Surely you’ve heard the old “groaner”….
Mexican guy comes to America and goes to a baseball game. He goes back home to Mexico. His friends ask him about his trip.
….. “The people were soooo nice to me” he says. “I went to a baseball game. Before the game started everyone in the stadium stood up and they all asked ‘Jose, can you see?’. …. I could see just fine, but it was so nice of them to ask. “
For Albert: “Jose Can You See” = “Oh Say Can You See by the dawn’s early light…..”
As predicted here last week – a no-brainer if there ever was one – America has been “Kaepernicked”. The Kaepernicking of America is ramping up to Code Red, White & Blue.
HOLY BETSY ROSS, Batman! We got ourselves a full-fledged National Conversation on Patriotism – America’s Ra
cial Divide – Support for The Military etc. Will Colin Kaepernick bring back “the Afro” as a symbol of whatever “the Afro” was ever a symbol of. …. Speaking of “Afros”, whatever happened to Rockin Rollen that goofy John 3:16 guy?
I propose that noon on September 11…. Every man, woman, child in America yell out: “I respect an individual’s ‘constitutional right’ to voice their opinion no matter how uninformed blah blah blah” . Yawn.
….. unless, of course, they are crazy right-wingnuts in which case they have to STFU.
Lets get that trite self-serving blather out of the way. Do whatever you gotta do – say whatever you gotta say – so no one will call you “a racist” – “a bigot” – “a homophobe”. Whatever the latest “you are a _____” insult de jour is.
Who knew being called “a ______” would join “sticks and stones breaking your bones” as something that can really “hurt you”.
From Sea To Shining Sea in every Middlesex village and town…. You, your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc and et al are all in an official social media tizzy over what you – we – them will do / won’t do / better do when that question is asked – “Jose, can you see…..?”
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BUT FIRST…. Did you see where “my friend Bubba” Cunningham turned down the Florida AD job last week? Yep…. according to sources – the gig was his, but at the 11th hour he withdrew from consideration. I don’t know any more than this USAToday story. Many of Bubba’s colleagues are expressing “bewilderment” with his decision.
Bubba ALMOST goes to Gainesville – LINK
I’m not at all surprised he was offered the job. Bubba is an exceptional administrator and deserves a better fate than the slow Death of 1,000 Cups of Kool-Aid amid Kenan’s lofty pines”.
Bubba grew up in Florida. The UF gig would have been a reported $1,4oo,oo0/year. Twice Bubba’s current salary at UNCCH. Many of you ABC lifers despise Bubba because he is a high profile employee “over there”. You despise everyone employed “over there” simply because…. I “get that”.
Could Bubba be waiting for Notre Dame ??? Current ND AD Jack Swarbrick was his mentor and is nearing retirement…. ya never know ???
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Back to The Kaepernicking of America….
Two weeks ago, way back when your Aunt Ethel had no clue – or cared – what a Colin Kaepernick was, how did YOU respond at a stadium / arena when the band or some local little girl or school choir, etc asked “Jose can you see”?
Did you rise to your feet – remove whatever cap/hat you might be wearing – place that cap or at least your hand over your heart – face the most prominent flag you can locate – and reverently consider Francis Scott Key’s immortal words for the two minutes it takes to play The Star-Spangled Banner (SSB)? Or, was your National Anthem routine less formal.
…. During those two minutes did visions of Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, Gettysburg and Valley Forge flood your mind?…. Thoughts of all those who have paid the ultimate price for the past 250 years so you and I might enjoy the fruits and freedoms of living in these United States of America?
…. Or were you simply antsy for the band / singer to finish so the game can begin?
Did you scan the crowd in your vicinity to see who keeps their hats on …. Don’t place their hands over their hearts …. Are dinking with their cellphones …. Or otherwise not adhering to “how you oughta behave” when the SSB is played?
If you are an NC State fan, did you scream “RED” and “home of The Wolfpack” during the formal rendition? You do realize there are “sunshine patriots” at, of all places, UNCCH who consider that Wolfpack “tradition” traitorous and deserving of immediate incarceration and deportation. If you are an old school Wolfpack fan (and we certainly have a few of those around here) do you cringe when your rowdies so descecrate “the Anthem”? Have you notified Frau, Randy, or Bobby how you feel?
NOW…. In the post-Kaepernick Era will you be more sensitive to anyone you observe not adhering to “how one oughta behave” for The SSB. Will you employ what I call The Bumpersticker Look-see?
