In Larry David’s extremely awkward “Saturday Night Live” appearance a few weeks back, he worried that the recent rash of sexual predators was all Jewish – which is not true, but anyway, what I thought he was going to say was that they were all unattractive. (This was before Matt Lauer and Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet, were added to the list of sexual harassers.) ...
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After 13 years and 210 games, including two Super Bowl titles in which he was named MVP, Eli Manning will not be starting at quarterback for the New York Giants this Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.
Manning – who has always been gracious to me as editor of WAG magazine in his role as spokesman for Guiding Eyes for the Blind – fought back tears as he told reporters, “I don’t have to make sense of it.”
No, Eli, you don’t, because in a way it doesn’t. It takes a particularly lousy group effort for a team to be 2 and 9. And while a 36-year-old Manning – a healthy 36-year-old Manning – may no longer be the answer, does anyone think successors Geno Smith and David Webb necessarily are? ...
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Kudos to Colin Kaepernick, who has been named GQ magazine’s “Citizen of the Year.” He’s a reminder, though, that the path to activism and humanitarianism isn’t always paved with glory. I’m sure he’d rather have a job in the NFL. I’m sure he’d rather not be vilified.
But we don’t always get to choose our circumstances. Sometimes they are chosen for us. What matters is how we react to them. And what we do with them. ...
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The year 2017 isn’t quite over, but I think it’s fair to say that it has been the year of the “C” word.
Collusion. (Wait, what did you think I meant?) You hear it applied to the Russkie investigation. And you hear it applied to the NFL owners’ possible blackballing of Colin Kaepernick over his National Anthem protest. The latest is that Kaepernick’s attorney has subpoenaed the phone records and emails of certain key owners. I for one can’t see what good this will do. Collusion – the legal term would be conspiracy – is difficult to prove. ...
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Among the questions to emerge from the Harvey Weinstein scandal is one that human beings of conscience have been grappling with forever: Is it ethical to support the work of a scoundrel?
At first glance, the answer would appear to be simple: Art transcends biography. You wouldn’t rebuff a child because his father was a murderer, would you? So why hate the brainchild of a Weinstein or a Woody Allen – who, tellingly cautioned about a “witch hunt” against Weinstein – or a Mel Gibson or any other artist/athlete accused of heinous behavior?
But it’s more complex than that, isn’t it? ...
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Well, NFL owners and players had a “productive” meeting on social issues in Manhattan Tuesday – code for nothing but smoke and mirrors designed to placate two mutually exclusive viewpoints. There was, incredibly, no discussion of the National Anthem protests that have been designed to draw attention to the very social issues that were on the agenda. You can’t make this stuff up. ...
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On Tuesday, the NFL owners and representative players will meet to discuss the National Anthem protest that has been a driving issue this season – this as protest initiator and former San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL, saying the 32 owners colluded to keep him out of the league because of his activism.
A bit of background: “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been played before NFL games since at least 2009 at the behest of the U.S. Department of Defense, ostensibly to bolster recruiting. The NFL rulebook says that teams must be suited up and on the field before the Anthem begins, standing facing the flag, with their helmets in their left hands and their right hands over their hearts. In the third preseason game of 2016, a reporter noted Kaepernick sitting through the Anthem to protest police brutality against people of color.
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