I think the NFL is way past the line when it come to social advocacy in general. It's one thing to adopt the breast cancer awareness thing because you're trying to build a female audience (and let's be honest, that's a large reason why that was done). All this stuff they're doing now is a distraction from their product. Their product is football entertainment, period. Now, instead of a national sport, we've got years of bad press clippings about DV trials, long after the authorities have dismissed the charges as unfounded. We've got a raging race debate somehow. We've got the best players on good teams suspended for large parts of the season, effecting the outcomes of whole seasons. Locker rooms like PIT are becoming divided over the social issues. I'm sure the league loves the publicity and attention in the short run. Why wouldn't they? Think how good it will be for them when it comes time for the Superbowl winner to go to the White House next time.
But it's bad for the game, it's bad for the players, and I think it's bad for the country to see this sort of division played out publicly only to be tied to the presidents already-sketchy record on race issues. If good were going to come of it, I'd feel differently. But it only ends with people being more entrenched and people on both sides feeling offended by the process.
You can probably guess that I've got a fairly active set of political principles. I try not to engage that stuff on the site here, but I have strong feelings about it. I just want those feelings separate from my pastimes. Politics isn't fun, for me. I think it's a bad thing to engage in political debate the way I engage in football debates. I'm sick about where things are at, generally, these days, for so many reasons. And I hate that instead of addressing it, we're getting into these embarrassing public theatrics that don't help and either distract from the real issues or make things worse for everybody, I've got posters I like suggesting not so subtly that I've got a racist diversionary agenda for example. I mean, ***?
This **** is taking some of the enjoyment out of the early season for me.