The NFL players’ sideline protests over the National Anthem and flag have angered a lot of people. On the surface, that anger is about patriotism versus a sense of entitlement, with the players having too little of the former and too much of the latter.
But there’s another feeling of disgust I’m hearing a lot, how the NFL was one of the few remaining places to which we could escape from politics and just be left alone and allowed to enjoy something. The NFL was an escape.
That’s a sentiment I expressed in my post, NFL picked sides in the culture war, now it has to live with the consequences:
Over time, I’ve lost interest in professional sports for many of the same reasons I’ve lost interested in the professional music, film, and other entertainment industries.They have become thoroughly politicized by the left as part of the culture war. So for me, the lastest public fight over NFL players protesting on the sidelines is just the latest straw, and in many ways, the last straw….The result, for me, is a withdrawal from much of professional culture.My last refuge was the NFL. Now that is gone.
A friend having read my post, wrote on Facebook:
The NFL was one of the last non-political avenues of entertainment. Now, that is gone.
If anything, it’s worse than when I wrote that post.
Even the Dallas Cowboys took a knee tonight, with Jerry Jones joining them. The crowd booed loudly, much as the crowd booed the Patriots when almost half the team took a knee on Sunday:
The Cowboys didn’t take a knee during the national anthem, but it was a visible political act on the field.
I was a diehard Cowboys fan for most of my life, going back to the 1967 Ice Bowl. Not any more.
Since moving to Rhode Island I also became a Patriots fan. Foxboro stadium is only 30 minutes away, and is closer to Providence than to Boston. I probably have watched replays of the 2017 Super Bowl comeback win a billion times. Okay, maybe not a billion, but a lot, whenever I wanted to cheer myself up.
After the Patriots and Tom Brady came out in solidarity with the sideline protests, however, for the first time I deliberately didn’t watch the Patriots game on Sunday:
I’m officially over the Cowboys, the Patriots and the NFL. You were once one of the loves of my life. But now we’re breaking up, and it’s you, not me.
I’m not “boycotting” you. I just don’t care anymore.
You tried to make me care, but now I don’t care at all, about you.
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