The NFL Is A Family
January 13, 2023 6:20 PM Subscribe
Laura Wagner of Defector explores NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying "football is a family" in a letter addressing Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's nearly dying on the field last week. (Defector's paywall is down at the moment, but if it goes up, here's the archive today link)
I haven’t read this, but I was at that game. I have always been a Bills fan and this was supposed to be the game of the year. It was, but for all the wrong reasons.
I can’t really describe in words how awful this year has been for the city of Buffalo. A racially motivated mass shooting, two deadly snow storms and this moment that was traumatizing for people just watching on TV, let alone at the game.
It was very clear the NFL wanted them to play. We didn’t have the benefit of announcers telling us they had five minutes to warm up, but we could see them warming up and the body language of both teams communicating, “how?” The audience was so quiet, except for the breakout of fights in the aftermath I now attribute to drinking plus all of the emotion of a high energy event and an unprecedented on-field event.
Roger Goodell, and the NFL in general, is a business. There was no humanity coming down from the NFL that night, but what the Bengals and the Bills decided together was something special and unique, a direct in-your-face to the inhumane league leadership.
Go Bills. Go Bengals, even. The city of Buffalo really is on board with this team in a way you might roll your eyes at. That’s fine, I guess, because you fairly might not get it really is bigger than a football game now for that city.
Having said that, fuck the NFL and Roger Goodell.
posted by glaucon at 6:36 PM on January 13, 2023 [73 favorites]
I can’t really describe in words how awful this year has been for the city of Buffalo. A racially motivated mass shooting, two deadly snow storms and this moment that was traumatizing for people just watching on TV, let alone at the game.
It was very clear the NFL wanted them to play. We didn’t have the benefit of announcers telling us they had five minutes to warm up, but we could see them warming up and the body language of both teams communicating, “how?” The audience was so quiet, except for the breakout of fights in the aftermath I now attribute to drinking plus all of the emotion of a high energy event and an unprecedented on-field event.
Roger Goodell, and the NFL in general, is a business. There was no humanity coming down from the NFL that night, but what the Bengals and the Bills decided together was something special and unique, a direct in-your-face to the inhumane league leadership.
Go Bills. Go Bengals, even. The city of Buffalo really is on board with this team in a way you might roll your eyes at. That’s fine, I guess, because you fairly might not get it really is bigger than a football game now for that city.
Having said that, fuck the NFL and Roger Goodell.
posted by glaucon at 6:36 PM on January 13, 2023 [73 favorites]
"After you've exploited someone, it never hurts to thank them. That way, it's easier to exploit them next time."
-299th unofficial Rule of Aquistion.
posted by clavdivs at 6:39 PM on January 13, 2023 [30 favorites]
-299th unofficial Rule of Aquistion.
posted by clavdivs at 6:39 PM on January 13, 2023 [30 favorites]
Isn't it nice how all these wealthy white people adopted black children?
posted by adept256 at 7:25 PM on January 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by adept256 at 7:25 PM on January 13, 2023 [7 favorites]
To be accurate, he did die on the field. He was revived by exceptional first response from the medical staff, including very poorly paid EMTs and paramedics. The Bills and the Bengals did the only human thing in response.
posted by Pantengliopoli at 7:32 PM on January 13, 2023 [16 favorites]
posted by Pantengliopoli at 7:32 PM on January 13, 2023 [16 favorites]
Roger Goodell and the NFL are emblematic of every failing of U.S. culture, including and especially their braying insistence that the United States is superlative.
