NFL won’t succumb to ‘The Donald’

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This article was published 24/09/2017 (2911 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOW the NFL responds to Donald Trump’s spit-foaming is hardly a test case for whether the republic will stand. Nevertheless, the league is a maker of manners in this country, so it means something that commissioner Roger Goodell and others in the league are getting it right, striking the perfect calm but resistant tone in response to Trump’s gutter-mouthing, a tone that says, “We’re not your personal WrestleMania, and don’t use us for your sham body slams.” The NFL, faced with whether to play to the basest instincts of the audience, declined. It adheres to civility.

The league is apparently unifying around the notion that whatever side you may be on in the siege-controversy over NFL players kneeling during the anthem to protest racial injustice, whether you see it as matter of patriotism, activism or some tangled intersection of the two, it is important to talk about it without calling each other “sons of bitches.”

Who knows what Trump’s real gripe is with the NFL. Maybe he’s still angry that owners denied him entry to their club years ago. Or maybe Colin Kaepernick’s mute but unrepentant protest really arouses his spittle. Or maybe he’s just creating an “Are you not entertained!” circus-maximus spectacle by bull-baiting a wealthy league that is easy to resent by cash-strapped, job-insecure fans. Regardless, Trump misreads what Americans love about the NFL. It’s beloved not so much for its violence or crudity, but rather the skill that results in violence averted. It’s a game ultimately, of restraint.

‘We’re not your personal WrestleMania, and don’t use us for your sham body slams.’

Trump called for a fan boycott and suggested the league has gone soft, lamenting the fact that amid CTE concerns it has passed rules trying to protect players from head injuries. “Because you know today if you hit too hard — 15 yards!” Trump said. “It’s hurting the game.” As opposed to hurting, you know, the cattle.

Wisely, Goodell and other owners refused Trump’s bid to separate players from fans by playing on their economic and racial differences. “Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game, and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities,” Goodell said in a statement.

Goodell is basically right: NFL players are a huge boon to their communities, and a unifying force. You cannot think otherwise after watching what J.J. Watt did, raising more than $30 million dollars for local relief in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. Or after observing scores of NFL players fundraise for everything from free mammograms for women to free books for kids.

Kaepernick and his followers see themselves as activists who are simply trying to take “a reasonable and peaceful approach to something that is important to our society and the health and wellness of our communities,” according to Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin. Their intent is not to insult the flag, but simply to call for equal treatment under it. That may offend. But it is not un-American.

All of this may be due to what happened in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. When a dozen players there took knees to earn the ire of police, ownership stepped in, not to fire players but broker talks with local authorities.

Underneath the splintering violence of the NFL is an underpinning of discipline and intelligence. This juxtaposition is what’s really at the heart of its appeal: it’s not a game about pure unleashed power but rather about the constraint of power for a purpose. And in this case the league showed that it understands the difference between power for a purpose, and power to just throw weight around. Confronted with Trump’s vulgarity, rather than take him head on, it chose simply to outclass him.

“I do believe that this will be a unifying moment in the sports world,” Baldwin said. “And with as much influence as athletes have on the younger generation this can be an opportunity for us to change the narrative of society and point to the president as a poor example of what you can become if you remain close minded, ignorant and uneducated.”

Long Live the Republic.

— The Washington Post