I've nothing against a nicely trimmed beard, but what's with the bug filled nests some professional athletes are allowing to envelop their jaws. Will their wives even kiss them? Would any sane person let those beards near their faces? Yuk! Double Yuk! my wife, Melanie, adds.
That said, I'm proposing a contest for the ugliest, most scruffy, beard in pro sports. The winner will receive the President Rutherford B Hayes Award. I would have picked James Garfield whose beard was longer, but he got assassinated, and I don't want to imply any desire on my part for the futured departure of the candidates. My picks for the RBH Award are the following:
NBA James Harden - Houston Rockets
MBL Dalles Keachel - Houston Astros
NFL Eric Weddle - LA (really, another LA team) Chargers
NHL Joe Thorton - San Jose Sharks
STARTERS (nba talk show commentator) Trey Kerby.
Comment on your choice or add your picks.
On another subject. Our so called president (he doesn't deserve a capital p) is trying to force NFL owners into firing players who kneel during the playing of the National Anthem as a way of protesting their belief that police forces discriminate against African American males. The protest is not about dishonoring the flag, donald, can't you get that through your weeny brain.. Americans have been protesting successfully since we protested mightily against the King of England and won our Independence. I'm reasonably certain King George thought we were dishonoring the British Flag. Hell, we didn't just kneel, we burned that flag and threw their damn tea into the drink. And, finally, we shot their soldiers and wrote our Constitution that allows for peaceful protest.
Anyway, I've long given up on the idea the Trump has ever read our Constitution, let alone a synopsis of it, to worry about such stupidity. Didn't his own Secretary of State call him a moron?
Anyway, twice said, it seems clear that in the future there will be a great deal of pressure applied to the black members of the NFL teams by owners and NFL officials. It is time, high time, more than high time, for the white players on each of the NFL teams, no matter what their stance is toward the flag, to support their black brothers and take a knee. They don't have to kneel for the entire time of the playing, a half would be symbolic enough to tell Donald Trump to stuff his intimidation where the sun doesn't shine. And they don't have to do it for all the games. But they must do it once, all at once, as a show of solidarity, for team unity, for team friendship, for team loyalty, for team humanity.
I commented recently that Melania Trump rarely smiles and never looks happy. My wife's response was something she heard from an aunt long ago, "No women works harder for a living than one who marries for money." I get it.
Beard Poem by Tom Meschery
What are you hiding
in that mess? A kernel
of something in the future
you can eat, like squirrels
or rodents that escape
the nightly owls's winged
prowl do for when winter
comes, kept cozy
in your furry jaw-line purse
for after those bountiful
seasons end, and you
in all your glory, will join
your bearded brothers
signing on street corners.
