Thursday, October 31, 2013

Is the official language of America’s game Chinese?

By Will Brown

Hazma Abdullah eviscerated the National Football League this afternoon on Twitter.

What makes Abdullah’s opinion on the league, and its leaders, any different than the rest of us? For starters, he spent parts of seven years playing for three different NFL franchises. Secondly, his writing featured rage as well as suggestions for how the game can be improved.

Some pundits will call Abdullah’s words a rant because of all the expletives. But remember most of these pundits are employed by companies that stand to lose something if NFL cuts business ties with their organization. (Besides, the sports media has not covered ourselves in glory with our portrayal of passionate black men who make their living playing football. See Bryant, Dez.)


Abdullah was not a great player by any means. However, hardcore fans may remember his name from stories done on him and his brother, Husain, a few years ago. The package was about how the two Muslim brothers managed their faith with football during Ramadan.



Nonetheless, Abdullah’s words should resonate with us. The NFL may proclaim its intent is to protect player safety with some of its new rules. But actions certainly speak louder than staged events and press releases.

Remember, this is the same league that pressured ESPN into disassociating itself from a documentary about the concussion issues players are facing during and after their playing careers. This is the same league that will pay $765 million to former players for their health related issues. This is the same league where 58 players have sustained concussions at the midway point of the 2013 season.

Tragically, this is the same league where 18 of the 19 brains of former players that have been studied by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University have tested positive for CTE, a degenerative and incurable disease whose symptoms can include memory loss, depression and dementia.

Those facts did not stop NFL commissioner Roger Goodell from teaching moms how to tackle safely this week in suburban Chicago. Somehow the league even convinced Dr. Oz to be one of the speakers at this incredulous presentation.


Abdullah goes on to say Goodell has sold his soul for a dollar; the league intentionally has misdiagnosed injuries to players; players do not report injuries because contracts are not guaranteed and there have been days he has let the thought of suicide creep into his mind.

It’s important to remember Abdullah did not play in an era that was ignorant to the issues of concussions and player safety. He’s 30 years old. In six of the seven years Abdullah played professionally Goodell was the commissioner.


That sort of attitude is not restricted to the NFL. This fall, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a story that noted coaches and trainers differ on concussion protocols at some major college football programs. One of the schools mentioned in that report was Washington State, which is where Abdullah played before being drafted in 2005.

There has been some spectacular reporting on the long-term health risks of playing football. Abdullah’s words Thursday show just how ignorant most of us are to the sacrifices players make to play a game they grew up loving.


Abdullah believes the NFL should pay for those costs, not the players. Before bristling at that belief remember two things: player contracts are not guaranteed and NFL revenues are more congruent with Fortune 500 companies — the league’s $10 billion in revenues in 2012 was more than Bed, Bath & Beyond; Sherwin-Williams and MGM Resorts International — than your typical sports league.

Abdullah’s writings today prove he may be many things. But, he’s certainly not stupid.

Friday, October 18, 2013

What’s a thug?

Jordan Davis was a 17-year-old who did what a lot of kids his age do. Listen to loud music and goof off with his friends at a gas station. Someone didn’t like the music Davis and his friends were playing at a Jacksonville gas station last November. Words were exchanged. A gun was fired. Davis wound up dead. 

While awaiting trail, the man accused of killing Davis, Michael Dunn, reached out to one local television station. Being the rabble-rousers they are, the station led a newscast with the writings of a man who turned Black Friday into a day the Davis family will forever remember for all the wrong reasons.

“This case has never been about loud music,” was just one quote in Dunn’s writing to the television station. “This case is about a local thug threatening to kill me because I dared to ask him to turn the music down.”

Yes, the man who stands accused of murder called the victim a thug.

There were other quotes, including the accused’s thoughts about the District Attorney in the case, how he has been around firearms most of his life and etcetera. But, what stood out was the fact Dunn went to the Zimmerman-tried-jury-approved tactic of labeling the victim, in this case Davis, a thug on multiple occasions.

In some ways, the Davis case is more of a tragedy than what happened to Trayvon Martin last year. The latter got in a fight when he was approached by a stranger. The former was in a car hanging out with his friends, and never left his vehicle, yet still wound up just as dead as Martin.

To add insult to insinuation, one television station stumbled over Dunn’s racially insensitive tripwire and reported Dunn’s bile about Davis at the top of its newscast.

There is a part of me that wonders whether local media would have jumped on the writings like Dunn’s had the accused been a minority. But, I’m reminded that 90 percent of newsroom supervisors in this country are white. Rather than using news judgment, one Jacksonville television station allowed Dunn to cast judgment, and its viewers were none the wiser for it.