Goodell delenda est.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:07 PM on January 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
Goodell delenda est.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:07 PM on January 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
I am saying this on no way to defend Goodell, because he has the awfulness required to do this job. But always remember that a commissioner is very well paid because he is the face of the league. The owners who are actually the league are happy to pay him to take the scorn of the fans, scorn that should always be directed at said owners, who will do whatever evil it takes to keep their riches and their lofty perches.
posted by azpenguin at 9:40 PM on January 13, 2023 [33 favorites]
posted by azpenguin at 9:40 PM on January 13, 2023 [33 favorites]
The players’ union was instrumental in pushing back on the league resuming the game, both leadership and player reps on the field.
posted by theclaw at 10:07 PM on January 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by theclaw at 10:07 PM on January 13, 2023 [11 favorites]
The moment in Django Unchained when DiCaprio's character is revealed in the chair watching the two slaves fight each other to death ... that image is what pops into my mind every time the TV coverage cuts to a NFL team owner sitting watching the game from their executive box.
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 12:54 AM on January 14, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 12:54 AM on January 14, 2023 [18 favorites]
...On the other hand, the family is where most of the rape happens on this earth, and most of the murder. No one is likelier to rob, bully, blackmail, manipulate, or hit you, or inflict unwanted touch, than family. Logically, announcing an intention to “treat you like family” (as so many airlines, restaurants, banks, retailers, and workplaces do) ought to register as a horrible threat.Word, oh, word.
posted by y2karl at 2:23 AM on January 14, 2023 [42 favorites]
This essay/analysis is fantastic.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:23 AM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:23 AM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
the future of collective, capacious care—apportioned not by the lottery of birth but through radical interdependence
As someone woefully understudied in 'waves hand at radical-intersectional stuff', I want to better understand what it is someone like the author is working towards and what it looks like.
This little elegant phrase I pulled is better than a lot that I've read on this topic in conveying the character of that future. Still, it seems so mysterious, imaginary and ephemeral compared to the consequences of nation states, property law and patriarchy.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 5:01 AM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
As someone woefully understudied in 'waves hand at radical-intersectional stuff', I want to better understand what it is someone like the author is working towards and what it looks like.
This little elegant phrase I pulled is better than a lot that I've read on this topic in conveying the character of that future. Still, it seems so mysterious, imaginary and ephemeral compared to the consequences of nation states, property law and patriarchy.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 5:01 AM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
It is well known in union circles that bosses talk about their employees being “family” when they are being particularly exploitative and want to exploit more. It’s as much a cliche as pizza parties instead of raises and better working conditions. Because in a family, everyone contributes out of a sense of duty, not because they are being fairly compensated for their labor.
posted by eviemath at 5:11 AM on January 14, 2023 [37 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 5:11 AM on January 14, 2023 [37 favorites]
I'm from Buffalo, and although I don't watch football much anymore I'll never be able to fully pry the Bills from my heart. It really is about more than football when you're from that town.
This Player's Tribune article by Dion Dawkins, A Letter to the Bills Mafia, Part III, illustrates perfectly the Defector article -- without the layers of analysis but getting to the heart of what the "family" looks like from a player's perspective. The good and the ugly.
posted by misskaz at 6:33 AM on January 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
This Player's Tribune article by Dion Dawkins, A Letter to the Bills Mafia, Part III, illustrates perfectly the Defector article -- without the layers of analysis but getting to the heart of what the "family" looks like from a player's perspective. The good and the ugly.
posted by misskaz at 6:33 AM on January 14, 2023 [6 favorites]
Pretty bold statement given that a year and a half ago the firm explicitly valued Black brains as less cognitively valuable, and so less deserving of injury compensation.
I believe most (all?) billion dollar companies in the US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities). It would seem an even more despicable subset bought up football teams (e.g. Jerry Jones, Jon Gruden). But maybe they just get more press.
posted by CPAnarchist at 7:24 AM on January 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
I believe most (all?) billion dollar companies in the US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities). It would seem an even more despicable subset bought up football teams (e.g. Jerry Jones, Jon Gruden). But maybe they just get more press.
posted by CPAnarchist at 7:24 AM on January 14, 2023 [10 favorites]
*Jon Gruden not being a financier but a demonstration of the culture and norms therein.
posted by CPAnarchist at 7:26 AM on January 14, 2023
posted by CPAnarchist at 7:26 AM on January 14, 2023
This is the 2nd recommendation I've seen in 1 week for "Abolish the Family" and I appreciate reading this reflection on it. Thanks for the link.
posted by brainwane at 8:03 AM on January 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 8:03 AM on January 14, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm amazed that anybody is ever a gangster when there's so many legal rackets in America that are so much more lucrative...
