Nick Canepa's fantasy ownership of an NFL team fell as flat as his over used cliche about inmates running the asylum. He was talking about Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers being upset that he wasn't consulted about the draft pick, which brought rookie QB Jordan Love, "QB in waiting" to the team last season Rodger's beef was that the team had a greater need to strengthen other positions. (The playoffs proved Aaron was right.) Canepa's point was, and I assume still is, that a player or players should have no say in coaching and GM decisions, which reminds me of the old TV series title Father Knows Best, Balderdash!
Sounds a lot like the conservative pun-drips of Fox News telling LeBron James to shut up and stick to dribbling. How arrogant, they claim, of professional athletes that they have opinions and a platform from which to speak How dare they? Well, this isn't news. I get it. There are people in sports who still hearken back to the "Good Old Days" of complete control of teams by ownership. So, write on, Canepa. It's a free country again.
Except that you dissed my league, NBA. What was that all about? Here's what you wrote: ". . . there are now babies in the NFL who want to act as if they're in the NBA, which is a pathetic handful of teams made up of rich, entitled children. . ." You call them, "showrunners." Like, they want to run the show? Gee, how creative! You point to LeBron James as the superstar "showrunner". Can you name another? Hmmm? The NBA and its owners - some conservative, some liberals - have wisely chosen to be a 50 50 league. They understand that theirs is a symbiotic relationship between owners and workers. Owners, coaches, GMs and players share in this equality. Players may be critics, so too owners and coaches and GMs (GM Daryl Morey of the Rockets for example). The NBA is by far the most transparent of all the pro leagues. The players may be rich (so are movie stars and mortgage bankers) but they are not children but grown men who have a constitutional right to speak their minds. That is as long as we believe in the Bill of Rights, Which begs the question, Nick Canepa, do you believe in free speech?
There is a marvelous collection of poems about sports and sports in poetry compiled by Lillian Morrison called Sprints and Distances. It's been a while, so it may be out of print. You will find some wonderful old-timey poems within as well as some that sound very modern. Many are classic poems. I love to browse through this book from time to time. Today's poem to end the Blog is a prayer.
PRAYER by Charles Beeching
Nimble and light of limb,
In three elements free,
To run, to ride, to swim:
Not when the sense is dim,
But now from the heart of joy,
I would remember Him;
Take the thanks of a boy.
1 comment:
Oh, Tom. For such a wonderful writer, I’m disappointed you succumbed to the all-too-common misuse of the phrase, “It begs the question.” It may raise the question, but begging the question is something else entirely.
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