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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThank you Colin Kaepernick.
Image means a lot and your protest has transformed how the NFL is promoting it's image today. The lead up to this game would have looked much different had it not been for the courage of Kaepernick. Those watching know what I'm saying. I have seen a number of things that are great to see. Segments of MLK speeches, a piece on segregation, Cummings and King at the coin toss, etc.
I know he impacted other areas as well but image is huge. Education is huge. Historical context is huge.
Thank you Colin Kaepernick.
dhill926
(16,475 posts)in fact, the whole vibe of this broadcast seems to be a stick in the eye of the orange asshole...
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)Iggo
(47,708 posts)Zoonart
(12,037 posts)InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,144 posts)dem4decades
(11,372 posts)With black ministers and paid homage to their plight.
Fuck you NFL, you can't fuck Colin and then claim you're marching for racial equity.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,144 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,438 posts)zentrum
(9,866 posts)Miigwech
(3,741 posts)HelenWheels
(2,284 posts)CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)That's a lot of Googling for the younger DUers.
ProfessorGAC
(66,107 posts)With Harry Edwards as their social mentor.
Even as a kid, I always loved watching track & field and I saw that when it happened!
MuseRider
(34,209 posts)I do not remember if it was the instant it really happened but that day or the next for sure and it made me feel so good. I was 15 and sick as hell about racism, just learning really how actually bad it was. I remembered white only bathrooms, fountains and doors but that was gone very early in my life and I really did not see a lot of it where I lived (I learned better later). I was just so happy to see that. It remains one of the most treasured of moments in my life.
ProfessorGAC
(66,107 posts)As a track nut, i had heard of Carlos but not Smith.
Man, was he fast!
Lochloosa
(16,133 posts)mountain grammy
(26,778 posts)Lochloosa
(16,133 posts)mountain grammy
(26,778 posts)ProfessorGAC
(66,107 posts)Surprised I hadn't read that prior to now!
Ferrets are Cool
(21,148 posts)a kennedy
(30,119 posts)onethatcares
(16,305 posts)my thoughts join yours.
EndGOPPropaganda
(1,117 posts)Still screw their players and fans.
Love Kaepernick, hate the NFL today. Go Green Bay: the one fan-owned team.
oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)Just the guaranteed amounts in todays contracts are huge. Any player who makes it to a 2nd contract after a couple years should be able to live well for the rest of their lives. And its not even a full time job. ALL pro sports are money machines for the vast majority of participants. Even most WWE wrestlers make a ton of money if they make it.
Now the FANS getting screwed? A whole different story!!
Calista241
(5,586 posts)oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)The league MINIMUM is 435k a yr. Usually the only ones making that figure are 1 yr contract players. The median income is nearly 900k a yr. MOST players will earn several million within a few years. Even if they dont play longer than 3-5 yrs, they can invest that money and live well while pursuing a 2nd career at anything.
Now, a small number make super-rich money, yes. But if you're smart, a 26 yr old kid could leave the league with a couple million in the bank & that's a helluva start. if they get that degree with the free college, thats another advantage. But again, thats up to them. ALL of this is volunteer. And thousands would love to be on that field. Plus, they're revered & treated as kings while they're playing
EndGOPPropaganda
(1,117 posts)The whole Republican propaganda goal is to get Americans mad at the merely affluent while the billionaires screw everyone. The average person gets mad at the top 10% while the top 0.01% gets away with all the wealth.
Thats the NFL in a nutshell. The billionaire owners make out like bandits while they get fans to hate the millionaire players.
The players are doing ok, especially the ones on a roster for four years or so.
But it is the billionaire owners who are screwing the fans.
oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)And they are. But I hear it al the time about every pro sport; the players are being taken advantage of. And its a crock. NOBODY has to play ANY game; but thousands try to get into it every year.
Of course the owners are a lot richer. They OWN the team. They had to be rich to begin with ignorer to BUY the team. (except the Packers) It costs a lot to run a team. The profit sharing is all that really keeps the league running. Most of that money comes from the 4-5 most popular teams & TV revenue. But without it, it would be far too expensive to run a team. A few years ago the Packers listed their expenses at about 300 million. A lot.
EndGOPPropaganda
(1,117 posts)A few reasons why the billionaires are doing great:
1. Almost all new stadiums are a HUGE payment from citizens to owners via tax breaks. Usually hundreds of millions.
2. TV contracts are huge huge revenue- and profit sharing is just another way to say The NFL makes tons of money.
3. Owners restrict the labor market- they silently colluded on Kaepernick, for example.
4. By how they book revenue, owners can use the teams as a huge tax break.
5. Teams are worth SEVERAL BILLION DOLLARS. All teams. Businesses arent valued in the billions unless they are highly profitable.