Whenever I see a car with an Obama-Biden or Hillary 2016 bumpersticker, I automatically check-out the driver and, more often than not, have a “Yeah, I thought so” reaction as the driver ALWAYS (??) fits one of several “all a buncha” stereotypes for “those people”.
…. You Lib/Dems do the same thing when you see a Trump or Pro-Gun or Anti-Abortion bumpersticker. You expect to see Larry The Cable Guy’s crazy cuzzin Earl behind the wheel and you just know Crazy Earl is being brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh or some such.
For the record…. my Lexus RX300 simply has a Cardinals license plate holder. My political preference is not apparent.
So, anywho, these next few weeks at whatever stadium you attend, you WILL see Kaepernicking in action. At colleges – especially those with overt liberal-reputations – you are certain to see the usual garden-variety votive candle scragglies in the student section wearing Che t-shirts and doing their “LOOK AT ME I’m Kaepernicking”…. I CARE ABOUT “black people and other oppressed minorites. …. America Sucks.”
You don’t sit in the student section so that bunch likely won’t interact with you. BUT suppose someone – a for-real adult – in your vicinity – does not stand and “show respect” for The Flag – America – Our Military – whatever. Will you “react” in any way…. physically? ….. vocally? At least give him/her “the evil eye”?
You might see some of the AfAm players on your team “Kaepernicking” depending on whatever dictum your coach has issued about doing so. Player reactions will be more aggressive at NFL games of course.
“Your coach” will likely have voiced some version of the trite – “…. Their right to voice their concerns for oppressed minoroties, etc etc etc….” and “we encourage our student-athletes to be involved in society blah blah blah…” As Missouri’s Gary Pinkel learned – unless you totally support whatever your black players do, your future recruiting is shot to hell. As “your coach” hopes against hope that he doesn’t catch holy hell from irate Fat Cats who ain’t quite of that same opinion.
The USA Hockey coach is catching hell from all the ESPN talking heads because of his “what I’ll do” comment. Any coach / owner of any sport team in America can expect to “catch hell” if he/she dares to buck the Kaepernick Movement.
It is only a matter of time…. “playing The National Anthem” will be discontinued at sports events in America? … toe tag another tradition.
There is no reason to play it other than “tradition”. In the past decade or so – Especially the past eight years – we have seen more than a few American traditions get kiboshed because Tradition X-Y-Z is deemed to “offend” such-such mini-faction. The UnAmericanizing of America started with abolishing prayer in school. Lots of babies have been thrown out with lots of bath water since then. Lots more will be in the months to come.
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Oh – Oh – Oh…. I was “over yonder” in Chapel Hill yesterday. There is much hue and cry following Larry Fedora’s annual Lose an opener to a SEC team by not running the ball.
After much hueing / crying the consensus is The Problem is two-fold – (1) Fedora’s beard of course ….. and (2) a white QB. I mean REALLY – a white QB ? Who has a white quarterback these days? First thing ya know Ol’ Roy will be starting “a cracker” at point guard. UNCCH might even have a white male Chancellor again – Nooooo. UNCCH will officially return to The Dark Ages. …. Stop The Madness Now !!!
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“I PREDICT… The NCAA will make a grand and very pretentious announcement that henceforth playing The SSB at NCAA events is totally up to the hosting institution. Which is probably already the case. I doubt there is any “You MUST play the SSB” in the NCAA Rulebook. If the NCAA does that, expect UNCCH to be in the first wave of Very Very Liberal Rats Nests to kibosh it immediately. All the usual Rats Nests…. Wisconsin, Cal-Berkeley, Duke, Stanford, The Ivies, etc etc. I would expect The SEC (and NCState) to hold out until pressure becomes too much to bear.… Read more »
I’ve spent the day trying to decide if I’m in HRC’s “basket of deplorables”. I’m already one of the “bitter clingers” and an entrepreneur that “didn’t build that”. Anyway, I’m sure the SSB will probably go by the wayside. I agree with the writer that described this as the “Flight 93 Election”. This is it. Told my wife tonight that if this election goes a certain way, then evangelism by Christian churches in the US will become a clandestine activity. Within 5 years it become illegal to voice opposition to many of the tenets of liberalism – abortion, LGBT stuff… Read more »
Five years is being generous.
Bob,
Rock’n Rollen Stewart is currently in a California prison serving three consecutive life sentences for the 1992 kidnapping of three people in a hotel in Los Angeles. He apparently thought that the rapture was imminent and that he was doing them a favor by taking them with him.
Paul Coder
YIKES! That sounds like a wild story I might come up with !! I knew he was supposedly “a real preacher”.
