OT - KAJ excellent article on Colin Beasternick.

HeHateMe

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For much longer than 50 years people have been ordering truth-tellers to shut up and punishing them when they refuse. I’m sure their tactics have silenced some athletes. Not all. They can never silence all because the kind of grit it takes to become an athlete is the same kind it takes to place truth above self-interest. But they sure will keep on trying as long as they get paid to pander to those who wrap themselves in the pretty colors of the flag rather than the bold words of the Constitution.
 

Warrior Spirit

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For much longer than 50 years people have been ordering truth-tellers to shut up and punishing them when they refuse.
Don't I know it, brother. Me and the Beasternick have a lot in common.
 

Pegger

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The issue with people like Colin is that they are still humans and makes other decisions people can focus on. For Colin this could be his choice of socks/shirt, the odd gaff when put on a spot with the mic in his face or something as simple as the political views of his girlfriend. This confuse the message and ultimately allows people opposing his views an opportunity to control the narrative.

I mean, why do people hate him? They think he's anti-American, a Socialist or maybe even a terrorist? He's never said that's his purpose, but that's where many of the detractors stand.

He's really just a guy who doesn't like how law enforcement has unequal treatment of the people they are sworn to protect.

I think that's a message many people can get behind. Let's say law enforcement treated you differently and it directly impacted your safety. I'm sure you'd hope to alleviate the situation in a non-violent way, right? It wouldn't be about being an American, Communist or Terrorist. It's just about wanting to be safe and treated the same. Seems extremely reasonable.

Anyway, Kareem is one of the more thoughtful athletes we've had. This means he almost does a form of internal journalism, so his words have some depth behind them. In today's world that's actually a detractor. He doesn't write things for 'click bait' purposes. Sadly this article will go largely unread and ignored.
 

BearsJR

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The issue with people like Colin is that they are still humans and makes other decisions people can focus on. For Colin this could be his choice of socks/shirt, the odd gaff when put on a spot with the mic in his face or something as simple as the political views of his girlfriend. This confuse the message and ultimately allows people opposing his views an opportunity to control the narrative.

I mean, why do people hate him? They think he's anti-American, a Socialist or maybe even a terrorist? He's never said that's his purpose, but that's where many of the detractors stand.

He's really just a guy who doesn't like how law enforcement has unequal treatment of the people they are sworn to protect.

I think that's a message many people can get behind. Let's say law enforcement treated you differently and it directly impacted your safety. I'm sure you'd hope to alleviate the situation in a non-violent way, right? It wouldn't be about being an American, Communist or Terrorist. It's just about wanting to be safe and treated the same. Seems extremely reasonable.

Anyway, Kareem is one of the more thoughtful athletes we've had. This means he almost does a form of internal journalism, so his words have some depth behind them. In today's world that's actually a detractor. He doesn't write things for 'click bait' purposes. Sadly this article will go largely unread and ignored.
I agree...ish.
The kneeling I didn’t care about at all, I don’t stand silently when I’m at home watching, so why be hypocritical about it?
The pig socks were stupid and if his goal was to make a statement without looking like a dick, then that was a fail. The Che shirt, another fail, and talking up Cuba and Castro’s wonderful treatment of its people as he’s being considered for a job with the Dolphins was fucking idiotic. And letting his girl control the narrative when he was about to get yet another job? Dumb dumb dumb. And please stop crying about how the NFL fucked you out of anything, you had chances and blew them. Chances that were blown and had ZERO to do with cops, flags, or kneeling. If you want to be a warrior for justice, that’s fine, but pick yourself battles or don’t whine when you don’t get what you want. Dudes made millions since this happened, how many people have their lives or every possession they had for what they believed in? “Even if it means losing everything”?? Really? He hasn’t lost anything really.

and before I get called out, I support his right to say whatever he wants, including his right to kneel.
 

Monster

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Heard on if the receivers that worked out with him got a tryout with Cleveland.
 

SUPERFAN

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Poor Colin
 

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mbison

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I agree...ish.
The kneeling I didn’t care about at all, I don’t stand silently when I’m at home watching, so why be hypocritical about it?
The pig socks were stupid and if his goal was to make a statement without looking like a dick, then that was a fail. The Che shirt, another fail, and talking up Cuba and Castro’s wonderful treatment of its people as he’s being considered for a job with the Dolphins was fucking idiotic. And letting his girl control the narrative when he was about to get yet another job? Dumb dumb dumb. And please stop crying about how the NFL fucked you out of anything, you had chances and blew them. Chances that were blown and had ZERO to do with cops, flags, or kneeling. If you want to be a warrior for justice, that’s fine, but pick yourself battles or don’t whine when you don’t get what you want. Dudes made millions since this happened, how many people have their lives or every possession they had for what they believed in? “Even if it means losing everything”?? Really? He hasn’t lost anything really.

and before I get called out, I support his right to say whatever he wants, including his right to kneel.

I support Kap and his message but I have to agree. The pig socks and the anti Cuban shirt was a real bad look
 

Pegger

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I agree...ish.
The kneeling I didn’t care about at all, I don’t stand silently when I’m at home watching, so why be hypocritical about it?
The pig socks were stupid and if his goal was to make a statement without looking like a dick, then that was a fail. The Che shirt, another fail, and talking up Cuba and Castro’s wonderful treatment of its people as he’s being considered for a job with the Dolphins was fucking idiotic. And letting his girl control the narrative when he was about to get yet another job? Dumb dumb dumb. And please stop crying about how the NFL fucked you out of anything, you had chances and blew them. Chances that were blown and had ZERO to do with cops, flags, or kneeling. If you want to be a warrior for justice, that’s fine, but pick yourself battles or don’t whine when you don’t get what you want. Dudes made millions since this happened, how many people have their lives or every possession they had for what they believed in? “Even if it means losing everything”?? Really? He hasn’t lost anything really.

and before I get called out, I support his right to say whatever he wants, including his right to kneel.

