The NFL is under constant assault.
The anti-American anthem protests have been the bane of league executives and the owners’ existence.
But now the left is using a new tactic to chip away at the NFL in a subtle way.
Football is the ultimate gladiator team sport. It’s physically grueling, and when played at the highest level with world-class athletes, it’s inherently violent.
There’s no getting around that.
The NFL has had to deal with the issue of concussions. Repeated head trauma has proven to manifest itself in potentially catastrophic mental health issues down the road.
The film “Concussion” dealt with the medical phenomenon known as CTE, which has allegedly caused several former players to express suicidal ideation and homicidal rage.
Brain science is rapidly improving, so the long-term effects of CTE could be mitigated through continued medical research.
But for now, football is under constant threat from those who want to see it go away.
The anti-American anthem protests were used as a wedge issue to get people to abandon the game, which many leftist “fans” did.
The rule changes are so nonsensical and numerous, almost any collision can be considered illegal because of helmet contact.
The attempts to legislate high-speed collisions out of the game have been futile, and have made the game unwatchable to many.
College color commentator and former football player Ed Cunningham said he could no longer in good conscience watch football because of the concussion issue.
The New York Times featured Cunningham’s comments in a long piece specifically geared toward encouraging more Americans to walk away from supporting the sport.
The next plank of football that came under attack was the cheerleaders. Radical feminists have forever hated the concept of cheerleaders, even though girls and young women voluntarily try out for the spots and train incredibly hard.
But feminists don’t care. They want cheerleaders gone.
The move to oust female cheer squads from Formula 1 racing has thus far been successful —much to the frustration of those employed women — but hasn’t yet gotten traction in the NFL.
But leftists have found a way to make the cheer squads more progressive.
For the time in NFL history, cheer teams will now include male dancers.
Still can’t belive I’m one of the first males in history to be a pro NFL cheerleader! Everyone’s support and love has been insane! 😭 thank you and GO RAMS! @RamsNFL@LARamsCheer#LARamspic.twitter.com/srpkYiVmEI
— Napoleon Jinnies (@NapoleonJinnies) March 27, 2018
This is clearly a political gambit by the left.
They’re trying to chip away at the “toxic masculinity” of the NFL bit by bit.
The percentage of fans who’ve been pining for male dancers on the sidelines is precisely zero.
But leftists don’t believe in market forces or what people want.
They simply try to force their will into every sector of society. And it always starts small.
Next the left will insist that there be parity between male and female dancers, or that the dance squads must be inclusive in other ways.
Then there will be diversity initiatives to ensure that women of all body types be accepted onto cheer squads.
These type of tactics have been employed by the left over and over again, and it seems unlikely this particular issue will be any different.