Sunday marks the 15th Anny. We should all take a knee.
Under the unusual circumstances / timing, that might need a careful explanation before implementing.
I see where VaTech is playing Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway with 150,000 fans. Didn’t you have a Bristol Speedway story???
That would be Emmitt Smith & The Bruthas. I was photographing a NASCAR race at BMS about 10-12 years ago. Emmitt was the celebrity “Gentlemen Start Your Engines” guy. I was standing with him at the Start/Finish Line during pre-race. He’s looking around at 150,000 Tenn/VA/NC NASCAR rednecks… and says to me – “Not too many bruthas around here”. “Nope”, I replied “and the ones that are are being paid by the hour to be here.” He smiled and nodded. . If one only sees ONE NASCAR Race in one’s lifetime, it should be The Night Race @ Bristol… a/k/a… Read more »
Didn’t you once do a column contrasting how Roy’s UNC’s BB team “behaved” during TNA compared to how Sidney Lowe’s NCSU team “behaved”?
Indeed I did. It was the ACC BB Tourn held in Tampa 7-8-9 years ago. Sidney’s team was Destiny’s Darlings and came from a low seed to play Roy’s Boyz in the Finals. . During the playing of TNA, Sidney’s young men were standing straight and tall in military precision with right hands over hearts and all eyes on the flag. … while on the opposite end of the floor, Roys Boys were playing “grab ass”, picking their noses, and checking out hotties in the stands, etc. The contrast was STARK. I do recall that Roy himself seemed attentive to… Read more »
It was 2007. We caravaned (MH) and camped in the Aquarium Parking Lot. Watched all games. Could not even GIVE away the opening games. Our “ticket getters” lost their shirt on it as we usually sold the extras, at least at break even. Finally one of the longtime (and used) scalpers bailed them out. We, the recipients, took up a collection to offset their losses. Sidney’s guys were humble and focused. UNC….not so much. BUT, they did wear their ties or at least some respectable street clothes when they showed up at the arena. NCSU ran out of gas at… Read more »
Seems I do recall that radio line mishap. I recall Felton (or Lawson) dunked at the very end on a breakaway and Wuffs cussed him for showing off.
The desecration of TNA has been brought to the AD’s attention by WPC members with her and all the HC’s cell #. Many want to restore an invocation. Some ACC schools do (or did) such at home games. I do not change my lyrics and sing a bit louder at the end. Much to the chagrin of my GK’s. I still sing the Alma mater after each BB game & get some nice compliments. Will consider a full body wave for my 70 YO blonde tresses. Get my WWE SH’s mixed up, was it Hulk, Rick or The Great Bolo… Read more »
I am going to wager that Mr Kennel has likewise expressed concerns re: TNA. He being of that same “old school” in such matters.
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I would imagine NCSU and its God-Fearin’ fan base would be most reluctant to abolish its overt Patriotism… unlike its System sister to the West.
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I see you as Homer O’Dell or Gentleman Saul Weingroff… the devious “manager” wielding a cane and a folding chair up to no good… giving Nick Pond a very good interview. – 🙂
I worked, briefly, for Nick Pond. He was the Production Manager at WRAL whilst Mr. Helms was the VP. DId audio and sometimes camera. Nick was not a dumb as he looked….and acted. BUT, I will not say to what degree. RIP, he is gone….played football without a helmet too often….or maybe imbibed and inhaled too much…
Wasn’t he a BIG Cribbage player or some odd card game? I knew him briefly in his later years. Nice guy but a tad strange… of course, so are we. 🙂
Sort of off-topic. Did you see the controversial hit on CAM? Have “the refs” been told to take him out? if so-Why?
I did NOT see it live but have seen replays and the FIRESTORM it has created. WHY would “the refs” and/or “the league” want to “take out CAM”? CAM is one of the 2-3 most popular players in the league. The so-called “1,000s of Cam-haters” has been proven to be that one woman in East Tennessee and another 6-7 galoots who don’t care for yoga pants on men. Could one of the refs last night be related to “that woman in East Tennessee”? . The Myth of Wholesale CAM-Hate is only matched by the Myth of An Epidemic of Police… Read more »
We survived the black power salute at the Olympics (which in my mind is one of the few athletic events, the National Anthem should be played) , we will survive this.
I have always thought that prayer is schools was a very un-America practice since the founding fathers apparently were against the government promoting any religion. I did not do arithmetic in Sunday School and did not see why orchestrated prayer was necessary in public school (actually you can find more admonitions about public prayer in the Bible than calls for group prayer).
