{"id":9519,"date":"2016-10-17T15:20:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T22:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9519"},"modified":"2016-10-17T15:20:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T22:20:23","slug":"a-postmodern-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-postmodern-nfl\/","title":{"rendered":"A Postmodern NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The Corner: The one and only.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In an essay that could come right out of 1984, Washington Post Ministry of Truth writers Drew Harwell and Rick Maese struggle to explain the abrupt erosion of the NFL\u2019s televised audiences. They manage to cite every conceivable longer-term trend, such as saturation of the market, competition from other entertainment, the 2016 political race, and the decline in television viewing in general.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yet these factors for the most part are familiar, insidious conditions that alone cannot explain this year\u2019s historic and abrupt 15 percent drop in fall ratings.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The unmentioned San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick can.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
His fad of ritually trashing the United States has now saturated millions of living rooms. His anti-American tirades and adolescent stage act enraged viewers, even after the refusal to stand for the anthem spread throughout the league without criticism from the NFL hierarchy \u2014 odd, given the now fossilized red\/white\/blue star-studded NFL logo.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What enraged viewers (I, too, turned off football) was mostly the multifaceted hypocrisy of both Kaepernick and the NFL:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
a) A multiracial Kaepernick was raised by white suburban parents and is a $20 million\u2013a\u2013year pampered athlete, whose only prior racial editorialization earned him an NFL fine for using the N-word slur (Cura te ipsum), and who had little prior record of philanthropy to the African-American community.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
b) Kaepernick\u2019s sudden activism and high public profile coincided with his demotion to second-string-quarterback status (though today he is schedule to start). A not implausible suggestion followed that personal frustration \u2014 or connived and preemptive career deterrence \u2014 explained his newfound professional grandstanding.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
c) Prestigious multimillionaire NFL athletes are nearly 70 percent African-American in an age when diversity is explained in a multiracial society as proportional representation \u2014 with few concessions given to the now obsolete idea of transcendent quantifiable merit \u2014 given the insidious role of \u201cdisparate impact\u201d theory, which requires no demonstrable proof of racism to earn reparation hiring to meet correct ethnic and racial percentages. Yet somehow the NFL finds itself a sanctuary sport, exempt from civil-rights quota oversights that are ubiquitous on campus and in the workplace.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
d) The NFL has a long history of insisting that all political messaging and behavior remain taboo and absent from the turf, from expressing support for fallen police to patriotic demonstrations. Nothing enrages Americans more than the combination of sanctimony with rank hypocrisy.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
No matter.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

The postmodern NFL and media narrative can remain \u2014 for now. But there is no such thing as postmodern ratings, audience share \u2014 and money. When the last of these runs out, Kaepernick\u2019s idealistic teammates will see that their contracts reflect their principles<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The Corner: The one and only.\u00a0\u00a0 In an essay that could come right out of 1984, Washington Post Ministry of Truth writers Drew Harwell and Rick Maese struggle to explain the abrupt erosion of the NFL\u2019s televised audiences. They manage to cite every conceivable longer-term trend, such as saturation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[92,145,383,216],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2tx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4587,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/spread-democracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":9519,"position":0},"title":"Spread Democracy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 30, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"What to ask John Kerry by Victor Davis Hanson New York Times The\u00a0New York Times\u00a0asked a few leading commentators to pose questions to President Bush and Senator Kerry at the first debate on September 30th, 2004. How might you explain the apparent abrupt change in policy of Libya; the unexpected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2004"","block_context":{"text":"September 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/september-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13564,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-chinese-lab-virus-so-what-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":9519,"position":1},"title":"A Chinese Lab Virus? 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Thornton Private Papers The liberal media are in full Captain Renault mode, \u201cshocked, shocked\u201d to find race injected into the presidential campaign by a \u201cSwift-boating\u201d John McCain. How shameless can you get? The Obama campaign\u2013\u2013indeed, the whole of Obama\u2019s public existence\u2013\u2013is about nothing other than his perceived\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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His biracial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Identity Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Identity Politics","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/identity-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":663,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/get-ready-for-more-charges-of-racism\/","url_meta":{"origin":9519,"position":4},"title":"Get Ready For More Charges of Racism","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The implosion of the Obama administration will create more and more desperate narratives on the part of progressives as we head toward the November election. With no record of achievement to run on, Obama must try to misdirect voters by shifting blame elsewhere: so far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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