In a sports world full of hot takes, liberal and noted anti-football writer Steve Almond went full supernova. Earlier this week on NPR in a bout of liberal lunacy that I could not have concocted if I had summoned all of my lib-mocking powers (and they are quite formidable), Steve Almond made the case that it was football that killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner. No, really:
“Look at the case of Michael Brown or Eric Garner, these were two African American men, in one case a teenager, who were described by and treated by law enforcement as if they had monstrous powers. In Ferguson, you have the officer talking about being shaken around like a rag doll, and lines that are suggesting that Michael Brown was this huge figure. Well he was 6-foot-5 and so was Darren Wilson, and yet there was this exaggerated sense of his menace. Eric Garner, who was a big guy, was tackled by four guys. And what’s so eerie about it and the connection I’m trying to draw here, is the guy who tackles him and applies the fatal chokehold, is he isn’t wearing police blues, he’s wearing a football jersey.
In this country there’s a long tradition of grotesque stereotypes about African-American men and men of color, which exaggerates their physical menace in order to justify menace against them. That is the line I would draw in this rash of cases we saw. One of the central rationalizations people use of football is that it’s a way out for certain kids. I don’t believe that football is the right model for empowering communities who are disadvantaged economically and socially and educationally. I think this is a perversion of our values, which should say that every kid matters because of their intellect and morality, not because they get really good at playing a brutal, murder ballet game that we really love watching.”
It never ceases to amaze how tough liberals can be when they’re safely ensconced in the walls of radio and television studios. Almond seems to believe that criminals are harmless little fuzzballs with all the ferocity of Mother Goose, and instead it’s those weakling white police officers with their NFL-induced misconceptions of black men as violent criminals that pose the real threat.
Okay, well, there’s only one way to prove Almond’s theory. If Almond thinks that the tales of Michael Brown tossing Officer Wilson around like a “ragdoll,” and other similar stories are exaggerated in order to perpetuate some racial stereotype, or to justify the use of force, then Steve Almond needs to join the Ferguson Police Department and show them what real toughness is.
Maybe after Steve Almond fights off a few 290 lb. men who leap into his vehicle and frantically strike him while trying to wrest his gun from him, the rest of the Ferguson PD will realize how wrong they were and learn how the job is done.
Your move, Steve.
