You Can't Legislate Affection

I was scrounging through my closet yesterday when I found a box of clothes. I hadn't remembered boxing anything like that up, so I looked into it. It was my old New Orleans Saints gear and then I recalled how it got there.

I've been a crazy N'awlins Saints since Mike Ditka led them to three straight 3-13 seasons way back when. I've listened to their games when they were horrible and when they won the Super Bowl, it was a religious experience. My closet and dresser is full of Saints gear. I love wearing it. No more. Until this passes away decisively, I'm putting it all away.

One more thing. The morons in the NFL think they're sending a message to Trump. Well, maybe they are, but they're sending a much, much bigger message to their fans. They're saying they want to go to war with the President and if we happen to get hurt badly in the cross fire, well, it sucks to be us.

No, boys. It's going to suck to be you. We can live just fine without you, but you're going to have a hard time living without us.

Today, there's a new poll out showing that the NFL is still in the doghouse.

The National Football League has done nothing to recover during the off season from it’s miserable popularity ratings that are now at the lowest ever.

Rocked by the issues of players taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem, overly long games, and scandalous players, just 35 percent say they have a favorable view of “America’s sport.”

According to an Economist/YouGov poll taken May 27-29 another 47 percent have an “unfavorable” view of the NFL.

The backlash was not about the kneeling per se, it was about what the kneeling revealed. They are two different things. When the NFL recently ruled that the players have to stand for the national anthem, it didn't mean that the ultra-wealthy kneelers suddenly loved our country, the ones we normals join the Army infantry to defend, it meant that they were going to be forced to show respect they didn't actually possess.

Before the kneeling protest, we fans had no idea some of the players hated us. Now we know and putting that genie back in the bottle is going to be terribly difficult. Masking their hatred through public pronouncements is showing us just how the mask is applied. Yesterday, the 49ers players hated you. Today, those same players still hate you, but will pretend not to hate you.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be interested in the NFL this season. It's too early to tell. We'll probably still watch Sunday Night Football because we love Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, but that might be about it.