NFL

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The NFL Must Really Hate Their Base

October 27, 2017 by 2 Comments

First it was kneeling during the National Anthem. In that case the NFL decided to give the middle finger to middle America and support the kneeling players. No matter that no one else in America is usually allowed to engage in political demonstrations at work. The end result is that support for the league is plummeting, TV ratings are down, the stadiums are half full, and revenues are way down.

You will remember the protests started with the San Francisco 49ers and their then-backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Now it is as if the Niners’ owners are saying, “Here, hold my beer. You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Now, they’re trying to set the league’s moral compass once again, announcing Thursday that they are partnering with big-city police unions to back gun-control measures, particularly to outlaw the “bump stocks” that significantly boosted the killing power of the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre earlier this month.


“It seems insane to me that a citizen can buy something like that,” team CEO Jed York said at a news conference. “I’m not anti-Second Amendment, this is something that is common sense.”

The news conference was ostensibly to announce the 49ers partnership with various (mostly) California police unions to mitigate the acrimony between the police and some parts of the community. However, the majority of that news conference, according to the San Jose Mercury News, was devoted to gun control measures.

But much of the news conference at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday focused on rallying behind proposed federal legislation to ban the bump stocks, and advocating to outlaw armor-piercing bullets and gun silencers the unions contend are a significant threat to law enforcement.

Robert Harris, secretary of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, stressed that his colleagues were not trying to obstruct gun rights.

“We are unwavering in our support of the Second Amendment. We also believe that common sense laws should be put into place to protect law-enforcement officers and the citizens they serve,” Harris said. “If as a country we hope to make any progress, it will take all of us to leave our comfort zones.”

Pardon me Mr. Harris if I raise the bullshit flag over your “unwavering” support of the Second Amendment. Those armor-piercing bullets are nothing but normal rifle bullets used in your average deer rifle. As to silencers being a significant threat, I guess it is okay for your “only ones” on the LA SWAT teams to use them to protect their hearing. However, bearing in mind that they only reduce the sound signature of a firearm by 25-30 decibels to about the level of a jackhammer, if the rest of us unwashed who pay your salaries and for whom you work want one to protect our hearing, then you have a sick idea of what constitutes a “significant threat”.

 The 49ers will be donating $500,000 towards “public service” ads and will be encouraging other teams to donate to the effort. How much of that content will be on gun control and how much on improving police-community relations remains to be seen.

The one voice of sanity seems to be Pastor Jason Reynolds of San Francisco’s Emmanuel Baptist Church. He is rightly concerned that the addition of gun control to the equation will diminish the larger issue of the relations between minority communities and the police.

“I’m concerned because technically, gun control was not our issue. I don’t want us to lose the larger narrative. Our concern was for communities of color who have dealt with issues with law enforcement, and how we overcome that.”

 I think David Burge – Iowahawk – nails it with this tweet about what is happening.

Adopting support for gun control by the NFL will be the final straw. I suppose some of Mayor Bloomberg’s Demanding Mommies are football fans but I doubt there are enough to make up for those that will be lost by supporting gun control.

If the 49ers and, by extension, the NFL, think gun rights organizations aren’t paying attention to this move, they are sadly mistaken. The Illinois State Rifle Association sent out both email and Facebook notices this afternoon.

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It Wasn’t The M855 Debacle, It Was The Money

March 23, 2015 by 4 Comments

B. Todd Jones is leaving as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives effective March 31st. Speculation on this started building on Thursday and it was confirmed on Friday by the BATFE itself in a press release.

Coming on the heels of BATFE’s backpedaling on their M855/SS109 bullet/ammo ban, one might assume he was leaving to save the Obama Administration any more embarrassment over this debacle. Obama is famous for throwing people under the bus at the first sign of trouble.

I doubt that they expected the level of response from Congress, gun rights groups, and especially the public that they received. A reported 310,000 plus letters, faxes, and emails were sent to BATFE in response to their “ATF Framework”. The typical response is probably less than 10,000 comments to a proposed change and more than likely a lot less than that.

