SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - JULY 03: In this handout photo released by the Chosun Ilbo, Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the Asian Leadership conference at the Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel on July 3, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. Obama is in South Korea to attend anAsian Leadership conference in Seoul. (Photo by Chosun Ilbo via Getty Images)
While Donald Trump foolishly wasted precious time attacking black players in the NFL for peacefully protesting the slayings of black people by police, former president Barack Obama continued his efforts to bring attention to the suffering in Puerto Rico.
In a tweet on Tuesday, the former president shared a video he made with other former presidents and asked Americans to donate.
“We’re expanding our efforts to help Puerto Rico & the USVI, where our fellow Americans need us right now. Join us at oneamericaappeal.org.”
The current occupant in the White House has been under criticism lately for manufacturing the NFL controversy while ignoring the Puerto Rico catastrophe. He got carried away last weekend while speaking at a rally in Alabama, and called on NFL owners to “fire” any “son of a bitch” that keeled in protest during the rendition of the National Anthem.
The man who took an oath to protect Americans and our rights to peacefully protest, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution clearly knows nothing about the Constitution and people’s First Amendment.
The NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held a press conference today to say that he made a mistake in the Ray Rice situation. “I got it wrong” the commissioner said, “and I’s sorry for that.” With that out of the way, Roger Goodell went on to promise that moving forward things in the NFL will be different.
Goodell mentioned that former FBI director Robert Mueller is conducting an independent investigation into the NFL “to address any questions raised” about the process used in handling the Ray Rice situation, and Goodell “pledged” that any information or recommendation Mueller makes, would “lead to swift actions.”
He also stated that the domestic abuse cases in the NFL could help create change, “not only in our league, but in society.” He listed steps that the NFL is taking to improve the ways they deal with domestic abuse and sexual assault.
The commissioner also stated that the NFL has entered into a “long-term” partnership with the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Goodell said that these two agencies “need our help and we’re providing it.”
“We strongly, strongly condemn and will punish behavior that is totally unacceptable,” Goodell said. “Domestic violence, including child abuse, sexual assault, irresponsible ownership or handling of firearms, the illegal use of alcoholic or drugs. These activities must be condemned and stopped through education and discipline.”
He also said that he is bringing together the NFL Players, their Union and the owners, along with outside experts to discuss ways to better improve the standards “and identify the right procedures.” And he promised that the NFL “would implement new conduct policies.” These policies Goodell said, will be in effect by the next Superbowl.
During the questions portion of the press conference, the commissioner was asked multiple times if he would step down because of the way he handled the Ray Rice situation. He answered unequivocally, “no,” saying instead that he should not be fired because he admitted his mistake and is “focused” on doing his job and making the NFL a better organization.
I’ve heard enough excuses when it comes to Adrian Peterson’s beating of his four year old son for which he was recently indicted. No it’s not OK to whip your child with a tree branch or anything else for that matter. It’s not something that is excusable because someone’s father might have done it to them or grandfather or uncle or whomever. The kid is also just four years old. Adrian Peterson is a parent in the 21st century, in the year 2014. He is a millionaire with a good if not great education and he should know right from wrong. His excuses are his own. Same goes for the others who are trying to excuse his vile behavior.
That behavior is unfortunately not isolated in this country. It’s not just blacks and it’s not just in the NFL. It is a mindset that is prevalent. The idea that violence is the way to go. The only way. Your kid doesn’t listen? Beat em. Your wife gives you lip? Beat her. There are some people in other countries that annoy us? Bomb the shit out of them. Spread that capitalism and freedom far and wide. Make em eat it.
In 2014 we are actually talking about how a professional sports league, run by well schooled rich guys, needs to “learn” about things such as domestic violence and child abuse. So they have “learned” about this in other countries but not here? Why are we the last to learn about such things as basic human compassion? The answer is because we don’t want to learn. We want things our way. The only way. The American way.
We are very much stuck in the 1950’s in many ways. As other nations advance we regress. The NFL just symbolizes what is so wrong with this country. The alpha-male, out of control masculinity that we need to flex in everyone’s face on a daily basis. It really is very simple folks. Don’t hit your spouse. Don’t beat your kids till they bleed. Don’t bomb everyone you don’t like. What exactly do we need to “learn”?