I do enjoy historical precedents for upcoming calamities. “We always have (survived) therefore we always will….” The Babylonians, Persians, Romans and Atlantians (?) relied on that for centuries. They were always right until one day they weren’t.
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Interpretations of The Founding Fathers and King James and Nostradamus are always fun. Nostradamus actually predicted TGU – Quatrain # 8765 I think. 🙂
I think Kaepernick was just trying to find a way to draw attention to himself by other team owners and managers that are in need a “quality” quarterback whose talents are being wasted sitting on the pine.
Yeah… and Tommy John just went in for routine elbow surgery… and became “a surgery”. Will Kaepernicking become a verb like Nifonging?
Colleges and professional teams have done this to themselves, all by themselves. Speaking of “chickens coming home to roost”!
Yes and No… IMO. The dominant rise of AfAm athletes in pro sports (NFL / NBA) is IMO a complex confluence of various factors beginning in early youth sports. And not necessarily “a bad thing”. Team owners want the best players… and no question that is AfAm athletes. Now finding themselves totally dependent on AfAm athletes has created a fascinating socio-cultural-economic-political Gordian Knot. …. Pro sports owners have to bet that fans will tolerate pretty much anything for their sports “fix”… and they are probably correct. . An equally fascinating aspect is how long could a AfAm player boycott last?… Read more »
The day the liberal factions at UNC decree that the Star Spangled Banner will no longer be played in Boshamer is the day I quit making a trek from Pitt County to watch the Diamond Heels. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NCAA beat them to the punch. Ironically the Bronco player who didn’t stand for the anthem last night spent time on the sidelines after being thumped in the second quarter. Not sure if he returned after the half as I was sleeping soundly at that time. I’ll stop here as if I go any longer, I’ll be… Read more »
I PREDICT… The NCAA will make a grand and very pretentious announcement that henceforth playing The SSB at NCAA events is totally up to the hosting institution. Which is probably already the case. I doubt there is any “You MUST play the SSB” in the NCAA Rulebook. If the NCAA does that, expect UNCCH to be in the first wave of Very Very Liberal Rats Nests to kibosh it immediately. All the usual Rats Nests…. Wisconsin, Cal-Berkeley, Duke, Stanford, The Ivies, etc etc. I would expect The SEC (and NCState) to hold out until pressure becomes too much to bear.… Read more »
Speaking of “white QB”…. assume you saw where Cam The Annointed One was beaten by another Bronco white guy last night. And this time it wasn’t a sure NFL HoF guy. Some whozit cracker from Northwestern ??????
I only saw a little bit of that. I was in shock from the Brewers laying a butt-whupping on my Cardinals… OUCH! A “white whozit” beating WONDERFUL CAM will NOT sit well with ESPN or POTUS or Jim Goodmon’s Guys. Attorney General is asking Justice Dept to investigate Broncos.
I know you don’t listen to WRAL’s SportsTalk guys. “Adam & Joe” are all into loving Kaepernick – and bashing Tebow. Surprise !!! Not.
Nope, I don’t listen. But, no surprise at all. Jim Goodmon’s guys are as upfront about their politics (Far Left) as I am about mine (Very Not Far Left). Of course, I don’t even pretend otherwise. Maybe Adam / Joe are auditioning for ESPN gigs?
Personally, I am very glad to keep Bubba and I hope we keep him as AD for a long, long time.
Bubba is BY FAR the best executive admin they have “over there”. Other offers will be coming. He may be waiting for Notre Dame.
Is it now kosher to sit out TNA every time it is butchered by some artist trying to re-invent the song? If so, I’m interested in signing up. I remember not being offended by the outrage of the Jimi Hendrix version almost 50 years ago. I wonder if there’s an app for faux outrage?? One solution is to perform TNA while the teams are in the locker room. Also since the League wants everything standardized, one recorded version by the USMC Band or Arthur Godfery should suffice. The Broncos did pretty good with a brand new “cracker” QB last night.… Read more »
Expect various compromises to be floated but “those people” never compromise. America MUST be demolished. … Somewhere Roseanne Barr giggles.
I am sure the Rams Club more than matched the Gator’s offer. After all the coverup is nowhere near over.
I doubt it. That would be “public information” and require BOG approval (think Mary Easley Scandal). Jeremy Foley was one of a half dozen ADs at million/per which would bump Bubba by $400K. I think Bubba has his eye on The Golden Dome and was advised to “just be patient”.