(Yes teams are luxury goods and yes that distorts the market a bit, nothing above changes.)
oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)I think the city got a good deal. Arthur Blank, owner of the Falcons, paid nearly 800 million of the cost for the stadium. The rest comes from hotel/motel taxes, no income taxes. And as we've gotten used to the Falcons snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, many people whined about the new "Falcons stadium". But the reality is that its only partly abut the falcons. In its first year, the new Mercedes Benz Dome held 60 events drawing over 3 million visitors. Its also home to Atlanta United(also owned by Blank), who won the MLS cup this year. Many of those 3 million people spend a night or more, and eat out, generating a LOT of tax revenue & supporting area businesses. I'm one of them. The city got the Super Bowl, the Final Four, an NCAA football semifinal game, and more big events. This keeps a downtown alive.
Arthur Blank was a billionaire before he bought the Falcons. And he spends a ton of money in the city. A lot of the value attributed to a team is also the prestige of ownership. The Packers, for the year I mentioned expenses, showed a profit of nearly 30 million.
Even the evil Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, paid for 2/3 of their new stadium.
But I dont like the ones where the city builds the whole damn thing for the rich owner either!!
If they really "restricted" the labor market, Aaron Rodgers wouldn't be getting 160 million dollars. And draft picks wouldn't get millions before ever playing a professional down.
Kaepernick is 31 yrs old, he's just not going to get signed. Most QBs are out of the league by 35
But I guess we'll just agree to disagree on it.
EndGOPPropaganda
(1,117 posts)Or see the Yankees for how they hide revenue.
For every Aaron Rodgers there are hundreds or thousands of guys that get cut in camp after destroying their bodies. Citing Rodgers is like citing Bill Gates as how well paid computer programmers are.
ps there are occasional cities that do well from an NFL team, but I believe there are studies showing almost no new stadiums were good investments for the taxpayer. Maybe Atlanta taxpayers came out positive. But if there were a federal law prohibiting public funding for teams, there would still be a team in Atlanta.
oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)Plus, a LOT of people in Atlanta moved in from somewhere else. It WOULD be different if the Falcons hadn't blown their Super Bowl 2 yrs ago.
But you go to Cleveland, and they still nearly fill the place even when they've only won 3 games in a season!! GB is pretty much the same, which is remarkable considering the size of that market.
PatrickforO
(14,644 posts)The whole NFL.
The_REAL_Ecumenist
(742 posts)Last edited Mon Feb 4, 2019, 04:03 AM - Edit history (2)
at least , we're NOT what we were...As a black woman of MIXED background in a SUPER swirled family, I know that we've come of along way. My grandfather was born and raised in Navarro county, Texas & lived on a rural property outside of one of those "SUNDOWN" towns, (had MANY signs that said,"N****r don't let the sun go down on you!" ) . I have ALOT of bloodlines, (we've known this for almost 40 years due to a a LONG & byzantine Family history researcher. I have European, (Andalucia Spain, Central & southern France, Scottish & IRISH, Welsh, Manx, Cornish & British, Dutch, Polish & German) admixture, Middle Eastern, (Qatar, Oman, Muscat, Yemen, Djibouti, Morocco, etc), Asian, (Southern China, Guangzhou in particular & Philipines) & Native Bloodlines, (Choctaw, Osage Seminole, Creek, Chickasaw, Mikosukee, Black Foot & Mixtec & of course, West African). {We also have family in Oaxaca & Guadalajara, Mexico & they've been there for at least 155+ years} After my mom passed back in 2004, found out about the Mixtec while talking to my mom's oldest brother who told me that when he was a child, my most of the relatives on my Grandmother's, (my mom's mom) side did NOT speak english BUT Mixtec. Apparently, due to the double stigma of being black & NOT speaking English, the elders decided that the next generation would NOT be taught Mixtec nor would they be taught about that culture. This was in the Early 20th century.
Grandpa Ewey told me that we had pure D White relatives & family all through the county but that they DID NOT acknowledge the browner members of the family. When he proposed to my grandmother, she said she would ONLY marry him IF & ONLY if he moved her OUT OF Texas & to Oklahoma I.T. She told him that because she'd run across FAR TOO MANY rotting bodies, swinging from trees & she'd had enough.
Because they came of age just as the Depression was FINALLY fading away, he wasn't able to right away. He hired himself out as a farmhand, etc. Grandma & Grandpa married when they were in their late teens. the Uncle I mentioned earlier was born in 1938. Again, they couldn't afford much & even if they could have, jim crow made sure they weren't able to rent anything decent, because brown skin, dontcha know.
Anyway, Grammy told me that the only place they could find was a what was barely a shack, which set up on a hill. She said that the walls were covered with chewing gum & newspaper. She said that she used lye, (the ONLY thing which would remove it), to clean the walls & "floors". She finally got it to something near "DECENT", just in time for her first child. She had a daily schedule where she would tend to the few chickens, hogs & cattle they had AND the garden where they grew ALOT of their food. She was also actively nursing baby Robbie.
On day, it was midday & she'd just finished feeding the baby, laying down with him to rest. She said that something told her to look out of the window. She tried to push it out of her mind but try though she may, she couldn't push it out of her head, so she got up and peeked out of one of the 2 windows they had. Right away, she noticed that there was an old, scruffy white man wearing overalls, standing at the bottom of their road, glaring at the little shack, with unmistakable malice. She was used to this kind of treatment so she kind of pulled herself away from the window to lay back down with the baby. She said that she must have dozed off because she found herself jerking awake. She first thought it was the baby but when she checked the baby, he was DEEPLY asleep. So, she closed her eyes again.
