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By Tim Turner, For TheAfricanAmericanAthlete.com
Eagles’ fans flooded the streets of Philadelphia en masse for the much anticipated mayhem sanitized for public consumption as revelry and celebration. You could not swing a cheesesteak without coming across stories about fires, looting and vandalism that descended upon the City of Brotherly Love following Philadelphia’s 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl.
And no one said a thing.
The juxtaposition of that muted response against the outcry over players throughout the season kneeling during the National Anthem in peaceful protest of racial injustice is glaring.
Yeah, I know. Politics and sports are not supposed to collide. That we’re supposed to only root for the different color jerseys irrespective of other issues and merely appreciate the action going on the field.
Sorry, but that ship — its cargo packed with slaves, and headed for the colony of Jamestown,Va., in 19619 — sailed long ago.
Descendants of that ship were on display for a global audience and played what arguably was one of the best title games in history.
The thing is those descendants and others like them, have had a challenged history with this nation. Because of this, some of them have taken the lead of former (?) NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and have been silently kneeling to protest the enduring racial injustice in America, and have been getting slaughtered for it.
Why is it that police scanner fodder from Sunday night get the silent treatment and the players are characterized as unpatriotic?
They greased the poles in the city in advance of a win (they came down anyway) and overturned cars, yet the players are seen as tearing down America.
They destroy public property, yet on Fox & Friends Sunday morning, they are admonished, told by a Trump advisor who they should kneel for and when.
Then there was the pre-game ceremony where the unpatriotic vibe was evident when Medal of Honor recipients were honored, yet not one was a person of color — a charitably unintentional slight, but a slight nonetheless.
Beyond fists in the air from Malcolm Jenkins, Torrey Smith, and Rodney McLeod, there was no obvious protest Sunday by the Eagles. And still the sun still rose in the east and set in the west and the game was played as well as it ever has been. That is, if you rooted for the Eagles.
Quite a trip for those players. But one trip they will not be making is to the White House for the Rose Garden ceremony to highlight their victory. With good conscious, they can’t given its current occupant.
How could they when they were threatened with being fired for their protest? And they won’t be the only ones staying home.
Teammate Chris Long, a Charlottesville, Va., native, has supported his teammates’ protests. He was disgusted by the white supremacist demonstration in his hometown last summer.
He donated his first six week’s salary to fund scholarships there, and the remainder of his salary for organizations that support educational equity in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston, the NFL cities in which he has played.
It wasn’t difficult to miss, but for a few hours so easy to overlook. The game was compelling enough to toss all that aside for 60 minutes.
But the real world is intrusive. And After the last pass was batted down in the end zone, the mind almost reflexively shifts back to the real world. To what the players were protesting, and what the fans were celebrating. We’re here and we need to be better than this.
