Later this month, NFL owners will meet to discuss and address a litany of hot button topics that affects the NFL's upcoming season. The subject hot enough to melt the cuffs on their tailored jackets will be the N-word.
In an interview survey of three current NFL players published Monday for MMQB, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman batted down the idea of a 15-yard penalty.
"It's an atrocious idea," Sherman remarked to MMQB. "It's almost racist to me. It's weird they're targeting one specific word. Why wouldn't all curse words be banned then?"
Sherman may have taken it to a whole different level by calling it racist, but it does signify Roger Goodell and the NFL owners' blind approach to this topic. Banning the N-word does nothing to change the discourse over race relations in society or on the field. Honestly, when was the last time a scuffle broke out over the N-word on the field? The league is trying too hard. In fact, banning a word that's used as a term of endearment by African-American players is somewhat ignorant. The league will hide behind the Fritz Pollard Alliance's endorsement to appease the PC crowd, but this is a downright terrible idea.
Every black NFL player should end interviews with a "Ninja please!" Also, NFL players are no longer gridiron gladiators. They are ninjas
— DJ RedHerring Dunson (@CerebralSportex) March 3, 2014
And let's not go down the hackneyed road of comparing the NFL and its dogpiles to your office environment. Maybe, the locker room has some elements of that, but the physicality of professional sports gives them a little leeway to get a little informal with teammates and opponents.
Every time an NFL team gets hit w/ the N-word penalty, a coach should pull NEGUS out of the dictionary and request an official booth review
— DJ RedHerring Dunson (@CerebralSportex) March 3, 2014
Oh well. If the owners do pass this ban, it will be time for African-American players to find another word that white people can't accurately define in Webster's Dictionary.
