America’s military academies offer a great education to outstanding students in return for their commitment to serve the country. Great athletes like David Robinson have attended an academy, served the cause of liberty and then gone on to play pro sports. Deadspin race blogger/baiter Carron J. Phillips has been screaming bloody murder because Navy’s Cameron Kinley was held to this standard instead of being allowed to play in the NFL this fall.
Because Kinley is black, Phillips said this story was “as American as apple pie, baseball and voter suppression. It involves naivety, racism, politics, football, the military, and faux patriotism. It checks all the boxes.” Everybody’s to blame.
Kinley is definitely pro material, and he’s got game. A cornerback who just graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, he signed a free agent contract with Tampa Bay. He’s now living, not the dream, but an “American nightmare,” because of racism and politics.
Past presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both granted reserve status to military academy athletes so they can play professional sports. Trump later revoked the exception, and the Pentagon stated: “Graduates enjoy the extraordinary benefit of a military academy education at taxpayer expense.”
Because some white athletes had previously been granted the military waiver, this case is all about race, Phillips whined. There’s a political implication in Phillips’ victimhood mentality, too.
Kinley majored in political science at Navy and hopes to become the nation’s second black president. He exemplified what the military wants in its athletes, but the Navy still rejected his hopes for an immediate pro football career.
Phillips pounded on his theory that racial prejudice was at play here. It’s also about the service academies pimping their graduates on billboards for recruitment purposes.
Phillips also tied the military’s paid promotions at pro sports games to the Kinley story. It’s all for God, country and “faux patriotism.” The game was “rigged,” and the corrupt system is denying him an NFL future: “The military doesn’t believe Kinley is the ‘right type’ of American for the job, which is on-brand given this country’s history.”
Since the news of Kinley’s denial broke, the Navy told The Washington Post that all recent requests for athletic-related service delays are being declined and Kinley was not singled out because he’s black. How convenient, says Phillips, who refuses to buy into the Navy’s statement.
Kinley said his dream has been snatched away, and his lost opportunity doesn’t sit well with him.
Phillips catastrophized the situation again as indicative of what a rotten, bigoted country we live in. “These words can be assigned to just about any black person that’s ever tried to achieve something in this country.” This is an “authentic American tale,” Phillips moaned.
As for Robinson, the “Admiral” played basketball at Navy and then served two years in the military before he was allowed to play in the NBA in 1989. There were no race-baiting positions in sports media back then, and no one moaning about how Robinson was exploited by a racist nation.
But now in the era of so-called “systemic racism,” a black Naval Academy graduate being held to his own commitment is dripping with racial bigotry.
