The most boring thing about the liberal obsession with race is that it turns every issue, no matter how trivial, into an issue of racism. USA Today’s Mike Freeman is the latest example of that.
Freeman has determined that the real issue with the NFL’s new crackdown on taunting is, of course, racism. It is “really about the control of black bodies.” The NFL is “Donald Trump adjacent” because it “banished Colin Kaepernick” and won’t punish Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley, who has insisted that he won’t get vaccinated and publicly opposes the NFL’s COVID-19 policies.
Roughly 70% of NFL players are black. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if “there are likely some black players and coaches who don’t mind” the new taunting rules, as Freeman concedes there might be. Freeman, based on his ridiculous Kaepernick narrative and obsession with skin color, has determined that this is really about the league controlling “black bodies.”
Freeman conveniently forgets that Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Washington Football Team coach Ron Rivera, and Baltimore Ravens executive vice president Ozzie Newsome all had a role in this new focus on taunting. Three of them are black; Rivera is Hispanic. This was not something schemed up by evil white team owners: This was raised by coaches and defended on those grounds by Tomlin, the longest-tenured black head coach in the league.
It can’t just be that the uptight members on the NFL Competition Committee have an old-school view of sports that they want to enforce on everyone else, trying to strip the game of trash talk and emotion (and fun). It can’t just be that the committee is overreacting to a high-profile incident of taunting in the Super Bowl, the most-watched event in the country. None of those explanations would let Freeman push his racial narrative, so he ignored them.
Fans and players alike hate the new focus on taunting. It’s a clear-cut example of the NFL living up to its moniker as the “No Fun League.” But there is no racism here unless your worldview dictates that everything is about racism. Freeman made up his mind on that when Kaepernick quit caring about football to be an amateur activist and shoe model.
