Including Dave Zirin.
Yes, the NFL wants female fans, and yes, they want fans of color, and yes, going soft on Butker risks that. But above all else, NFL executives exist to appease the whims of billionaires in the owners’ boxes most of whom—judging by their bankrolling of Donald Trump—agree with Butker. The destruction of Black bodies for white consumption and profit is an ugly business. Normally the NFL wants to keep the underlying ideology of its owners under wraps. The biggest problem with Butker is that he vomited it up for everyone to see.
************
SOS grudgingly concedes that Butker’s speech displayed, Zirin notes, impressive concision.
Butker managed, in just a few minutes, to be homophobic, anti-abortion … and racist… He cried out against, “Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media, all stem[ming] from the pervasiveness of disorder.”
Given the size of Butker’s … vomit, you’d expect a great deal of difficulty coughing up a few tidy paragraphs, but he did the deed. He got it done. And now all of America is talking about it.
May 16th, 2024 at 4:00PM
Butker’s a twerp, just like Reggie White was when he gave homophobic speeches a while back. The difference is that he’s not embarrassing the NFL in a game situation. Say the same thing in a post game interview and see how quickly he gets cut.
On another note, I do love when white liberals try to shut down ways for Black people to earn generational wealth. I’ll let all those players know there are jobs in the local garbage collection companies. I’m sure that doesn’t have any deleterious physical effects and the pay is just great.
May 16th, 2024 at 4:35PM
Total: Agree on the wealth point. But until the NFL takes concussions seriously, Zirin will continue to complain.
May 17th, 2024 at 5:48AM
Very few NFL players earn generational wealth. The average pro football career is only about three years, and the NFL–unlike the NBA and MLB–is notorious for offering non-guaranteed contracts, allowing owners to abandon the men with broken bodies with relative ease. Whether or not Zirin is a liberal, there’s nothing untrue about anything he said. And garbage collection (an honorable and, in some cities, decent-paying profession) is obviously not the only alternative available to pro football. I’m not suggesting shutting down the NFL and neither is Zirin, but there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the callous exploitation at the heart of America’s favorite sport.
As for Butker, he at least deserves credit for reminding us that the barefoot-and-pregnant crowd is large and growing, even if they generally try their best to fly under the radar, and that this is the way they actually talk when they think we’re not listening. Leave it to some loudmouth jock to give the game away.
May 17th, 2024 at 9:22AM
“Very few NFL players earn generational wealth”
The average NFL career is 3.3 years. The minimum salary is 800K in the first year and ascends each year after that. So that’s about 3 million dollars for an average career. There are a range of other benefits (including health care) that go with the player for years after they stop playing. That’s pretty substantial.
As for broken bodies, you think garbage collection, agricultural work, construction, etc., end up with much better results? Those are all in the top-10 most dangerous occupations in the US, and they sure as sh** don’t pay like the NFL. NFL players do not tend to come from economic backgrounds that feed them into nice happy office jobs. They end up doing the nasty stuff that white liberal pundits only know about from television, a knowledge level that lets them sanctimoniously blather on about things being “honorable” and “decent-paying.”
The NFL is absolutely exploitative, fueled by America’s insatiable desire for the sport, but then so is the rest of the economy.
May 17th, 2024 at 12:59PM
I’ve yet to hear of anyone being pancaked by a 300 pound garbage can that can run a 4.6 40, but I suppose anything is possible.
Also, I didn’t realize I was a liberal pundit (there’s gotta be generational wealth in that, right?), but I guess sincerity can sound like sanctimony to the wannabe world-weary cynic. You do you.
May 17th, 2024 at 4:36PM
“ I’ve yet to hear of anyone being pancaked by a 300 pound garbage can that can run a 4.6 40, but I suppose anything is possible”
Oh dude, proving my point. Have you heard of needle sticks? Glass cuttings? Getting hit by drivers who don’t want to wait behind a garbage truck? Heat stroke because your boss doesn’t want to waste good money and time on protective clothing and water breaks? Involuntary amputations because the construction company values time over safety?
May 17th, 2024 at 5:12PM
Sorry, UD, didn’t intend for things to go in this direction. I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend.
May 17th, 2024 at 5:16PM
TAFKAU: No problem.