Dear NFL: We’re breaking up. And for the record, it’s not me. It’s you.
I’ve been a Bills fans since I was ten. I’ve suffered through the fall of O.J. Simpson, four straight Super Bowls losses, seventeen consecutive years of not making the playoffs, and right now I, along with millions of others, am saddened as Jim Kelly fights for his life.
Being a Bills fans has brought a whole lot more suffering than enjoyment. Yet, here I am.
More broadly, as much as I loved the Bills, I’ve loved the NFL. It started with collecting and trading stickers back in 1972, and the love affair grew.
I watched every game, every highlight show. I knew every guy on every team.
There was absolutely nothing better than pro football.
As I’ve gotten older, I still follow my team, but my undying passion for watching every game, knowing every score, seeing every play has faded. I still know what’s going on, but I’m far more interested in the stories than I am watching the actual games.
I actually think today’s NFL football is boring. The games just all seem the same to me. And honestly, I’m starting to lose interest.
Why?
- They’ve made every player look exactly the same. The list of rules governing how players must look on the field is both dictatorial and ridiculous. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/08/05/the-nfls-uniform-rules-border-on-ridiculous/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ad09774beb36
They want you to pour your heart and soul out on the field every Sunday. As long as you keep your jersey tucked in.
- The fields are perfect. Other than Lambeau, every NFL stadium is exactly is the same. A little mud and dirt would be nice. It’s football.
*There are no personalities, no characters anymore. Remember The Snake? Billy White Shoes? TO? Neon Deion? What does it say when one of the most interesting personalities in the league is Bill Belichick, who is, quite literally, the least interesting person on earth?
Week in and week out, it’s too clean and perfect and nice and corporate and cookie-cutter. But the formula clearly works: according to Bloomberg, NFL teams earned $7.8 billion in 2016.
It’s not so much a sport anymore as it as satellite office for the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
To prove that, the biggest issue in the NFL right now has nothing to do with anything about the game of football, and everything to do with something far more important: the bottom line.
Less than two years ago, Colin Kaepernick sat on the bench during the national anthem to protest police brutality against people of color, and the whole world started talking.
Here’s the part of the story no one remembers: After it became a national headline, Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret and ex-NFL player, wrote an open letter to Kaepernick. It was thoughtful and powerful and respectful of Kaepernick’s point of view.
They met afterwards, and it was Boyer who convinced Kaepernick that instead of sitting on the bench, taking a knee was a more honorable way to make his point.
Let me say that again: an ex-Army beret convinced Colin Kaepernick that the best thing to do to protest was to take a knee during the national anthem.
In September of 2017, Donald Trump stood in front of a crowd in Alabama and spun the story to be about Kaepernick and NFL players disrespecting the flag and the military. The momentum of his rhetoric took the world by storm.
Digitally altered photos were posted and thousands saw and shared them, reinforcing the narrative.
Research shows that people believe what they want and only attend to the narrative that aligns with their belief system. For many their belief was that black NFL players were anti-military and that’s the story they shared and perpetuated.
Players across multiple sports leagues pushed back, calling Trump “divisive” and more and more athletes joined in protests.
However, the spin of Trump’s language took hold. NFL attendance dropped. TV ratings dropped. Kaepernick was in essence, blackballed from the league. The President succeeded in controlling the dialogue and indirectly dictated the consequences of Kaepernick’s decision to elevate his principles over his pocketbook.
This week, in an effort to stop the bleeding, NFL owners instituted a new anthem policy. If a player doesn’t stand during the national anthem, his team will be fined. And individual teams can fine players if they choose. If you want to protest, you must remain in the locker room.
That’s it. I’m done.
Dear NFL owners: I know your league has always been about the money. But you’ve now reinforced the erroneous protest storyline and made it about something it was never meant to be. Your decision is based in greed and grounded in racism. 70% of your players are black, and you’ve chosen to take away their constitutional right to free speech and continue to line your pockets.
Do you understand you’ve poured gasoline on the fire? Do you not get that the result of this is going to be the exact opposite of what you think is going to happen?
I can’t wait to see how creative your employees are in finding ways to ignore your new rule and to show their support for causes that matter to them. Frankly, I hope the players stay in the locker room during the anthem and don’t come out, period. That would be fun.
To the Bills: Kim Pegula, take a page from Jets owner Woody Johnson who basically said, “I’m with my players. Whatever they do, they do. I’ll pay the fines.” You’re team has disappointed a thousand times over. Please, not again.
To the owners in general: Enjoy your money, but I’m out. Good luck. You’ve opened Pandora’s box and this is not going to end well.
The joke used to be that NFL stood for No Fun League. At this point, it might be Not For Long.
