he types this stuff?
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