McNair Fallout

[User 11148]

I think there’s a real risk of interpreting the reaction(s) to McNair’s words as being broader than they really are. While I don’t doubt many of the “nearly walkouts” are in support of the flag/anthem demonstrations, their reaction here seems limited to what McNair said. That’s where I’d keep the focus.

If I were advising him, I’d insist he make himself widely available for one-on-one and/or group-on-one apology sessions, and I’d insist the message be “I misspoke and I’m sorry for what I said.” Further, I’d advise him to make it clear that if a player STILL felt it impossible to keep playing in his organization, said player would be accommodated as quickly as possible.

 

[Vombatus]

I think there’s a real risk of interpreting the reaction(s) to McNair’s words as being broader than they really are. While I don’t doubt many of the “nearly walkouts” are in support of the flag/anthem demonstrations, their reaction here seems limited to what McNair said. That’s where I’d keep the focus.

If I were advising him, I’d insist he make himself widely available for one-on-one and/or group-on-one apology sessions, and I’d insist the message be “I misspoke and I’m sorry for what I said.” Further, I’d advise him to make it clear that if a player STILL felt it impossible to keep playing in his organization, said player would be accommodated as quickly as possible.

Someone might throw some cleats at him.

 

[User 11148]

Someone might throw some cleats at him.

Sack up and take it like a man. Didn’t say it’d be fun.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

He might be sorry for what he said. He's not sorry for what he meant.

 

[Vombatus]

Sack up and take it like a man. Didn’t say it’d be fun.

Wear a cup and a hidden thin flak jacket.

 

[User 11148]

He might be sorry for what he said. He's not sorry for what he meant.

May be true (I don’t know much about him). If after he apologized for what he said someone came back at him with that, his response should be “That’s not what I meant, and I’m sorry for what I said.”

 

[tapintoamerica]

This deserves its own thread.

After that terrific ESPN piece on the recent owner/player meeting, where Bob McNair is quoted as saying, "We can't have inmates running the prison," the NFL and the Texans have another gong show.

Coach Bill O'Brien informed the players of the quote during a special team meeting, so they wouldn't be blindsided by it. Star WR DeAndre Hopkins walks out, doesn't participate in practice. Other players admit they considered it, too, and Richard Sherman claims the Texans wouldn't play if they had guaranteed contracts.

McNair apologizes, but it won't be good enough. He's under siege. You have to assume more protests this weekend.

I understand what McNair was trying to say -- inmates running the asylum -- but he picked a worse metaphor, and during charged times, it blew up in his face. It's ugly.

I'd love to know who leaked that detail. I wouldn't want to be the guy McNair and the NFL suspects.

I'm voting Troy Vincent.

 

[poindexter]

I've watched an hour of Sportscenter this morning (shaddup!).

Not one single solitary word about McNair. A million references to the Houston Astros Yu Darvish slanty eyes thing. But not one thing about McNair.

 

[tapintoamerica]

The CBA goes through 2020. All of the losses are on the owners until then. Players don't have to do **** on that front.

By then, a decent % of today's players will be gone.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I missed the original reporting on this story and I'm too lazy to look it up: Did McNair say this during the meeting in front of everyone (players, Smith, Vincent and everyone)? Seems like the kind of thing you say offhandedly to another owner, not to the "inmates," as it were.

I think it was just owners at that point.

 

[Songbird]

The leak was probably the Jags owner. You know, the brown guy.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I am not a fan of Bomani Jones, but I thought he made a decent point when he suggested some of the drop in ratings associated with this issue is the result of a boycott by black fans turned off by the league's attempts to enforce patriotism.

 

[Vombatus]

Or someone who hates McNair.

 

[tapintoamerica]

I get what you are saying, but the players are hardly unified on this. What percent are kneeling? 20 percent? And how many of them are doing it because of Trump?

When it gets to crunch time: money talks and bull**** walks. I don't see the players unified on this and if anything, they'll tire over it. This McNair thing will be another spike, but to me it further muddles the whole protest. Now people will protest McNair and the owners and the NFL, which moves the needle further away from Trump, and even further away from the issues Kaep was raising in the first ****ing place.

Meanwhile, people tune out and turn off.

So odd to me that football, the ultimate team game, the one that uses the most military imagery, is the one with the weakest union.

 

[Vombatus]

So odd to me that football, the ultimate team game, the one that uses the most military imagery, is the one with the weakest union.

True, and while I get the social issues, they need to find their voice and stances on multiple issues, and the #1 issue and unifying topic ought to be all this CTE / player safety / long term health.

 

[User 11148]

So odd to me that football, the ultimate team game, the one that uses the most military imagery, is the one with the weakest union.

Nature of the game/business. A union can’t create leverage.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Nature of the game/business. A union can’t create leverage.

How much of the NFLPA's relative difficulties stem from the danger of the game and that guaranteed contracts, paid out even in injury cases as in baseball, are untenable in football?

 

[jr/shotglass]

So odd to me that football, the ultimate team game, the one that uses the most military imagery, is the one with the weakest union.

I thought it was a strange comment in the sense that I've always heard it used as "you can't let the inmates run the asylum."

Think the reaction would have been any different if McNair had said that, or is there no difference?

I suspect the reaction would be the same, as both statements demean the players. But I do have slightly different mental imagery with the two scenarios.

 

[YankeeFan]

I am not a fan of Bomani Jones, but I thought he made a decent point when he suggested some of the drop in ratings associated with this issue is the result of a boycott by black fans turned off by the league's attempts to enforce patriotism.

African-Americans are offended by patriotism?

 

[MisterCreosote]

We should all be offended by compulsory patriotism.