SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
But people believe what they hear, not what they see!
As for our National Anthem, rules set forth by the NBA and NFL have never gone away, just disrespected
By ARNIE LESHIN Santa Fe Today
Racism: Discrimination based on belief that some races are by nature superior.
That’s true. Just watch an NFL game, just watch an NBA game, just watch colleges like Florida A & M, Texas Southern, Howard. The professional ranks employ superior athletes and it doesn’t matter what race or color they are. In this instance, they are black, and if you haven’t noticed this, you’ve way behind the times.
As for those colleges, the ones where campus contain 99 percent blacks, they’ve been at peace for decades, never have been discriminated against, never have been threatened to include other colors, other races.
And these athletes, well in the pro game, they are superior. From youth leagues to high schools to colleges, no one has kept them from playing, from becoming wealthy, from entertaining crowds with their superior skills. Anyone hear other colors complaining?
Of course not, it hasn’t come to that and it probably never will, not as long as, if you want to win, you want the superior players on your roster.
This includes the entire country, the north, the south, the west, the east. Color doesn’t matter, wining does. The late Bear Bryant found out. The late Adolph Rupp found out. Abe Saperstein found out when he founded the Harlem Globetrotters.
In fact, the Globetrotters might have been, and still are, our greatest ambassadors. They play all over the globe and no one’s complaining. They are the most superior masters of basketball entertainment ever seen. They have been 99 percent African American.
Recently, the front page news columnist for the daily newspaper in Santa Fe wrote about former Denver Bronco football star Lionel Taylor’s racial problems while growing up in the south, mostly New Orleans. That was in the 1960s.
But that was the south, where slavery was brought down by the Civil War, by President Abraham Lincoln, but where they still moved blacks to the back of the bus, still taunted them, beat them, kept them shining shoes, kept them out of hotels, restaurants, and anywhere else where only whites were allowed.
To the uniformed, the south is where the Ku Klaus Klan was originated in Mississippi, by Democrats. The KKK is still around, and whose fault is that?
I’m white. Where I was brought up in the 1950s, there was no discrimination, no racism. Yes, blacks had to struggle to survive, but so did others in the post-War II, in the then-Korean War. This was good old Brooklyn, one of New York’s five boroughs. We called them coloreds back than. I called them friends. There were maybe a dozen or so in my elementary school, but my high school was filled with coloreds.
They arrived by train, from African American areas like Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant. There weren’t any sports programs for the girls yet, but the boy’s basketball team was all colored and was one of the better teams in the city. Same with the track and field team, the cross country team, where I was the only white member.
Did I have a problem with that? No way, southern Jose. Did the coloreds? No way. I went to the basketball games, ran with the track and XC teams, I stood with them to harmonize do-wop, rock and roll, and it was a treat for me because they were so damn good.
I would bring some of them back to my home in the East New York section of Brooklyn. We would take two buses, my mom would serve milk and cookies and hug each one when they departed for the A train accompanied by me.
I was too young to be concerned or even aware of the problems in the south, especially since there were coloreds on almost every high school team in the north.
So I never took offense to Tommy Smith and John Carlos displaying, holding out their black gloves while standing on the podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Same with Jackie Robinson. He did what he thought was right, and obviously he was right. Colin Kaepernick is white but was kneeling to protest police brutality. Go figure.
I began as a sports journalist with the Jersey Journal in Jersey City. On the high school track and field teams, especially Lincoln and Snyder highs, were the superior athletes. They were black, every last one of them that finished first. Many of them would visit me in my office. No one stopped them.
Once, two of the Lincoln elite runners were stranded at Newark Airport after a recruiting trip to Arizona State. It was 1 a.m. when they called. Instead of going home, I drove to the airport, picked them up, treated them to some White Castle burgers, and they never stopped thanking me.
I spent a dozen years in Jersey City. There were two special black athletes, Larry (Goober) Odoms and Franklin Walker. Superb athletes, my friends. Goober attended Snyder High, went to college, and then became principal at Snyder. Walker attended Ferris High, went to college, and then became the Jersey City superintendent of schools. They have since retired and we keep in touch back-and-forth. They still call me “Bro.”
As for protests regarding police brutality, I’ll stay out of that. Ditto for the five innocent police officers killed in Dallas. With all of this mess, and this includes the recent shooting spree by one man in Las Vegas that killed 59 innocent people, I’m still proud of serving in the US Navy, still pledge allegiance, still stand and place my hand on my heart when the national anthem is played, and still say God Bless America.
One more thing, commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL threatened to fine a player a few years ago who wanted to wear special cleats that commemorated 9/11. They threatened to fine another player who wanted to wear pink cleats to honor his mother who died of breast cancer. They refused to allow owner Jerry Jones to put a sticker on the Cowboys’ helmets that honored the five Dallas police officers who were killed during a riot.
They have carte blanche to suspend any player they decide has embarrassed the league, whether on the field or off.
But why is it unacceptable for President Donald Trump to suggest that players who embarrass our country and disrespect our flag, troops, veterans, and police officers should be punished in the same manner?
There are rules in the NFL rulebook and can be round on pages A62-63.
The National Anthem must be played prior to every game, and all players must be on the sideline for this. During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the country, Failure to be on the field for this could result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and for/or the forfeit of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.
Amen!