That said, while the M855 debacle may have played some role in the timing of the announcement, it my firm opinion that it isn’t the reason Jones is leaving BATFE for the NFL. One does not just leave one job one day and find a senior level position paying a multi-million dollar salary the next. It doesn’t happen that way. It takes months for something like that to come together.

From a New York Post article published on Sunday, it seems that the NFL has been pursuing Jones for quite some time. The NFL needed an investigative counsel to show the world that they are serious about cleaning up the league. Who better than a former Marine who had served as US Attorney in two different administrations and who was now running the agency that dealt with firearms given the problems that many of their players seem to have with guns. The fact that Jones is African-American and that approximately 68% of the league’s players are also African-American added to his allure for them.

“Jones is going to be in charge of the NFL’s personal-conduct policy,” the source said.

His work will involve “determining the length of suspensions and handing out fines,” the source said, adding that the job will pay “several million a year.”

“The NFL courted Jones for a while. They went after him, and recently things started heating up. The deal came very fast,” the source said.

The article in the New York Post goes on to say that the BATFE job was “wearing” on Jones. I’m sure it was as he had never managed anything larger than a US Attorney’s Office. As the US Attorney for Minnesota, all he had to deal with was the local media and his friends in the Department of Justice. He wasn’t being subjected to intense scrutiny by the national media nor was he being hauled up to Capitol Hill on a regular basis. Moreover, Eric Holder wasn’t going to have his back anymore given his announced departure.

Jones was an ineffectual leader at BATFE. He didn’t clean up the Project Gunwalker mess left behind by Kenneth Melson. The heads of the Phoenix-based operation, William Newell and George Gillett, are still at BATFE. William McMahon was allowed to double-dip before he left for a security job in the private sector. And that is just the tip of the problematic iceberg that was the BATFE run by Jones. Given all of that, is it any wonder that he is taking the money and running?

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Best Comment On The NFL’s Denial Of Daniel Defense’s Super Bowl Ad

December 8, 2013 by 9 Comments

David E.  Petzal, rifle editor of Field and Stream, writing in The Gun Nut blog on F&S’s website had what I consider the best comment on the controversy over the NFL’s denial of the Daniel Defense Super Bowl Ad.

It’s possible that this is nothing more than hypocrisy. But the real reason, I think, is that the NFL is trying to protect its investments. The oversized guy who crashes his $150,000 custom SUV into a house and breaks down the door with his fists to strangle the family inside may be someone’s number one draft pick, and all those millions his team spent on him would go right down the drain if some terrified homeowner shot him in self-defense.

And we can’t have that now, can we? It’s…un-American.

That is truly snarky….and I love it!

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Marty Daniels – “Maybe I Should Throw The Challenge Flag”

December 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

Marty Daniels of Daniels Defense talked with Cam Edwards yesterday about the NFL’s rejection of the Daniels Defense Superbowl ad.

Daniels discussed how they approached the Fox affiliate in Atlanta about running their ad during the Superbowl and how the NFL responded with an unequivocal no even after Daniels offered to remove the company’s log. He noted that the local NBC affiliate in Georgia ran their ad during last year’s Superbowl with some hesitancy but they ran it.

Daniels says he is a bit amazed at the response the NFL’s rejection of his company’s ad has generated. He has heard from a number of people who are outraged at the sheer hypocrisy of the NFL and wonder what happened to their country.

He concludes with a bit of humor saying maybe he ought to throw the challenge flag and ask the NFL to review the “ruling on the field”.

Lest it be forgotten, the NFL allowed ads from Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors during the 2012 and 2013 Superbowls.

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CCRKBA On Media’s Double Standard

December 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a release yesterday severely criticizing the media’s double standard when it comes to the NFL. On the one hand, they go all righteous and pro-gun control when Jovan Belcher kills the mother of his child and then himself. On the other, they barely blink an eye when Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent drives intoxicated and kills a fellow Cowboy teammate.

