Some ass declares the Panthers Are The Most Unapologetically Black Team In NFL History as efforts to ignite a race war now spread to the Super Bowl.
The culture of football is such that a league made up of mostly black men is supposed to comply with certain standards created and enforced by mostly white men. Ideally, the players would act subdued in public, celebrate their achievements quietly and speak in a manner that avoids the spotlight.
The Carolina Panthers haven't done any of that this season. On the way to a 15-1 regular season record and the team's first Super Bowl appearance since 2004, the team has had fun and has been fun to watch.
They have talked loudly, danced loudly and celebrated loudly. But they've done something significant along the way, too: The Panthers have embraced, demonstrated and exuded aspects of their blackness in a way that few predominately black teams have done in the past.
They have been wonderfully, unapologetically, proudly black.
I hold a different outlook on some of the unapologetically talented black football players, whose actions, antics, and celebrations on the field point to their athletic abilities and dilute the premise that football is a TEAM sport. We've seen pantomimes of football players who, after scoring a touchdown, make their way to one of the uprights of the goal post, uncover a cell phone, and pantomime calling someone. We've seen football players hug the pole and slide down as if they were fireman.
ReplyDeleteA defensive play on an offensive player is often followed up with some ape like thumping of the chest, or pantomime of a cowboy roping and tying a steer. All of this bullshit is basically a dig me act on the part of the player.
A few years back, when John Calloway hosted Chicago Tonight on Channel 11, Gale Sayers was the guest. Discussing the current football environment, Sayers pointed out that on field celebrations between plays are ridiculous Sayers correctly pointed out theres no cause for celebration, the player is doing the job he's paid to do. He hasn't individually won the game. In fact, these acts take away from the game.
I enjoy teams that involve their fans in post touchdown celebrations. The Green Bay
Packers with the Lambeau leap or the Carolina Panthers giving a touchdown ball to a
young fan sitting in an end zone seat is classy. The other stuff we see is classless and ooften crude.
To extoll any sport on the basis of the race of the participants really takes away the
from the sport.