One might also surmise that rich white crooks have simply managed to make their preferred rackets legal, rendering the ones run by minorities and immigrants as "gangsters" and thereby less respectable. The NFL, MLB, and FIFA are all criminal operations on some level, it's just a question of what society chooses to designate as "criminal."
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:08 AM on January 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
One might also surmise that rich white crooks have simply managed to make their preferred rackets legal, rendering the ones run by minorities and immigrants as "gangsters" and thereby less respectable. The NFL, MLB, and FIFA are all criminal operations on some level, it's just a question of what society chooses to designate as "criminal."
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:08 AM on January 14, 2023 [7 favorites]
The NFL is a family in the same way that a corporation is a person.
posted by Splunge at 11:26 AM on January 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Splunge at 11:26 AM on January 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
The author of the excellent linked piece is Defector co-owner (they are a co-op) Laura Wagner, not Walker.
posted by Anoplura at 4:49 PM on January 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Anoplura at 4:49 PM on January 14, 2023 [5 favorites]
To my calculation, this thread has 100% down vote for Goodalfellas Inc. nothing negative about the teams (players) or Damar.
I believe most (all?) billion dollar companies in the US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities).
Interesting. So, for historical jangling of dance hall silver the subject is football and let's face it owning a team is a crown jewel in the American mythos were millions spend billions to participate, I myself was rivited by Uof M and the Lions, The Lions watching every hike when I could, drones hovering. So:
"US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities)."
"On the last day of the 1905 college football season, a Yale player punched Harvard’s Francis Burr in the face, breaking his nose, and another kicked him unconscious. The assault fell within the rules of the day."
(bold emphasis, mine.)
College football was brutal, my grandfather played it a hundred years ago and it was caustic. none the less the elite University sports system was demanding and popular. But people were concerned for the players.
"How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football"
and one year later,
"The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was established in 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States. The name was changed to its current name in 1910. There was no control over scholarships for any sport, but there was a requirement that a school's athletes had to be enrolled in the school they played for.", brutality was open to more plebs.
I'm going to football hell
posted by clavdivs at 5:22 PM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
I believe most (all?) billion dollar companies in the US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities).
Interesting. So, for historical jangling of dance hall silver the subject is football and let's face it owning a team is a crown jewel in the American mythos were millions spend billions to participate, I myself was rivited by Uof M and the Lions, The Lions watching every hike when I could, drones hovering. So:
"US come from financing built from genocide, slavery and Jim Crow (so said financiers being the supreme agents of aforementioned atrocities)."
"On the last day of the 1905 college football season, a Yale player punched Harvard’s Francis Burr in the face, breaking his nose, and another kicked him unconscious. The assault fell within the rules of the day."
(bold emphasis, mine.)
College football was brutal, my grandfather played it a hundred years ago and it was caustic. none the less the elite University sports system was demanding and popular. But people were concerned for the players.
"How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football"
and one year later,
"The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was established in 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States. The name was changed to its current name in 1910. There was no control over scholarships for any sport, but there was a requirement that a school's athletes had to be enrolled in the school they played for.", brutality was open to more plebs.
I'm going to football hell
posted by clavdivs at 5:22 PM on January 14, 2023 [2 favorites]
My question about the family would be more like Gambino… or more like Manson.
posted by mephron at 11:34 AM on January 15, 2023
posted by mephron at 11:34 AM on January 15, 2023
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A racket, lubricated in blood, shaking down entire municipal governments with their extortion. I'm amazed that anybody is ever a gangster when there's so many legal rackets in America that are so much more lucrative...
posted by LeRoienJaune at 6:29 PM on January 13, 2023 [43 favorites]