When I told a close friend what the accused was allowed to say without comment from the victim’s family, associates or State Attorney reminded me the incident was another case of “white journalism.” His point was that had a minority been in a position to make a decision, there is a strong likelihood that someone points out the folly of allowing a man accused of first-degree murder the privilege of calling the 17-year-old he’s accused of killing a thug.

To me, it doesn’t matter what the victim looks like in this case, it matters that the person accused of murder has defecated on the memory of the deceased.

The dictionary defines a thug as “a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer.” Tupac’s definition explicitly states thugs play the cards they were given… pack a nine until it’s time to go to prison. Either way, which 
person reminds you more of a thug, Davis or Dunn?

Just because the decision-makers are not minorities does not mean a sound decision about the letters could have been reached.

The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville’s newspaper of record, also published an article about the letters. Not surprisingly, the newspaper’s version features more context and notes that the accused believes he has been railroaded, the saw a weapon in the victim’s car the night of the shooting and that the jail is filled with thugs.

“I’ve never been exposed to thugs like they have here,” Dunn wrote in one letter, which was obtained by the Times-Union in a public records request. “The jail is chock full of blacks and they all appear to be thugs, along the line of 90 percent of the inmates.”

Clearly, Dunn has proven he’s a man who won’t let his version of the facts interfere with a good story, because only 52 percent of the people who were admitted into the Duval County jail when the most recent statistics were available were black.

Then again, something has to fill the airwaves. And there are no laws preventing one gullible news outlet from spending that time subtly soiling the legacy of a young man who received a death sentence for listening to the wrong music at the wrong time at the wrong volume.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Friday, October 11, 2013

Are you willing to listen?

By Will Brown

The article questioned whether communication between the CIA and the National Security Administration four years ago would have prevented the former contractor from accessing information beyond his security clearance.

The Times’ report also provided a link to a June commentary written by one of Snowden’s friends that provides insight to what type of man he is, and the internal questions that led him exposing programs within the American government that can track cell phone calls and collect material including the content of emails, file transfers and internet search histories.

One’s opinion on Snowden and his actions are immaterial. My question is how many of us would follow our conscience? More specifically, how many of us would follow our conscience if we stood to lose our livelihood, have our character assassinated or much worse?

I’m just a journalist who covers sports for a living. Nonetheless, I learned about one Voltaire quote the hard way while being a little too honest in South Texas. “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”

At the time, being blunt about the people and events I covered is what I thought was right. Certain segments of the community disagreed, and got editors at the paper to believe the same thing.

In the six months since leaving Texas, I have come to realize my actions pale in comparison to two heroes. One, Snowden, received recognition nearly immediately after listening to his conscience. The second went unrecognized for nearly 35 years, despite the fact their impact on their community was immeasurable.

The former’s actions are well documented. The latter person, S.E. Sanders, was among a quartet who filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Sarasota in 1979 to force the city into single-member voting districts for its city commission. That lawsuit, filed “because I did not think it was fair that three neighbors represented the entire city,” led to changes in local laws, and the city’s first African-American city commissioner in 1985.

S.E. Sanders is my mother.

She and Snowden are the living embodiment of another Voltaire quote: < color: #181818;">“it is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.”

In mom’s case, the authorities appealed the verdict, and attempted to delay the implementation of single-member districts. Those efforts failed, and there has been minority representation at the municipal level in Sarasota for the last 28 years.

Last week she was recognized with the Community Service Award by the Sarasota County branch of the NAACP for her role in the lawsuit. It’s an honor given “to the person or group that has demonstrated by their volunteer work in this community a commitment to improving the quality of life for all humanity without regard to race, creed or color.”

The local newspaper, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote a column about her, calling her one of the city’s heroes. For four African-Americans to file suit against a municipality in the 70s — and winning — was unprecedented, just as a NSA contractor sharing state surveillance secrets and earning asylum in Russia.

I think Ed already may be a symbol of something much bigger than himself,” wrote Snowden’s friend Mavanee Anderson in the June essay referenced in today’s Times. “As a friend, I admire his courage — this strength of purpose is a very real aspect to his character — but I fear for him. Quite selfishly, I would have told Ed that he didn't have to take this burden on himself.

Interestingly, Snowden also received an award this month. The Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group the Washington Post describes as an organization of former intelligence officers, honored the 29-year-old for his truth-telling.

It took conviction for Snowden to expose a program he thought pilfered the privacy of Americans. Whether you agree with his methods, or not, none of us should down that Snowden listened to his conscience. As a result he lives in Russia, in secrecy, away from his family and the woman he loves.

Voltaire was a French philosopher and author who has been dead for 235 years. But one more quote of his sums up the difference between those who listen to their conscience — like my mom, Ed Snowden as well as countless others — and the rest of us. “Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”

Which path are you willing to take?

Laughs and liveliness,
-Wb