Get ready to be outraged, yes really outraged. In the debate over Vick's future with the NFL, an unamed General Manager has made the following comment. Unamed, supposedly, because the NFL has asked their managers not to comment on this case. Unamed, more likely, because of the nature of the comments made.
Columnist Mike Freeman writes, "Vick's reputation is forever tainted but if you
think Vick will never wear an NFL uniform again please read carefully the following words from an NFL general manager. They will end up being prophetic."
"If he goes to prison, time will pass," said the general manager, who spoke before news of a potential Vick plea agreement and asked not to be identified, claiming the NFL has asked current team officials not to publicly comment on the Vick case. "Months or years will pass, if he does go to jail. If he went to jail, and then left prison down the road, he'd still be relatively young, and there'd be a line of 15 to 20 teams waiting to sign him. Trust me on that. Teams are going to say,
'F--- PETA. F--- the bad pub. This guy is one of the most talented players of the last 10 years. I'll take my chances."
"Teams may say one thing publicly. But if he gets out of jail, we'll all be looking at Vick hard.
We're all whores in football. You know the saying. We'd sign an ax murderer if he has ability. He'll be back. He won't be back in Atlanta probably but he'll be back in professional football. You can count on it."
Columnist Mike Freeman goes on to state,
"Yes, that's a football word: 'ho." "There is no gender connotation to this word; it is not meant to be derogatory toward women." Freeman adds. "It is used by the general manager in this simple context: teams will do anything -- anything -- for talent. To win."
Maybe someone needs to tell this to Don Imus!
I would like to remind Freeman that the words
ho and whore most certainly do have a negative connotation. Look up whore in a thesaurus and what do you find. Words like indecency, lechery, debauchment,Jezebel and harlot to name a few. Ho and bitch are used by gangs and rappers to refer to women in general. Do you think that because this manager used this word to describe his own organization's Machiavellian attempts to sign talent makes it's use any more acceptible?
Freeman then goes on to say,
"Remember, this is a league that has employed murder suspects, players that have killed people while driving drunk, chronic women beaters, gun runners, drug dealers, former gang members, and all kinds of creeps and cretins, swine and smut-like -- all in the name of talent."
Which makes this manager's choice of words even more suspect. Is talent and athletic prowess really so hard to come by, that we must dredge the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to make money? Should we ignore crime to have a winning year? Is using the word ho to describe NFL's desire to win at any cost, a sign that the NFL is pandering to and or promoting a culture of violence, drugs and gangs?
Food for thought!
Get ready to be outraged, yes really outraged. In the debate over Vick's future with the NFL, an unamed General Manager has made the following comment. Unamed, supposedly, because the NFL has asked their managers not to comment on this case. Unamed, more likely, because of the nature of the comments made.
Columnist Mike Freeman writes, "Vick's reputation is forever tainted but if you think Vick will never wear an NFL uniform again please read carefully the following words from an NFL general manager. They will end up being prophetic."
"If he goes to prison, time will pass," said the general manager, who spoke before news of a potential Vick plea agreement and asked not to be identified, claiming the NFL has asked current team officials not to publicly comment on the Vick case. "Months or years will pass, if he does go to jail. If he went to jail, and then left prison down the road, he'd still be relatively young, and there'd be a line of 15 to 20 teams waiting to sign him. Trust me on that. Teams are going to say, 'F--- PETA. F--- the bad pub. This guy is one of the most talented players of the last 10 years. I'll take my chances."
"Teams may say one thing publicly. But if he gets out of jail, we'll all be looking at Vick hard. We're all whores in football. You know the saying. We'd sign an ax murderer if he has ability. He'll be back. He won't be back in Atlanta probably but he'll be back in professional football. You can count on it."
Columnist Mike Freeman goes on to state, "Yes, that's a football word: 'ho." "There is no gender connotation to this word; it is not meant to be derogatory toward women." Freeman adds. "It is used by the general manager in this simple context: teams will do anything -- anything -- for talent. To win."
Maybe someone needs to tell this to Don Imus!
I would like to remind Freeman that the words ho and whore most certainly do have a negative connotation. Look up whore in a thesaurus and what do you find. Words like indecency, lechery, debauchment,Jezebel and harlot to name a few. Ho and bitch are used by gangs and rappers to refer to women in general. Do you think that because this manager used this word to describe his own organization's Machiavellian attempts to sign talent makes it's use any more acceptible?
Freeman then goes on to say,"Remember, this is a league that has employed murder suspects, players that have killed people while driving drunk, chronic women beaters, gun runners, drug dealers, former gang members, and all kinds of creeps and cretins, swine and smut-like -- all in the name of talent."
Which makes this manager's choice of words even more suspect. Is talent and athletic prowess really so hard to come by, that we must dredge the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to make money? Should we ignore crime to have a winning year? Is using the word ho to describe NFL's desire to win at any cost, a sign that the NFL is pandering to and or promoting a culture of violence, drugs and gangs?
Food for thought!
2 comments:
Is using the word ho to describe NFL's desire to win at any cost, a sign that the NFL is pandering to and or promoting a culture of violence, drugs and gangs?
Absolutely! This is a symptom of all that is wrong in the increasingly twisted culture of professional sports (not limited to football). Condoning sick behavior like Vick's sends a message that it's okay to do whatever sick stuff you want to do and sports teams will keep paying obscene amounts of money anyway.
How much socially unacceptably behavior do we see from football players, baseball players, basketball players, etc.? It's NOT okay for them to keep committing violent and/or abusive acts (against women, animals, other men), violating the rights of other people (loud parties or other problems), injuring or killing others by driving drunk or drugged, or otherwise doing things are are not accepted in society at large.
One way to send that message is to boycott professional sports events and send letters to team owners and league commissioners demanding some ethical standards. Giving these high-ticket thugs the boot is no easy goal.
Amen Fargo!!!!
The youths of this nation, sometimes at high risk themselves, emmulate their favorite sports star...want to tread their footsteps...hope to be like Mike or Vick or whomever. What message do we send when we continue to employ and blindly ignore their criminal behavior.
It is bad enough to ignore the behavior of our athletic, film or music stars, but outrageous when the corporate structure of the NFL or any other organization uses their slang lingo to endorse their behavior.
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