If you assault someone in the street, you get arrested, Period. So why aren’t you arrested if you hit your spouse or your kid? Why are these “exceptions”? People say things like “My father whooped me when I was a kid” or “Domestic disputes should be between husband and wife” as a way to excuse vile behavior as the American “norm” and in a way it is just that. As though things that were once acceptable behavior, or behavior that wasn’t talked about in public, is still OK. It’s not.
The idea that the NFL needs a manual to tell its players to not beat their wives or kids is insane. The bottom line is until we really start to admit that we are a violent, backwards country in so many ways, none of this will ever change. I don’t want to hear about “education”, as though we need courses to teach this common sense humanity to people. What does that say about us?
The violence as a cure all that some parents may have passed on to their kids hasn’t stopped with this and future generations because we continue to have that same old world mentality when it comes to just about everything. We want our politicians to “talk tough”, to bomb and fight and use war to get what we want, even though it never does, ever. We let our kids shoot high-powered weapons when they are six years old. That this is what it means to be “respected.”
Since so many Americans are caught in this sick mindset it allows the NFL and the Vikings to continue to play a guy like Peterson when he has been indicted. You think your boss is going to keep you if you are indicted for ANYTHING? The NFL knows that enough Americans will excuse Peterson, will “pray for him”, so they can get away with allowing him to play. Just as Ray Rice will now appeal his ban. As I said before, Rice should not have been banned because of a video, he should have been banned because he beat his wife. Nobody should be able to enjoy a millionaire’s life, a star’s life, when they are beating their wife or kid. Nobody.
This country’s gun obsession, or jingoistic mentality goes hand in hand with its high tolerance for domestic abuse, and child abuse, since the psychological factor is the same. Dominance. Using the fist to get our way. It can be an actual fist, or it can be a gun, a drone, or the whipping device of your choice. The child can get a beating from his dad then turn on the television and see how his/her country is about to give the middle east another beating.
The Baltimore Sun is reporting since former Ravens running back Ray Rice’s $35 million contract has been terminated and he’s indefinitely suspended by the NFL, the NFL Players Association and Rice are poised to appeal by filing a grievance as soon as Monday, according to sources.
Due process and the precedent for other players facing increased punishment are among the reasons for appealing the increased punishment Rice received, the sources said.
Rice is also considering potential legal action with all options remaining on the table following his increased discipline from the league, according to sources, who noted the potential “double-jeopardy” aspect of the former NFL player being punished twice for the same offense.
Sources indicated that Rice is also regarded as likely to hire a crisis management firm to offer him advice.
On Friday, the NFLPA got a letter from commissioner Roger Goodell explaining the increased punishment. The union has three business days to file an appeal, according to the NFL collective bargaining agreement
When it rains, it pours, and it’s thunder and lightning, and tumultuous rain in the NFL right now.
A grand jury has indicted Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson with reckless or negligent injury to a child, and will not play in this Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots.
Darren Sharper has just been charged with 2 counts of rape in L.A. … after the former New Orleans Saints superstar allegedly drugged multiple women and raped them in his hotel room … TMZ Sports has learned.
Among the charges … two counts of rape by use of drugs, four counts of furnishing a controlled substance and one count of possession of a controlled substance, all felonies.
Sharper — who had a Hall of Fame-caliber NFL career as a safety — is accused of drugging the women with zolpidem (Ambien).
Officials say Sharper met the two womenin a West Hollywood nightclub on October 30th and invited them to another party.
On the way, officials say they stopped at Darren’s hotel room and he gave them each a shot.
The women then passed out and hours later one of the women claims she woke up with Sharper sexually assaulting her. The second woman says she woke up and “interrupted his actions.”
Officials say Sharper STRUCK AGAIN on January 14th … when he returned to the same West Hollywood nightclub and found two more women.
Sharper allegedly pulled the same scheme — inviting them back to hs room, gave them a shot, they passed out, he raped them.
Officials say both women left his hotel and sought medical treatment.
Sharper was arrested on January 17th. He was released on $200k bail. In addition to the rape, officials also say he was illegally in possession of morphine.
If convicted, Sharper faces more than 30 YEARS in prison. Officials are recommending the judge set his bail at $100 MILLION.
(Update: We’re told the $100 million bail was a typo … officials meant to request a $10 MILLION bail).
Officials say Sharper is also accused of raping women in 3 other states — including Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana.
