After Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills read NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s statement yesterday on the death of George Floyd, he could only muster up three words:
“Save the bullshit.”
Perhaps anything more would have been too wordy.
Still’s words were crisp, a clean and efficient knockout combination that wasted no punches, the precise opposite of Goodell’s bullshit word salad. Here is his statement with small notations where we have thrown a penalty flag on his bullshit.
1st Quarter: “The NFL family [BS] is greatly saddened [BS] by the tragic events [murders] across our country. The protesters’ reactions to these incidents [BS] reflect the pain, anger, and frustration that so many of us feel [BS].
2nd Quarter: “Our deepest condolences [BS] go out to the family of Mr. George Floyd and to those who have lost [BS] loved ones, including the families of Ms. Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and Mr. Ahmaud Arbery, the cousin of Tracy Walker of the Detroit Lions.”
Halftime Bullshit Break: “As current events dramatically underscore, there remains much more to do as a country and as a league [Truth].
3rd Quarter: “These tragedies [BS] inform the NFL’s commitment [GTFOH] and our ongoing efforts [Please]. There remains an urgent need for action [Truth]. We [fail to] recognize the power of our platform in communities and as part of the fabric of American society.
4th Quarter: “We embrace [my ass] that responsibility and are committed [Please stop] to continuing the important work to address these systemic issues together with our players, clubs and partners [Forget anybody?].
Let’s throw some more flags at this statement.
- Penalty — Faux Concern: Starting with the words “The NFL family”, one-third of Goodell bullshit is his faux concern undermined by the owners’ collusion against Colin Kaepernick himself. If you cared, Kap would be signed to a team. Period.
- Penalty: Unsportsmanlike Vagueness: The 2nd bullshit waves are words like “events” [ see “police executions”], “incidents” [ see “bodies in the street”], or “tragedies” [see police “getting away with murder”].
- Penalty — Faux Commitment: See Goodell’s 4th quarter bullshit prevent defense.
- Penalty – Omissions: Where’s Kaepernick name in this? Are we supposed to pretend the man doesn’t exist while cities across the nation are kneeling in his honor while demanding justice for George Floyd?
Breathtakingly beautiful sights of mass protesters taking a knee included NFL towns of Minneapolis, Dallas, Philadelphia, New York City, and more.
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
Dallas
New York
For his part, Kaepernick has established a legal defense initiative to provide tangible legal services to protesters.
But think about it, on the very same day masses of citizens paid tribute to Colin Kaepernick to end police terror, Roger Goodell issued a mountain of bullshit, and couldn’t even say his fucking name.
If this doesn’t tell you how old, white, tone-deaf and out-of-touch Goodell is, I don’t know what will.
The egregious statement omissions only begin with Kaepernick. Toni Smith-Thompson tweeted:
“It is truly impressive to write this many words about what is happening now and before and not write race, racism, black, police, violence, oppression, justice, murder, equality, or dignity”
Smith-Thompson should know. In 2003, her younger self would courageously protest against the Iraq war during the national anthem while playing basketball for Manhattanville College.
Smith-Thompson, who now works for the New York Civil Liberties Union was right then. And Colin Kaepernick is right now. The only difference between their stances is one was protesting U.S foreign military while the other was protesting our domestic military being used against its own citizens.
And Roger Goodell is protesting absolutely nothing at all.
His statement might possibly go down as the biggest bullshit word salad since the Minneapolis Police Department’s initial public statement that George Floyd “physically resisted officers” and was “suffering medical distress.”
Of course, this bullshit would have been the official MPD record had there not been conclusive video evidence.
Had there been no video, most of white America would have respected the official call from the respected MPD. America has never had a bigger penalty flag than white faith in white male authority, and unless you have incontrovertible tortuous conclusive video evidence, white male authority is undefeated.
When it comes to citing bullshit-to-power and white male authority, Kenny Stills is amongst the best and most courageous referees in the game. When Stills was playing for the Dolphins, his owner Stephen Ross who was running a non-profit aimed at “eliminating racial discrimination” and “improve race relations” was also hosting a fundraiser for Donald Trump with tickets ranging from $100,000 to $250,000.
Despite being Ross’ employee, Stills still threw out this penalty flag:
🤔 You can’t have a nonprofit with this mission statement then open your doors to Trump. pic.twitter.com/nNkRf2wJep
Good call. By last night, Goodell was joined with more hypocritical bullshit coming from 49ers owner Jed York, and former player Eric Reid was quick to immediately call bullshit.
Not only did Reid say that York “begged him not to kneel,” but you may recall that York is the very owner who decided to cut Colin Kaepernick mid-contract (was technically an “opt-out”, but he was told he would be cut), in order to move forward with quarterbacks Brian Hoyer and C.J. Beathard. Despite having alleged quarterback genius coach Kyle Shanahan, Hoyer and Beathard would go a combined 1-15 over the next two seasons.
In making his statement, York might’ve achieved the impossible: upstaging Roger Goodell on the Bullshit Richter Scale.
One could understand when you consider the alternative, Goodell and NFL owners facing the cold-hard truth. By not showing real leadership, and not actually listening to Kaepernick and all the peacefully kneeling African-American players four years ago, they helped to create all of this unrest.
Roger Goodell helped light that police precinct and Target on fire in Minneapolis.
Jed York helped break all those windows all across the country.
The NFL owners could have possibly saved George Floyd’s life.
So instead of confronting their murderous listening problem, they shot the messenger just like killer cops.
And four years later, they are all still kneeling on Kap’s head.
And that’s no bullshit.
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