NFL RACISM

The concept of racism and the NFL is a touchy subject. This is going to shed a different light on the topic and it's with anecdotal evidence not statistical. I say that to be open and clear. Let's also be clear this is not an “everyone” or “all” people topic and should never be taken as such. I recently discovered a new sense of racism regarding the NFL that I think is permeated across the United States in some degree. This is bad. I don’t know how you fix this.

First the background. I’m a die hard Oakland Raiders fan. I grew up near Oakland and have been a fan since I understood what the game was in 1971-2. I’m also an ex police officer that was really offended by the players taking a knee. When they did so to protest the shooting of African Americans by police officers I was dismayed since a person has a right to defend themselves regardless of race. The taking of a knee suggested to me that cops lives don't matter to these people. My level of boycott was simple. I canceled the NFL Ticket subscription and refused to buy any NFL related products. I also tried to avoid sponsors if I could, but I’d watch games on broadcast TV. It was the best I could do.

This topic first started for me in September 2017. In the third week of the season the taking of a knee became a big deal with #Trump deciding to insert his opinion on the topic (his opinions mirrors mine). The Raiders had won the first two games of the season. They had just finished a 12-4 winning season. They looked like a team on top and ready to roll on ahead for another winning season. In that prior season Derrick Carr the teams QB was sacked just 16 times. The same offensive line was protecting him in this 2017 season as well.

In the third game Derrick Carr didn’t take a knee. Neither did Jack Del Rio the head coach or the owner Mark Davis. In that game Carr was sacked 4 times and hit several more times like he’d never been in the prior year or the prior two games. The Raiders went on to lose the game badly. The team looked shaken. They were not the same winning team again even through 2018. They went 6-10 in 2017 and even worse in 2018.

A conspiracy theory was blown way up when a girl friend of one of the offensive linemen for the Raiders gave an interview, made a post on social media or tweet (I don’t recall which) that her man “let Carr have it” for not taking a knee. This was taken back by the girl friend, repudiated by media outlets and the few players like Carr who commented on it. However the conspiracy theory was out of the bag and some people still believe it.

For the last 10 years I participated on a Raiders forum of fans. I had over 15,000 posts on that forum. It was fun. We talked all year long. The taking of a knee really divided the forum up, and being pretty emotional about it I stood my ground. It was finally agreed upon by moderators to drop the topic and focus on football. 3 months later a new person came in and his first post was about the conspiracy. He believed it- so it seemed. I chided the new poster and said to get over it, move on, we don’t need it, and leave it alone. I was chastised by the moderators for doing this and so I quit the forum outright. I’ve never gone back. Oddly enough I was trying to put down a new member that had my same point of view, but I was hoping to see the forum avoid another fight and for that I was attacked by the moderators. Enough - I was done with them.

Being the die hard fan I joined a facebook group a few months later. Over 30,000 fans in the group. This was a BIG eye opening for me. I was dismayed to learn that many in the group hated Derrick Carr the QB. Flash forward to the 2018 season the Raiders sucked. The people attacked Carr for losing, but when you looked at his numbers they mirrored his winning 2016 season. Carr was clearly not the problem, but man the bitterness and hatred on this facebook page was real. I didn’t get it.

Now it's postseason and we’re in the throws of the free agency, the draft is coming, and it's a fun time for a fan like me. I still see people dissing on our players here and there, but now I’m seeing a trend. Please, again, this is anecdotal. A few days ago the Raiders released Jordy Nelson, a wide receiver, and it bummed me out. Jordy was our best WR last year. He seems like a good guy. I thought he’d be an ideal #3 wide out after the team just paid $30,000,000 to two other wide receivers. I go to facebook to express my disdain in the move, and I’m floored to see so many people elated he’s gone. He’s a loser, he’s too slow, he’s old, and he sucks and people just reiterating these messages with happiness he is gone. I was dismayed. This was not universal by any means there was just a lot of them.

Going back a day the #NFL was a buzz about a running back named Bell from the Steelers. The Raiders did a trade with the Steelers for wide receiver Antonio Brown, and made him the highest paid wide receiver in the league. People on the facebook page wanted the Raiders to sign Bell. I was opposed. I was getting all kinds of flak for it, no big deal, it doesn’t bother me. The bitterness of those who wanted him was ugly. This man, Bell, was so good he turned down $14 million from the Steelers to sit at home and do nothing last year. Now he wanted that from the Raiders; please no I thought. Fortunately he didn’t come to us, but man they wanted him on that fan group of facebook.

Finally I saw the final element that caused this long blog post. In 2017 the Raiders drafted a player named Eddie Vanderdoes. He played defense for the Raiders and was considered marginally good. He was a rookie, people hoped he would improve, and in his second year 2018 he got hurt. Actually he played hurt late in 2017 and the recovery cost him all of 2018. Now he’s healthy and it was noted he’d be there to contribute in a position of need this year. I wasn’t ready for what I’d see next: “He sucks, we don’t need him, cut his ass, what a loser, and so forth were the posts about Eddie. My God man the kid has played all of about 10 games and you know he’s a bust? What the heck?

My limited research went into effect after this and my research was confirmed. The people who hated Jordy, Carr and Eddie had one thing in common: They were African Americans’ and those three players had one thing in common too: They are white. It became clear to me the African American fans were good with African American players but some of them really hate each and every white guy on the team. They even diss the kickers pretty hard - who happen to be white as well. Though one does suck.

The more I looked into this the more it was obvious and it trended to the point where I felt compelled to write this story. The SJW impact on the NFL has helped increase the depth of this racism. African Americans just seem to really dislike white players, coaches and owners. It's not universal but it's real.  #MINDS #RACISM #SJW