hairballdorknougat:mikedawwwson:Something Has Forced the ConversationWhite American resistance to se

hairballdorknougat:mikedawwwson:Something Has Forced the ConversationWhite American resistance to seeing the past in the present is pathologicalWelcome to reality.I love football. I mean, I really love the game. I love the grace and physical prowess. I love the physical affection the men are allowed to show each other, which they so seldom get to outside the world of sports. I love the strategy and the physics of it. I prefer college football to pro ball, because college players don’t have the massive muscle bulk the pros have, so they play a much more nimble game. My aunt was the head secretary to three Alabama coaches, and originally worked in the secretarial pool under Bear Bryant, probably the most recognizable college football coach in history. Her husband played for Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide and went on to be an OL coach and recruiter for Alabama and later the head coach for a smaller NCAA school. He told me many stories about the recruitment process, about the young men who were targeted for recruitment, about how little the schools actually gave them in exchange for the literal millions they generated through their gameplay. He told me about players who didn’t have enough food (the caloric needs for an athlete during the season are quite high) to meet their needs, but that if the coaches paid for any food, they would be violating NCAA rules. Some players saved what little they got to send home, because recruiting is done HEAVILY in low income areas, where sports are a “way to get out” - these young men often had families living in poverty. If they sell any memorabilia, they are expelled from the NCAA or heavily fined. They are not allowed to work part-time jobs while they are playing. I have heard stories about players whose physical performance began slipping due to either not getting enough to eat (combo of not enough access + sending food home) and stress about living in comparative luxury while their families still lived in poverty. I have heard stories that could cost teams championship titles because coaches have broken NCAA policies to help players’ families and alleviate the stress and anxiety of the players. The NCAA is designed to prey upon these young men. They recruit black high school quarterbacks and put them in more physically strenuous and dangerous positions (such as running back). When players are injured, they lose their scholarship, and the school does not continue to provide medical care to a player who is no longer on the team because he can’t play. The NCAA and NFL had information on head injuries and CTE for YEARS before it was released and before it became widely known; the NFL tried to actively suppress a study of CTE in players (which sadly often manifests in violent or suicidal episodes). The industry generates BILLIONS of dollars on the backs of players, predominantly black, and these young men receive almost nothing in exchange (and don’t tell me “but they get an education,” because most competitive NCAA schools put so much stress on athletes that academics get forced to the back burner). The rot at the heart of American Football goes deep. It is intrinsically exploitative. It is intrinsically racist. It starts as early as high school, where concussion protocol is often ignored, blooms into an epidemic in the NCAA, and then grinds them into dust in the NFL. I love football. I love the game. I love the grace and physical prowess of the players. I love the beauty of a perfect spiral. I love that miracles can occur in the three seconds of play. I love young men crying without shame because they have won or comforting each other when they have lost. I have not watched a single game since Colin Kaepernick was blackballed from the NFL. I cannot continue to watch a sport that exploits young black men. I cannot continue to watch a sport that punishes players for taking a respectful stand for an important issue. I cannot watch a sport that kills young men and pockets billions of dollars. Colin Kaepernick is the face of one important issue in American Football, but his actions made me take an honest look at the game as a whole, and what I found there was uglier than I ever imagined.  -- source link

More pics about