The Washington Redskins are no more. The name, that is. The team still exists, but, the name of the team is being retired; the product of a long waged culture war, or, of societal maturation, or something… I’m not really sure to be honest. Of course, certainty is the fool’s stock in trade, and, there is plenty of it circulating. I’d bet dollars to donuts that the conservatives, for the most part, are offended by people who were offended, never realizing the implicit irony therein. They are likely certain that this is just another casualty of the PC wars, which they so deeply loathe, still desiring to protect their supposed God given right to do whatever it is that they claim they are not allowed to do anymore, just because it hurt someone’s feelings. The liberals, for their part, are celebrating the end of another evil word, and, are doubtless encouraged by the change, to continue their eternal march to rid the world of anything that someone, somewhere, doesn’t like. Perhaps you can tell that I prefer taking concepts on one at a time, as opposed to examining them under an ideologically tinted microscope, but, I digress. In this case, we are arguing over a very incorrect thing.
We’ve come a long way, societally speaking. Here we stand, bickering over offensive names, when there existed a time wherein people flocked, by the thousands, to go see men battle to the death, in the Roman Coliseum. Well, I suppose, not to the death, generally. Despite that ever trustworthy vanguard of truth, that is popular opinion, most gladiatorial battles were not to fought to the death. After all, gladiators were slaves – well trained slaves, but, slaves, nevertheless. Owners don’t like their expensive possessions permanently destroyed, so, battles to the death make bad business. Although, there is evidence that, sometimes, a fight to the death would be promoted to hype up an event, and, the owner of the deceased gladiator would be compensated for the loss of his property. Mostly, they just fought until there was a decisive winner. We wouldn’t support such barbarism today, though. Today, we argue about names.
While protests over police brutality and racism continue to divide our nation, we will once again, start talking about the propriety of a name. But, really, is there systemic injustice in this country? Did you know that 68.7% of NFL players are Black, and, 47.1% of Division I football players are Black, even though only 13.2% of the U.S. population is Black. So, if our sports heroes, in particular, the sports heroes in our nation’s most popular sport, are Black, how could we be possessed of a national bias against Black Americans? There is evidence to support the fact that these Black athletes, both college football, and in the NFL, come from economically disadvantaged communities. So, not only are our football heroes disproportionately Black, they are also disproportionately from poor communities, so, they are getting the chance to rocket to wealth and a higher socioeconomic status. All good things, right? Clearly, we’ve progressed beyond, the troglodytes who filled the Coliseum! Although, it is worth noting that those slaves that we call gladiators could achieve fame, within Roman society, due to their roles in the arena.
Did you know that 94% of Athletes tested in a 2018 study of former college football players had CTE, a condition that results from repeated concussions and brain injuries? These are athletes who, as my friend, and legal scholar, Marc Edleman, has consistently pointed out, are unfairly denied compensation, while their schools reap windfall profits off of them. There were 73,712 gladiators NCAA college football players during the 2018-2019 season, according to the NCAA. That’s 69,289 young people whose brains have likely been turned into a ticking time bomb of CTE symptoms, given our 94% positive rate from the 2018 study. CTE isn’t some phantom condition that one has, like some asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier. It results in something worse than dementia, at far younger ages than dementia, and, often results in suicides. It would stand to reason that the number of NFL players would be even higher. Good thing we’re changing the names of football teams, though.
thereluctantcommentator 