Great article by Reusse on NFL and MLB

[gunnarthor]

http://www.startribune.com/nfl-and-mlb-have-62-teams-combined-and-they-are-all-cowards/485387961/

 

Reusse argues that sports teams can't just let profit margins decide all decisions. "Or to put it more clearly: My view is that major league sports leagues and teams — which have fed gluttonously at the public trough — should be expected to take fair-minded stands, even when those might cut into profits."

 

He compares the NFL's stance toward Kaepernick and MLB's refusal to draft some people as examples of cowardice. 

 

"If you’re a worker in this country, and you can watch competent football players — Kaepernick and Reid — go unsigned in an obvious case of blacklisting, and you side with the money-grubbing, parasitic 32 NFL teams, you have given it all up to The Man."

 

And he ends with Teams "are afraid of the noise — just as Commissioner Roger Goodell and 32 NFL teams cowered in financial fear when the noisiest man in America, Donald John Trump, found a few silent anthem protests as an issue to make hay.  Two leagues. Sixty-two teams. Cowards."

 

I believe Reusee is right. The NFL's blacklisting has emboldened racists and also removed some talent from the QB position at a time when good QBs are hard to find. On baseball, he's just as right. MLB shouldn't be preventing juvenile actions to prohibit day one talent from playing ball. No one in these sports is doing this on principle but merely b/c they are afraid of public opinion.

[ashbury]

The NFL's blacklisting has emboldened racist... MLB shouldn't be preventing juvenile actions to prohibit day one talent from playing ball.

Moderator's note: OK, we have a two-fer here. The topics of "racism" and "Luke Heimlich" have both been discussed many times on this site, and both invariably lead to posts that violate site posting standards. If you have something new to say in response to the article, make sure it is stated respectfully and without flame-baiting.

[gunnarthor]

It's nice that someone is speaking out against these problems and what did you think of Reusse's comparison to the newspaper industry willing to lose a few bucks and not give in.

[TheLeviathan]

It seems strange to me to base the first half of the article on a version of “X is normalizing/emboldening Y” and then utterly dismiss the same idea in the second half of the article.

[gunnarthor]

 

It seems strange to me to base the first half of the article on a version of “X is normalizing/emboldening Y” and then utterly dismiss the same idea in the second half of the article.

So you think "keeping Kaepernick out of the NFL emboldens normalizes racist behavior" is the same as "drafting Heimlech normalizes his type of behavior"? Or did I misunderstand you?

[TheLeviathan]

I don't think either normalized anything. I think that brand of argument is vastly over played.

 

But yes, you should probably back both or neither if you wish for logical consistency. Either way you are talking about how player transactions reflect/effect the larger culture.

 

I'm even ok with calling the league's cowards, but I'd do so with less obvious incoherence in my reasons.

[gunnarthor]

 

I don't think either normalized anything. I think that brand of argument is vastly over played.

But yes, you should probably back both or neither if you wish for logical consistency. 

I think Reusse is backing neither.

[TheLeviathan]

I think Reusse is backing neither.

Perhaps, then I don't understand your inconsistency in your interpretation.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Taking subsidies usually comes at a price (unless of course you are absurdly rich apparently). So I guess to some extent Ruesse has a point, though I'm not quite sure how at all that can be enforced as a practical matter though. CK should be employed. I think Reid's case is a bit different given that he's not the only unemployed safety right now in the NFL, and there are players just as good as him who are also unemployed. While collusion may be in play there, the NFL has some pretty easy counterpoints on that one. I don't think you can say the same about CK. 

 

Heimlich presents a bit of a different case in that he plead guilty to a crime. We've rehashed this, and to an extent I think he should get a shot somewhere. I think the logic against not drafting him is faulty, though I don't think Reuse did a very good job articulating the voices in his piece. It's pretty clear the side he's on, and he tends to build straw men to argue against his opponents. Both cases are a bit more complicated, though I do agree that his point about them taking public subsidies should to some extent give some public control over what the teams can and cannot do. If they don't like that, then don't take the money.