A few seconds later, her eyes popped open again but this time, it was because she was SURE it was because of the acrid smell of SMOKE! Panicking, she jumped up, grabbing the baby & running out of the little house. She followed the smoke around the home to find dried grass, weeds, twigs & small branches of dried wood & the STRONG odor of Kerosene in a dying fire, (thank God), when she purposely set fire near one of the corners of the shack...the SAME SIDE that faced the evil creepy white dude she eyed looked out of the window, less than 15 minutes earlier. Luckily, this happened just about the time that Grandpa had almost earned enough money to move the Oklahoma I.T. They moved to family land for a short time to earn the rest. They shortly moved to Tulsa.
Grandpa joined the Navy right after Pearl Harbor, which explains why my mother was born in Rice Tx & didn't know who her father was & thought he was Charles Atlas until she was almost 4 years old! In fact, she constantly asked when "that man", ( my grandpa), was going to back home..LOL!! Anyway, Grandpa used to ALWAYS say how he would NEVER return to TX because of the pain he experienced ALMOST to the day he died...
HOWEVER, the last family reunion he attended, (at the time, he was blind due to Glaucoma & my uncles took him). While he was being greeted by many younger relatives, 2 young ladies walked up to him. They introduced themselves to Grandpa as 2 of his WHITE cousins & that they had heard alot about him through some of their open family & that they were honoured & pleased to meet him.
Grandpa broke down into tears because he NEVER thought he would EVER hear from white relatives. he passed in May of 2002 & the reunion happened in '97-98'. I'm just so sad that he didn't live to see Obama elected president, not just once BUT twice because it was because of what the people that came before us that made that possible.
My Brother recently had one of those "where did your ancestors come from.." genetic ancestor search but this one concentrates on the African line. When the results came back, they found that the west African component of his ancestral line was Ghanaian, Senegalese, Beninese, Malian & Nigerian ...ANYWAY, with Nephews that hail from Brasil, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Italian & Pinoy admixtures from their moms, (I'm the ONLY surviving daughter) & heading up on my 18th happy year of Marriage to a Bohemian Czech, the "America" I see at the moment, worries me because it doesn't take too much to backslide into picnics @ Public lynchings & the fat citrus toned traitor squatting in the WH is doing all it can do to make things like this happen. HOWEVER, I have more hope because of the fact there are FAR MORE decent human beings than the ignorant AF troglodytes & more are speaking out each & EVERY day.
So, as I said earlier, we're NOT where we should be BUT damn it, we're NO WHERE NEAR what we used to be. NEVER STOP resisting, fighting, organising and voting. We'll get through this as we've gotten through the hatred & ignorance of the past.
WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)Thank you.
LittleGirl
(8,299 posts)and I loved reading your story. Thanks for sharing.
tomg
(2,574 posts)I see why you say "the "America" I see at the moment, worries me because it doesn't take too much to backslide ." Still, when I hear your story, I hear the diversity of America and the determination ( even if too often we fail to live up to making actual the ideal) as it is embodied in your family. I see the best of what we will be. Thank you for offering so much in your post.
Still In Wisconsin
(4,450 posts)I would love to see Kap take someone to the big show. Put the right pieces around him and he could still be a dynamioc playmaker. Then, his megaphone just increases in power!
oldsoftie
(12,873 posts)LAST contract, maybe, but this one is too close to him aging out. Not to mention his surgery a year ago on the throwing arm. I just dont see the Packers getting their moneys worth from him. We'll see next year. Except for the Super Bowls you've ALREADY won with him; I guess thats worth some of it right there!
As for CK, he won't return. Out of the league 2 years, and his last year of playing, opposing team defenses had figured out his style and were defending him much better than his first years. His rating was only about 90.
And every draft a new crop of QBs comes in; some will be great, like Mahones. And with Brady, Brees, Ryan, Rodgers, etc staying longer and longer, there's even less need. He's 31 yrs old now; it might be different if he was 25.
Nitram
(23,399 posts)Baltimike
(4,153 posts)KPN
(15,722 posts)with a contract. Image is important for sure, but it also can be nothing but manufactured.
ffr
(22,712 posts)MuseRider
(34,209 posts)I was working so could you briefly explain? Please? I love CK for what he did and would love to know how the game was responding.
WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)If you read the whole thing it often comes back to Kap as the catalyst for the elevation.
SBNation
The N.F.L. Introduced the Super Bowl with a Martin Luther King Jr. Video Amid Protest Controversy
Vanity Fair
Just a couple of examples.
MuseRider
(34,209 posts)I will look at those when I have the time. I appreciate this.
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)like minded NFL players and fans.
I attended a Super Bowl gathering expecting the conversation to be better than the game. It was a pleasant surprise for me and others there to watch a Tom Hanks message and a Budweiser commercial that used a Dylan "peace" song along with a wind farm.
The Times They Are A-Changin'-Bob Dylan
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