Thanks to people like George Bush, Rick Perry and others like Ted Cruz and those Texans who are willing to forgo their own health care for dumb Republican politics, I always thought Texans were not that smart. It’s wrong of me to generalize like that, yea, I know. But when you look at the examples above, it’s hard not to come to that conclusion.
I was wrong, and I will be the first to admit that.
A sportscaster from Texas has defied my way of thinking, causing me to take a second look at the intellect of the state. And although the Ted Cruzes are still there, I am changing my way of thinling. His name is Dale Hansen and his commentary on the Michael Sam story is what did it for me.
Michael Sam came out a few days ago telling the world that he was gay. Sam, a college football star is now looking to be picked up by the NFL but since making his announcement, the college superior player is getting blowback from some in the league.
An NFL having survivor had some harsh words for Richie Incognito. “I’m not afraid to say that he was an immature, unrealistic scumbag. When it came down to it, he had no personality, he was a locker-room cancer, and he just wanted to fight everybody all the time. It was bizarre beyond belief.”
Those are the words of Cam Cleeland who, as an NFL player some 15 years ago, went through a rookie hazing on the first day of training camp.
“Guys were just rabid,” Cleeland told the Los Angeles Times. “And you had a couple guys in the front that would stand in a three-point stance, and you would fire off the line like he was going to knock you over.
“You tried to make it through, and they literally just beat the ever-loving crap out of you as you tried to get through. Everything you can imagine, from kicking, punching, scrapping.”
Cleeland’s case is back on the radar this week as the ugly Jonathan Martin-Richie Incognito situation boils up in Miami. Martin, now in his second season, left the Dolphins last week after allegedly being the victim of repeated, cruel bullying.
Incognito was suspended following the revelation of a voicemail in which he hurled racial slurs at Martin. On Thursday night, Martin’s lawyer, David Cornwell, released a scathing statement in which he said Martin was the victim of a “malicious physical attack,” but did not specify which teammate was involved.
Cleeland’s hazing ended tragically. Andre Royal, a free-agent linebacker, had been collecting pennies all day from teammates and put them in a sock that he would swing wildly at Cleeland. Royal’s blow shattered Cleeland’s eye socket and nearly cost him his eye. He still deals with partial vision.
“I was full of adrenaline at that time,” Cleeland told the paper. “You’re in that fight-or-flight mode, survival mode. You’ve got to get through. So I made it through, and next thing you know my nose is bleeding all over.”
Cleeland, who went on to play eight years in the NFL, would cross paths with Incognito on the Rams when the team drafted the offensive lineman in 2005. He does not sound surprised by some of the reports that now surround Incognito.
“I’m not afraid to say that he was an immature, unrealistic scumbag,” Cleeland said. “When it came down to it, he had no personality, he was a locker-room cancer, and he just wanted to fight everybody all the time. It was bizarre beyond belief.”
“There’s no difference between the R-word and the N-word,” ~ Alan Yelsey, American Indian Activists
A Native American coalition in Minnesota has come up with a new strategy in the movement to replace the NFL logo and mascot for the Washington Redskins, which the they deem defamatory.
A letter written by representatives of the Minneapolis-based American Indian Movement asks the MSFA to refrain from printing or broadcasting the Redskins’ name or logo inside the Metrodome during the team’s November 7th game against the Minnesota Vikings. Their reasoning is that doing so within a publicly owned facility, violates federal labor laws, hate-speech protections and the civil rights of American Indians.
Indian activist Alan Yelsey, who co-wrote the letter, says failure to do so could lead to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of American Indian children. Letters were also sent out to Minnesota’s media outlets so that everyone could be on the same page.
“There’s no difference between the R-word and the N-word,” Yelsey said. “There’s no reason why this discriminatory and damaging term needs to be used when alternatives exist.”
On another front: Seventeen years after initially challenging the Washington Redskins trademark, Suzan Shown Harjo, a Native American writer and public policy advocate, along with six other activists have renewed their fight against the use of the trademark. Harjo says that it violates the Lanham Act, which bars trademarks that “disparage” people living or dead. The original petition was denied by a lower-court ruling based on statute of limitations laws, but it was announced last Monday that Harjo’s group will appeal that decision.
Across the country the origin of the word “redskin” is being newly debated. Some scholars say that the word was coined by early settlers in reference to the skin tone of Native Americans, asserting that the actual origin of the word is “positive” and reflects the more benign aspects of early relations between Native Americans and whites.
