The President stated: "The Philadelphia Eagles are unable to come with their full team to be celebrated tomorrow. They disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for our National Anthem...The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better."
Trump made the proper decision. The Eagles needed a lesson in both civility and humility; and the President delivered them one.
The Eagles should take a lesson, too, from their own history. The team was founded by investors in the darkest days of the Great Depression after their predecessors, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, went bankrupt in 1931. The Eagles were named after FDR's New Deal emblem which featured a blue eagle. The original owners wanted to bring football back to Philadelphia as a way of stimulating the local economy.
During WW2, the Eagles merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers for one season as a wartime economy measure. Up until recent times, the city that saw the United States' birth fielded a sports team that epitomized that American spirit of self-sacrifice and fair play. As an interesting coincidence, the Eagles always seemed to play their best seasons during periods of American recovery. Not only did they begin play as we were pulling out of Depression, their strongest years were post WW2, during the Reagan Recovery, and today.
But Trash Culture has since hit the Eagles as it has the rest of the NFL. They've had two players in jail just since the Super Bowl. One was found unconscious in his car and blocking traffic with controlled substances in his system. The other is accused of beating an elderly and crippled man who didn't get out of his way fast enough.
In 2017, another Eagles' player was implicated in an affair with a married woman and sued. The Eagles' head coach, Doug Pederson, was caught in an adulterous affair when he worked for the Kansas City Chiefs. It's hard to fault the President for not wanting such a gang as representative of America; or endorsing them as role models for young boys.
It's also unsurprising that this same gang would have nothing but contempt for what America represents. Their owner, billionaire Jeffrey Lurie is leading the charge. Lurie is a Hollywood media mogul and has been vocal in his opposition to Trump. Needless to say, he was a significant donor to the Clinton Campaign.
The NFL, simply put, needs to reform or die. That's the message that Trump is sending. But with jokers like Lurie running the show, it may be too late.
No comments:
Post a Comment