From the CCRKBA:

NEW NFL DEATH SHOWS MEDIA’S DUAL
STANDARD ABOUT GUNS, SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA – After yet another tragic death involving an NFL player over the weekend, there is the appearance of a double standard in media handling of the case, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“A week ago,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “NBC’s Bob Costas was having fits about a so-called ‘gun culture,’ but what about the culture of big money, flashy cars and alcohol that permeats the NFL? Dallas player Jerry Brown is dead from what appears to be a drunken driving crash involving teammate Josh Brent. Brown is no less dead than Javon Belcher or his girlfriend and Brent faces criminal charges. Costas was alarmed at the number of NFL players with guns, but he’s said virtually nothing about the ones who drink and drive.”

Costas ignited a firestorm last week, showing a lack of knowledge about firearms, current laws and the so-called “gun culture” when he editorialized about the Belcher case and then had to do damage control for several days.

“What Bob Costas doesn’t know about guns,” Gottlieb said, “would probably fill a library. His remarks about violent crime, gun owners and semiautomatic firearms demonstrated why the firearms community distrusts mainstream press because many, if not most, of the talking heads don’t know what they’re talking about.

“According to FBI crime data,” he continued, “the number of homicides involving firearms has declined over the past several years. Last year, out of 12,664 homicides, firearms were used in about 8,500 of those crimes, and handguns were used in less than half.

“Compare that to more than 10,000 deaths attributed annually to drunk driving,” Gottlieb said, “yet where is the great discussion about that after Brown’s death?

“Last week, Costas asked who ‘needs’ a semiautomatic firearm,” he added. “Well, who needs to drive drunk? NFL players certainly have enough money to pay for a cab ride, don’t they?

“How many drunks are on the road every weekend following tailgate parties at NFL games,” Gottlieb questioned. “What’s more dangerous, a citizen with a firearm or an NFL player with a bar tab?”

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Ex-Con Wants To Play In NFL Again; Will Say Anything To Win Job

June 13, 2011 by 5 Comments

Former NY Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was released from the Oneida Correctional Facility this past Monday. He had served 20 months and 16 days in prison after being convicted of criminal possession of a firearm. The conviction stemmed from an incident where he had a negligent discharge of his Glock in a New York City nightclub. He was not carrying the pistol in a holster and shot himself in the leg when he grabbed for the pistol as it slipped in his pants.

Mr. Burress obviously would like to play in the NFL again. Tomorrow, he will appear at a news conference to make what is reported to be an attempt at redemption similar to his friend Michael Vick. According to Bill Ritter of New York’s EyewitnessNews 7:

The former Giants football star Plaxico Burress is campaigning for redemption – this after spending 20 months behind bars for carrying an illegal gun and then accidentally shooting himself in the leg outside a nightclub. He’s appearing with the Brady Center people – gun control advocates – for some big announcement on Monday. Also there: Tony Dungy, the former pro football head coach. You’ll recall that Dungy was also there when quarterback Michael Vick campaigned for redemption at a news conference with the Humane Society, after Vick emerged from prison for running an illegal dog fighting ring.

Obvious stunts or legitimate contriteness?

If it involves the Brady Campaign, my vote is for obvious stunt. Their press release is fairly restrained for them and just says:

NEW YORK — In his first public appearance since his release from prison, Plaxico Burress will make an important announcement Monday, June 13, at 11 a.m. EDT, at the offices of the National Urban League. He will be joined by National Urban League President Marc H. Morial, former Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy and Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The announcement will be webcast on www.iamempowered.com and www.playmakersllc.com.

National Urban League President Marc Morial is best remembered within the gun community for filing the first city-backed lawsuit against firearms manufacturers for “damages” while mayor of New Orleans back in 1998. The Louisiana Supreme Court eventually dismissed the suit in 2001 after the State Legislature passed a bill forbidding cities from suing.

Given the participants in Monday’s event – Tony Dungy excepted – Mr. Burress probably associated with a more honest group of crooks while in prison than he’ll be sharing the stage with on Monday. Those crooks just wanted money or blow and not to take away other people’s civil rights.