Uh-huh.
It was only later that the term became more derogative, when books on the “wild west” published between 1875 and 1930 showed an increasingly negative association between the use of redskin, with “dirty”, “lying”, “savage”, etc.; while so-called benign or positive usage such as “noble” redskin were used condescendingly. And let’s not forget the American Western movies emblazoning the more negative connotation in several generations of fans.
An Associated Press GfK poll, conducted from April 11-15, interviewed 1,004 Americans on the subject. The survey found that nearly four in five of those polled didn’t think the team should change its name. 11 percent thought it should be changed, while 8 percent weren’t sure and 2 percent didn’t answer.
“That’s who they’ve been forever. That’s who they’re known as,” said Sarah Lee, a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom from Osceola, Ind., and one of those polled. “I think we as a people make race out to be a bigger issue than it is.”
But those who thought the name should be changed said the word is obviously derogatory. No report on whether any Native Americans were part of this survey.
“The use of any stereotype in the portrayal of Indians is considered … to be contributory to their dehumanization and deracination”, says Harjo, “It is the worst thing in the English language you can be called if you are a native person.”
And while it could be said that other NFL teams trademark names such as the Braves, Indians, Chiefs and Blackhawks all describe a group of people, Redskins clearly references an individual “being called out his name” as the old slang goes.
President Barack Obama said Saturday he would consider getting rid of the name if he owned the team.
On his ultra-conservative talk show, Rush Limbaugh said he was confused as to why anyone might be offended by the much maligned moniker, saying that the whole matter was a controversy “manufactured by the left.”
However, in the end, the AP-Gfk poll and other such opinions are irrelevant.
The verdict of the case Harjo wants put back before The Supreme Court judges — a case said to be one of the most compelling lawsuits in sports history — must be based on Section 2 of the Lanham Act of the trademark law which decides whether or not “relevant parties involved may be discredited or brought into contempt or dishonored” by the Washington Team’s name. Those ‘relevant parties’ are Native American people. And they are saying “Yes” to that.
Tim Tebow has only been in the league for three years and has already played for two different teams, the Denver Broncos which he was originally drafted and most recently the horrible experience in New York with the Jets. Now though after being rejected by the Jacksonville Jaguars, the entire Canadian Football League, and even the Arena Football League, he has been signed by the powerhouse New England Patriots for and undisclosed length and money.
If Bill Belichick can’t find a use for Tebow I’ll be shocked
While I am not a Tim Tebow fan I am very happy for him to have been signed to a team. Tebow has the heart and desire to compete that most stars lack on top of that he has the work ethic to match that of any superstar. I’m glad he’s finally on a team that can utilize his skills that he will bring, especially since he is now working again with ex Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels once again in New England. Most importantly the media circus that has followed Tebow around his rather short career will be silenced in New England as all media circus’s have been before. I wish Tim Tebow the best of luck and most of all I am happy he may finally have a chance to play the game he so desperately wants to.
Mark Sanchez is owed $8.25 million next season after having a miserable 2012-13 season
Let me just say, I’m not sure if drafting Geno Smith was a wise move or just a move to create publicity. The Jets current roster has Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Geno Smith, David Garrard, Greg McElroy, and Matt Simms all for the position of quarterback; That list is just down right ridiculous. While guys like McElroy and Simms are not big names nor important right now, the questions still circulate around Sanchez and Smith. Will the Jet’s release Sanchez, taking a $12.35 million cap hit this year and $4.8 million hit in 2014, or will they keep him and let him compete for a job that was once easily his? Will Garrad be the back up to Smith or will Garrad have the starting job?
Welcome Geno Smith, to the Jets media circus
Once again I’m going to do a favor to a professional sports teams front office, free of charge; it would be wise to release Mark Sanchez. Granted his 2012-2013 season was horrific, though it will be an immediate cap hit this season, it will push the Jets under cap for the 2014 season. Garrad is more than skilled enough to help Geno Smith grow, assuming he is the next franchise quarterback for the Jets. If they shall go on this releasing frenzy, also release Tebow and allow him to carve his own path in the NFL. Let Geno get comfortable playing for the Jets and let Rex Ryan reel in his defense again; perhaps one day soon we shall see the Jets again in an AFC championship game. Until that day comes, the Jets have quite a lot of work to do.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
