mine and anyone else who is still going to the Ravens games and continuing with life as before the Trump “son of a bitch” insult came along aren’t coming back. I’m not sure this particular segment of the fan base is wired to ever say, “Well, maybe I was wrong about that knee thing or should view it a little differently or would view it a little differently if I were a black NFL player in that situation at that place and time?” – even if Trump and his idiot children all wind up in prison for treason down the line.
And I have no doubt that if you comment below or start insulting me on social media and that you swear you are never, ever, ever, ever, EVER coming back that I’ll believe you.
So, stick to sports? Puh-lease.
To my eyes, many of these empty seats you’ll see on Saturday for an 8-6 football team with the former Baltimore Colts coming back to the Charm City aren’t about sports at all.
I think everything listed above the fold in this lengthy missive contributed somewhat to the Ravens current empty seat and empty home mojo malaise. There are a lot of reasons to stay home. I think Ray Rice started the skepticism but The Knee has been an obvious game changer – like a racially and politically charged earthquake for the franchise and the NFL and our culture and city.
And I get that some folks – many of the same ones who will call me a “snowflake” – think that politics should never interfere with your sports Sunday or the National Anthem and that you have every right to not spend money with the Baltimore Ravens and to insult them at every turn since this somehow got muddied.
But sticking to sports isn’t happening because the President chose to not stick to “Presidenting.”
8
The Ravens – and the NFL and everything in its path – has been swept into a political agenda reality storyline that is bathed in power, race, military and police saluting and criticism with conflicted notions of patriotism and community. Oh, and a lot of misinformation and miscommunication and false facts and accusations of ignorance.
Mix in riots, police shootings, Freddie Gray, murders, muggings, a city littered with heinous crimes on a daily basis and you get one helluva random cocktail of urban blight that only The Wire can accurately bring to life for our city and my home.
I love Baltimore. I live here. I work here. I’m invested here with everything I have. We need it to get better, not worse. We need people to champion Baltimore, not desert it.
Baltimore has inherent problems that we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to solve if we decide to remain and not run from the issues.
And plenty of people have avoided Ravens night games over the past two months because they don’t feel safe downtown. I live at the Inner Harbor. I don’t feel as safe as I used to feel. The city has earned that reputation but that’s a heartbreak story for another blog and certainly another major factor in the empty seats in the upper deck at Ravens and Orioles games. The Blast moved their games to Towson this year.
But The Knee could’ve easily been avoided on many fronts – beginning with the President who willed it with his usual lack of dignity.
Making America “great” doesn’t include insulting and fucking up my city even more and dividing the football team and the fans even more.
8I’m from Dundalk but my mother raised me the right way. No one of any wisdom, integrity or class would ever endorse calling anyone a “son of a bitch” on Twitter or from a Presidential lectern in the Deep South. Your mother wouldn’t allow this or endorse it. Neither would your priest or rabbi or pastor. You wouldn’t teach it to your children or allow it. You wouldn’t want your loved one or son or daughter on the receiving end. This is something no American should be proud of or accept – this bullying and abuse on the internet or in our society in any form, especially led by a witless President of profound pettiness and foolishness.
This will prove to be the wrong side of history. If it’s not, we’re all in a lot of trouble and won’t be here to have a history to tell.
It’s not a right and left issue. It’s a right and wrong way to govern and lead a society and inspire a community.
But as for The Knee and Steve Bisciotti’s ability to shut it down and fire his players or bench them or apologize for them?
For the loudest of loud detractors, I keep wondering the same thing: “What did you want the organization to do on the team plane on the way back from London?”
Sure, standing during the national anthem could’ve been negotiated into a CBA like the NBA did to quell the insurrection. They could’ve gone into court – and still will – with Colin Kaepernick about him being blackballed. (And he has been blackballed for those keeping score at home.)
And I don’t think I need to point out that the leadership of the National Football League – from Roger Goodell through every owner and all of the public relations fallout – has gotten universally poor marks for virtually every
