It’s been a few years since I began my football boycott.
I can’t remember which Super Bowl was my last.
I don’t remember much about the games I did watch. I remember halftimes though.
Fun Fact: The University of Arizona and Grambling State University Marching Bands were the halftime performers at the first Super Bowl in 1967. The highlight? Their performance of “The Liberty Bell” which all of you know better as this …
And, who can forget Up With People in 1982?
I know I was boycotting by the time Madonna did the halftime show in 2012.
I began my lonely football boycott because, well, because I don’t support traumatic brain injuries. I think traumatic brain injuries, Grade Three concussions, and permanent brain damage are bad things. The National Football League does not. We agree to disagree on this, but I am right.
So, I don’t watch. (Neither does Editor/Husband, because he is supportive like that, and because he, too, recognizes that a sport that not only allows, but encourages, traumatic brain injuries is a bad sport.)
If you need a reminder, here’s my list of 50 reasons why you shouldn’t watch football.
It’s been pretty lonely up here on my NFL boycott soapbox.
Until.
Until NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to “take a knee” rather than stand for the National Anthem – his nonviolent protest against racial discrimination in our country.
Embed from Getty Images
Some people, apparently unbothered by Grade Three concussions, took offense to Kaepernick’s protest and started their own football boycott.
And by “some people,” I mean some, but not all, white people (and, I may be wrong, but I’m assuming those “some people” boycotting also include the two families on my little gravel farm road who fly the Confederate flag in their yards).
I’m being elbowed on my boycott podium by people who are boycotting for an entirely different reason.
While I hate to get all political on here, I do want to make clear my boycottish intention.
I boycott brain injuries in football. I do not boycott a person’s right to nonviolently protest an issue that affects them personally and deeply.
Not only do I not boycott that, I applaud it.
The Baseball Bloggess 