What the Heck Is the NFL Doing Now?

The NFL is a steaming mess right now.  The football itself has become greatly subordinate to non-football issues, thanks to good old unemployed Colin Kaepernick and his take-a-knee action during the playing of the national anthem.  Some players are still doing it, which is offensive to veterans and those who support them, but apparently their feelings are not looked at as being "triggered", at least enough to get the players to stop.

This is harming attendance, both at the games and on TV, which lowers advertising rates and cuts NFL revenue.  So the NFL needs the kneeling to go away, but it won't force the players to do so, because ... well, the inmates apparently do run the prison, even inmates who make a ridiculous amount of money.

So the NFL, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to put up $100 million over a period of a few years, which it will donate to, and I quote, "social justice charities."  I'm not kidding, though I wish I were.

I heard that on the news this morning and, chipmunk that I am, my first question was "which charities?"  Of course I asked that.  And needless to say, the answer was out there on the Internet, so it must be true.  According to a report on ESPN, 

"National funding would be allocated accordingly: 25 percent to the United Negro College Fund, 25 percent to Dream Corps and 50 percent to the Players Coalition, which has filed 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) paperwork for nonprofit status as a fiscally-sponsored project. This week, the coalition hired the Hopewell Fund to oversee and advise the group, which hopes to work with grassroots and nonprofit organizations in its areas of focus."

For the record, the "Dream Corps" is closely associated with Van Jones, an avowed communist who works at MSNBC.  The Players Coalition, which gets half the money, funds a number of advocacy groups also funded by George Soros, which are seriously anti-Trump and of leftist bent.

The United Negro College Fund supports Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with scholarships and financial support.  If 100% of the NFL's contributions went there, I suppose it would be OK, as long as you assume that the racial orientation of those schools does not imply any bias on the part of the NFL.

But the rest of the donations' designees are fair game for questioning.  The decision as to who gets the money was made by representatives of the players, not the players individually.  I would like to think that Alejandro Villanueva of the Steelers, a veteran himself who defied orders to stay in the locker room during one anthem to emerge and salute his flag, well, he might not be too happy with some of where that money is going.

If there has to remain, in the new tax code, a deduction for charitable contributions, the one aspect I like is that the choice is mine; I get the deduction no matter what registered charity I support.  It doesn't have to be a narrow choice of "approved" charities from Mama Government.  That's why the idea of a players' union (or any union) deciding where money is to be donated is a pretty poor situation.  "Social justice" is such an ambiguous, nebulous term, so nebulous that someone in power can use that as cover to funnel dollars to advocates of violence, such as Black Lives Matter ("BLM"), or Antifa.

By the way, I would kind of like to see them give money to BLM.  BLM always insulates itself from lawsuits by claiming it is not an organized entity.  Give them money and all of a sudden someone has to step forward and take it, after which the police organizations should have lawyers and process servers all over the recipient.

Now if I'm the NFL, first, I would tell the players that if they kneel, they're suspended for two years.  But I would also say "Sure, we'll give you $100 million over ten years for "social justice."  But it is to be allocated such that every eligible player privately designates the recipient of an equal proportion of the funds, from a list of 100 authorized charities."  That way, each player can make the allocation based on his own conscience.

That won't happen, but I won't likely know, since football is generally off my radar now, at least until the players show themselves to be patriotic Americans.

Army-Navy, real football, honest and passionate, well, that's December 9th.  My late father and father-in-law, both WWII Army vets, will be watching the game from above.

That's the football I care about now.

Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
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