I hear you. Mistakes were made and part of me believes if he could redo certain aspects he would.

I'm trying to not get lost in the crazy and think back to his original reason for kneeling. It was a fairly thoughtful and successful non-violent protest that addressed a real inequality.

I also think he is being blackballed because if I was an NFL owner I'd totally do it (I'm actually being serious). Despite the NFL's many causes and foundations they are not a charity. They are a business and you have 32 ownership groups there to make as much money as possible. I'm not saying the owners are against police equality, just that they are all for protecting their business interests. With Kaep for 3-5 minutes a week they completely lost control over the narrative in a way that could have directly impacted sponsorship ($) and viewers ($). What's next? What if a Muslim player choose to pray to a Quran next? It's a reasonable gesture, but obviously would have ramifications way beyond that simple act.

An example had to be made and to this day they want current and former players to know that if you want to push a cause do it the proper way (Malcolm Jenkins is an example of working with ownership). Interesting enough, many other sports leagues have adjusted the rules around the anthem since. It's just a business decision that had to be made.
 

Pegger

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Poor Colin
Look at what those coaches and most of those players have done since those last two years. Those teams were terrible. Sure you can clump him into that, but there's no denying they were short on talent and weren't going to out coach anyone.
 

Warrior Spirit

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Look at what those coaches and most of those players have done since those last two years. Those teams were terrible. Sure you can clump him into that, but there's no denying they were short on talent and weren't going to out coach anyone.
They were clearly in rebuild mode and the team was setup to suffer a bit through that rebuild. To be brutally honest, it was the timing of Kaep's political activism that was more suspect than anything. Where was this overwhelming need to speak out for the oppressed when things were going well in his NFL career? When all was well his focus was on his job. When his team was gutted in anticipation of rebuild, his focus was elsewhere and the more attention he got from those silent protests, seems the more need he felt a pressing need to respond to questions and to speak out on a variety of things even other than what it all started out as.
 

mbison

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They were clearly in rebuild mode and the team was setup to suffer a bit through that rebuild. To be brutally honest, it was the timing of Kaep's political activism that was more suspect than anything. Where was this overwhelming need to speak out for the oppressed when things were going well in his NFL career? When all was well his focus was on his job. When his team was gutted in anticipation of rebuild, his focus was elsewhere and the more attention he got from those silent protests, seems the more need he felt a pressing need to respond to questions and to speak out on a variety of things even other than what it all started out as.

The reason he chose to protest was because there were 3 instances where videos were posted online of 3 black unarmed men killed by the cops. We (black people) were real pissed about that.
 

Warrior Spirit

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The reason he chose to protest was because there were 3 instances where videos were posted online of 3 black unarmed men killed by the cops. We (black people) were real pissed about that.
Yeah, you can pretend that all started then. It did not. It was a long time, ongoing thing.
 

discplayer

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The issue with people like Colin is that they are still humans and makes other decisions people can focus on. For Colin this could be his choice of socks/shirt, the odd gaff when put on a spot with the mic in his face or something as simple as the political views of his girlfriend. This confuse the message and ultimately allows people opposing his views an opportunity to control the narrative.

I mean, why do people hate him? They think he's anti-American, a Socialist or maybe even a terrorist? He's never said that's his purpose, but that's where many of the detractors stand.

He's really just a guy who doesn't like how law enforcement has unequal treatment of the people they are sworn to protect.

I think that's a message many people can get behind. Let's say law enforcement treated you differently and it directly impacted your safety. I'm sure you'd hope to alleviate the situation in a non-violent way, right? It wouldn't be about being an American, Communist or Terrorist. It's just about wanting to be safe and treated the same. Seems extremely reasonable.

Anyway, Kareem is one of the more thoughtful athletes we've had. This means he almost does a form of internal journalism, so his words have some depth behind them. In today's world that's actually a detractor. He doesn't write things for 'click bait' purposes. Sadly this article will go largely unread and ignored.

So wonderfully said, both of you, HeHateMe and Pegger. So appreciated.
 

mbison

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Yeah, you can pretend that all started then. It did not. It was a long time, ongoing thing.

I don’t have to “pretend” anything. I’m a black man who’s been harassed by the cops numerous times for no reason. I know exactly what he’s talking about and I know the exact instances he’s referring to.
 

Warrior Spirit

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I don’t have to “pretend” anything. I’m a black man who’s been harassed by the cops numerous times for no reason. I know exactly what he’s talking about and I know the exact instances he’s referring to.
I know what you're referring to also. Just saying doesn't go to answer the timing of his turnaround to political activism at the low point of his football career. That type thing had been going on for a long time so why not a peep from him before that, you know, when football things were going better?
 

mbison

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I know what you're referring to also. Just saying doesn't go to answer the timing of his turnaround to political activism at the low point of his football career. That type thing had been going on for a long time so why not a peep from him before that, you know, when football things were going better?

That’s a question you have to ask him. Either way the issue needed to be addressed and he’s really the first to bring awareness to it.
 

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