Now the bitchuz are ruining football too? (Led by Michelle Obama of course)
by digby
Josh Holland has a great piece up over at Moyers’ place about NFL’s head injury scandal. And there’s a little bit of good news:
A lawsuit filed on behalf of 4,500 former players who face what they say are concussion-related health issues was settled last month by the league for $765 million. The NFL admitted to no wrongdoing, but the settlement may signal that the sport is finally coming to terms with research showing that repeated head trauma produces long-term impacts. Last year, the league announced that it was making a $30 million donation to the National Institutes of Health to study the phenomenon.
But this is about as ridiculous as it gets:
In the wake of the NFL settlement, a number of pundits have come out to defend the NFL and its $9 billion annual business. Some deny that there’s a problem. Others have attacked the messenger, or the former players themselves.
Writing at Townhall, Timothy Birdnow claimed that destroying the NFL is “the left’s end-game.” After scoffing that there’s “no solid evidence that the game is dangerous,” Birdnow blamed the “liberal sports media” for wanting to over-regulate the game – and for ruining childhood in the process.
There has been an increasing effort by the Progressives to straitjacket young children. Sports are one outlet they have targeted, with an increasingly regimented and organized approach to what were once thought of as children’s games. Michelle Obama may say “Let’s Move!,” but she wants all movement under her watchful eye.
While Birdnow may write from the fringes, a similar theory has gained traction among some mainstream conservatives — Rush Limbaugh also wondered recently if “the left” was intent on “banning football as we know it.”
And NewBusters founder Matthew Sheffield agreed that the “liberal media” poses a genuine threat, writing that while “it’s difficult to imagine Americans going along with government outright banning football,” he could easily see “”compassionate’ liberals and trial lawyers gradually destroying the sport through excessive regulation, government intervention and lawsuits.”
While it may seem unclear why anyone would want to destroy football, running underneath these complaints is an established narrative about the supposed “feminization” of American culture that people like Limbaugh have long embraced. Jeff Blevins, author of Confessions of a Mad Sports Addict, was explicit about this angle, writing, “I like to call it the feminization of the league. Emasculation is another good” way to put it.
Because brain damage is very masculine. (well ….)
If it’s so benign I think macho men like Rush and these Townhall writers ought to be out there getting their heads bashed in every day to prove the science is all wrong. Lord knows it won’t make their words sound any more stupid than they already do. That would be impossible.
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