Okay… let me preface this with a couple disclaimers. One: this is not a personal attack, I’m not accusing James Rolfe or Cinemassacre of sexism, racism,… any kind of “ism” out here. I have never met him. In general, I like his videos (love Monster Madness, looking forward to that again this year). Two: there are much, much, more important things in the world than what one internet critic had to say (or not say) about a movie, and my reaction to those words. Please go to NPR, FiveThirtyEight, or a host of other sites to see what those are. Okay – cool, let’s talk about some silly stuff on the internet. Continue reading Silly Things on the Internet: Calling out Cinemassacre
The Great NFL Hypocrisy: Deflategate, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots
The Atlanta Falcons were found guilty of pumping in crowd noise for two years. Punishment: $350,000 fine, loss of a fifth round draft pick.
The Cleveland Browns were found guilty of illegal texting during the game. Punishment: $250,000 fine and a four game suspension for their General Manager.
The New York Jets were found guilty of openly, illegally tampering with then Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis. Punishment: $100,000 fine.
The independent Wells Report, set in place by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (yes, this Roger Goodell), finds that New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady was probably “at least generally aware” of violating the rules with the now infamous Deflategate scandal. The same report also found that “said league investigators found no evidence that coach Bill Belichick and team management knew of the practice.”
Punishment: $1,000,000 fine. Loss of 1st and 4th round draft picks. Tom Brady suspended for four games without pay.
Seems fair.
Oh wait, sorry – ha I’m always mixing up my words. As a writer, that can be pretty annoying. Not fair… uhm, what’s the word I’m looking for here – it will come to me – oh here we go: f*cking ridiculous. That’s two words, no wonder I was confused. I apologize.
Before I get into this, let the record show: it’s just a sport. There are so many worse things going on, well… within that particular organization, that to call this the NFL’s greatest mistake or mistreatment in the past year would be a large overstatement. You can do plenty worse things than mistreat a franchise, just ask the Baltimore Ravens.
Let the record also show that I am a Patriots’ fan, and as a Patriots’ fan let me say: the Patriots were found rightfully guilty in Spygate and signing a contract extension with now-murderer Aaron Hernandez gave me quite a bit of disgust for my home team (I used to cheer for that psychopath). So I am not a blind “Patriots can do no wrong” kind of guy.
I stand by my f*cking ridiculous statement.
The bizarre saga of Deflategate has gone from “what?” to “really?” to “come on.” over the past few months. For the record, I believe the last time the NFL ordered an independent investigation into a matter, it was the Ray Rice case. The findings: Roger Goodell likely had no knowledge of the elevator videotape prior to its public release. Show of hands: how many people out there believe those findings?
Okay, so a private investigation was launched into potentially criminal concealing of evidence… and whether or not balls were properly inflated during a 45-7 AFC Championship beating. Right away, it seems odd to have the same reaction to such wildly different scenarios. But surely, there must be a precedent for this? This ball tampering must be a serious, serious charge with strong punishments? Well, turns out this has happened before with the San Diego Chargers. Their punishment: a $20,000 fine. Wow, that seems irregular.
So clearly the issue is not the ball tampering, but a further charge:
“With respect to your particular involvement, the report established that there is substantial and credible evidence to conclude you were at least generally aware of the actions of the Patriots’ employees involved in the deflation of the footballs and that it was unlikely that their actions were done without your knowledge,” Vincent wrote. “Moreover, the report documents your failure to cooperate fully and candidly with the investigation, including by refusing to produce any relevant electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information, and by providing testimony that the report concludes was not plausible and contradicted by other evidence.”
Ah, so it is because Brady lied. Well, if it is proved with such strong language in the report like “maybe” and “probably” and “at least generally” and “more likely than not,” I mean, that just sounds so definitive, right? Forget legal language, if you used those phrases in a college essay, you would get at best a “C” and a “use a stronger voice” comment from the professor. Brady’s crucifying lack of cooperation was his refusal to turn over his personal phone and email.
Because only the most paranoid and guilty celebrities (with a supermodel wife) would refuse to turn over potentially personally devastating material to such an airtight organization like the NFL. They have not once ever leaked any material from any sort of investigation before… not once. And that, boys and girls, is how one uses sarcasm.
With increasing scrutiny turning on the Wells Report, and a potentially huge new hole surfacing earlier today, one wonders if the NFL and its elite team of 32 rich white guy owners have gone too far in their witch hunt of the New England Patriots. Many believe that Tom Brady will launch a lawsuit against the league and others (myself included) hope that owner Robert Kraft follows suit.
