With commercials ruling Monday Night Football and multiple pitching changes and injuries stalling the Red Sox-Orioles game, I had plenty of time to switch back and forth. In addition to delays in the action, the other similarity between the two broadcasts was race-based politics.
First, what in the hell does Hispanic heritage have to do with the National Football League? At every turn, especially in the first half, we were reminded of Hispanic heritage and had to endure Hank Williams Jr. singing in Spanish. (Funny, on St. Patrick’s Day, I only hear Irish accents, not a foreign language being spoken to Americans.)
For all this emphasis on Hispanics, I didn’t see any tributes to the greatest Hispanic football players of all time so I assume it’s merely a cheap stunt to go after the Hispanic demographic. (Funny, I haven’t seen the American heritage or Anglo heritage tribute efforts to get non-Hispanic Americans interested in soccer.)
But what really got me was the live shot of a movie theater in Mexico City, Mexico of…er…Mexicans watching the game. Now, maybe I misunderstand these kinds of tributes but isn’t honoring Hispanic heritage supposed to be about Americans of Hispanic descent? Maybe they figure our border is so porous that those watching in the movie theater in Mexico can come and go as they please in the United States.
Then I switch over to the baseball game instead of watching multiple commercials after a score, a kickoff through the end zone and more multiple commercials after the kick. Vladimir Guerrero gets a single up the middle and the announcer yells, “There it is.” I was wondering if Guerrero was really that close to 3,000 hits? No, instead he was waving to the crowd and taking bows to a standing ovation for becoming the all-time Major League leader in hits…by a player of Dominican descent. Ok.
I wonder who the all-time MLB hits leader is from North Carolina? Or the South? Or from Puerto Rico? Or Venezuela?
All these kinds of celebrations primarily do one thing and that is divide us by race. It all just seems a little much to me.
Back to the football game and they were showing a graphic of the players throughout the history of the NFL who had the most yards per pass attempt. They were Otto Graham, Sid Luckman, Norm Van Brocklin and Tony Romo.
I almost expected them to say, “And the player of Dutch descent who had the most yards per pass attempt was Van Brocklin. Of course the player of Jewish descent who had the most yards per pass attempt was Luckman. And you know, while Graham is tops overall, did you know that when he coached the Redskins he told Brig Owens, a black quarterback out of Cincinnati, that he would play only defensive back in the pros and that as long as he was coach, Owens would never get to play quarterback because of his race?”
You would at least have expected them to point out that Romo is of Hispanic descent.
Now, back to the game, it’s third and short. So, where does the camera pan? The cleavage of a buxom Cowboys cheerleader. “Hey, it’s third and short, take a look at these!” You know, I like looking at cleavage of buxom cheerleaders as much as the next guy but just before the snap of a third and short play in a game between the Cowboys and the Redskins? Was that appropriate?
Speaking of appropriate, do we really need live field mics in order to hear a Cowboys receiver coming off the field saying the F word?
Again, speaking of appropriate, during the football game there was a commercial for a Playstation game based on our military fighting. Some might think that alone is inappropriate but the accompanying rap music played over the violence on the screen was a tad inappropriate. When I think of our brave soldiers, I automatically think of the equally highly respected rap music don’t you? And, in the commercial, they seemed to bleep a word during the song. How weird is that? Bleeping your own commercial. As we know, most rap music is aimed at young people but at the end of the commercial, there’s a voice over that comes on and says “Rated M for mature.” Ok.
Back at the game, we see our 90th replay of the game. When I was a kid, the only plays that were shown again were big gainers or controversial plays. We see multiple replays after almost every play. I used to enjoy watching the huddles but usually the team has broken the huddle by the time the broadcast has finished showing us the replay of the play we have just seen – clearly, I might add.
After switching between the two games, I realized I had spent the night watching the lesser team win both games. The Cowboys looked inept at running regular plays with bad snaps and players out of position, etc. yet they pieced together six field goals (no touchdowns) to defeat the Redskins 18-16 in a game the Skins should have won.
Meanwhile, over at the baseball game, the Orioles, who were 25 games under .500, defeated the Red Sox 6-3 in a game where Boston outhit Baltimore 11 to 8 and committed no errors compared to one for the O’s. As a result, Boston, which led the American League East on Aug. 31, is now tied with Tampa Bay with two games to play.
If they remain tied, I think there would be a one-game playoff but they may just go with whichever team has the most Dominicans on it, not sure. Enough already with race politics, especially in sports.