He was supposed to play against my Denver Broncos so I suppose I should appreciate the fact that Antonio Brown is no longer with the Raiders. I am a little stunned that he was picked up by the Patriots but their success is undeniable. What i find disconcerting is the tweet above which is pretty stunning. The old adage that “it takes a village to raise a child” was always problematic to me even though I get the concept. My mother had a village that kept tracl of me to the point where I began to feel that some one was following me with binoculars from the time I left my house until I got home in the evening. I get the concept. If my parents were not around some other adult in our circle would take up the mantle. I still think that it takes 2 parents to raise a child but……
What concerns me is the chilling sociopathic, narcissistic, and ultimately nihilistic tone of this tweet. If the village don’t act the way I want – burn it down. If the coach gets mad at me for tweeting instead of paying attention to the playbook raise so much hell in the locker room that everyone’s effectiveness is diminished. If the general manager who writes the checks asks for some kind of performance that should be the minimum for a professional, threaten him with bodily harm. All of this is indicative of a frightening movement that seems to be all around us, and that is that individuals want to act like children but they also want to be respected as adults. They want instant gratification like children, but they want to be remunerated as adults. They want authority figures to support them and validate them, but they don’t want those same figures to hold them to account.
The temptation to bring the curmudgeon back and to sit in the corner talking about “back in my day” is overwhelming, but ultimately fruitless. To try and bring back the sense of history and the joy of the game that exuded from the old timers on teams like the Vikings won’t work either. To try and recreate the mindset of folks who would have played the game in a parking lot for nothing is hopeless when anarchists are making somewhere north of $385000 a week. The social justice and giving back to the community angle that gets played to the hilt to make these folks seem somehow likeable, is also part of contract negotiations. Besides what if the community is not properly worshipful? Does it get burned down?