And as for punishing the Patriots, the team cleared by the Wells Report… you got me on that one. Great to see that Goodell is not above letting such petty things as facts stand in the way of punishing the Patriots… such a controversial move, to overly punish the team that most of the nation is jealous of/hates anyway.
This is discrimination, clear and simple. As a Patriots’ fan I can only say: sue the bastards, Tom. Beat ’em in court like you beat them on the field.
Thinking Progress: Ohio Straight Pride
Okay, time to talk on a controversial issue… something new and different. For those of you unaware, recently students at an Ohio University put up signs/posters advocating for “Straight Pride.” I’ll let the now infamous poster speak for itself:
In case you can’t read the fine print at the bottom, it says: “Brought to you by the students that are sick of hearing about your LGBT pride. Nobody cares about what you think you are, or what you want to have sex with. We have nothing against your sexual orientation. We just don’t give a fuck.”
Apparently there were other posters… but this seems to be the only one I could find. Naturally, a poster like this upset a good many people. The LGBT community at the University denounced the poster as “homophobic” and they were promptly taken down.
Okay, for the record, I do think these posters are incredibly insensitive. They undermine the importance of Gay Pride and the LGBT community by indicating that homophobia, a prejudice very much still alive and well, is over and done with. Pretending that a prejudice is over, despite blinding evidence to the contrary, is sadly nothing new.
Is that poster homophobic: yeah, through the omission of any admittance that homophobia is actually an issue that a lot of the LGBT community still struggle with. I am not saying these posters are right, or validated, or anything like that.
THAT SAID…
This might actually be the start of a good thing.
I know, I can’t say something like that without making a solid attempt to back it up. Progress happens slowly… but it does happen. Anyone who says that there has not been progress on an issue like racism is as much an extreme fool as anyone who says racism is over. For example: we right now are enduring an awareness of a tragic and unacceptable level of racism on United States police forces. Their actions are criminal and for many black families, this ugly reality is too real. That said, this is still a definite improvement over 200 years ago when virtually ALL blacks in America were property, not people. We (Americans) do have a black president. There is an increasing number of successful black individuals in the world. It is getting better: slowly, painfully, but progress is happening.
The progress on gay rights has been far more extraordinary, given the time scale. Sixty years ago: being gay was a disease in most of the “civilized” world. Now, gay marriage and equality are rapidly occurring. The difference in generational thinking on the issue of gay rights is staggering, with a reported 71% of “millennials” being in favor.
I wrote some time ago on the coming out of actress Ellen Page and athlete Michael Sam, and said how irrelevant their sexuality should be to their identity, and I still believe this. So I am admitting common ground with these “Straight priders.” I do feel that, in a perfect world, that Gay Pride should no longer have to exist because a person’s sexuality is not innately linked to the content of their character. I am straight, and I blessedly do not need straight pride, because being straight in the world matters no more than having blue eyes.
Even Ian McKellen is saying “get over it.” How different is that message from the poster above? Well, authorship matters. I mean, who better to say that homophobia is over than a gay individual? Well.. as of this moment, I do not know who authored the “Straight Pride” posters. I have made an effort to locate this information but have been unsuccessful. If any out there know for sure and can give me a link: it would be appreciated. I do know who is being blamed:
Hate to tell the politically correct and super sensitive body that is YSU, but that’s profiling. Are they right: probably. But this general accusation is no different from someone saying “oh you got robbed, probably a black guy” or “listen to that lisp, he’s probably gay.” If we’re going to be equal, equality goes both ways. General rule of life: if you don’t know something, don’t jump to conclusions.
Another point of contention: I have real problems with them removing the posters. The United States is at least supposed to be a land of freedom of expression, and this arguably is our most important feature. Whether something is “offensive” or not does not matter. For those wondering, here are the limitations of freedom of speech. It is important to note that material that would directly incite harm to others is not protected. That said, those posters are not openly hateful. They do not encourage violence towards the LGBT community, at least not so far as I can deduce from that one (again, I have tried unsuccessfully to find other posters). Are they offensive? Absolutely, but what does that even mean?
Idiots are part of progress, this is the truth. People denouncing racism or homophobia or anything else as “over” can be seen as simply people trying (sometimes damagingly) to over simplify life. The fact that a bunch of college kids got overly wound up in their political views and published controversial material is nothing new, and should not be given the attention of the media world. It draws focus to them and gives them more power than they should have.
So was “Straight Pride” a good thing by itself, nope. Seen as a larger part of a progressive acceptance of gay culture however, it is not terrible. The extremes are the first ones who will say Gay Pride is not needed anymore… but the fact that people are starting to say it is, in itself, a sign of progress.
Colin McMahon 