STOP THE PRESSES: Football player exhibits functioning brain

Wow, a football player with a functioning brain. Amazing! 

SF's Borland quits over safety issues

Chris Borland On His Decision To Retire

49ers linebacker Chris Borland speaks to Mark Fainaru-Wada about his decision to retire from the NFL over concerns about the effects of head trauma

Of course, those of us who've been pointing out the brutality of this sport for, oh, 40 years, have always been told we don't know what we're talking about. But such is life in the USA, where bloodsport of various kinds is all the rage.

Americans and Their Hypocrisy Over Football Redux

Amid all the faux outrage over NFL thug Ray Rice, who clocked his then-fiancée-now-wife in an elevator and knocked her out cold, then dragged & kicked her body as if it were a bag of trash, I'm reposting what I wrote back in January, which also links to an op-ed I did in 2003. Not that any of it matters. Fans will always be fans, no matter how many criminals get in the way:

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Americans and Their Hypocrisy Over Football

United States of Rape

These rapes on college campuses happen so often they've become mind numbing. I used to get outraged almost beyond words, but by now I've become inured. 

It's the same shitty story, over and over, with the same shitty outcome: males, usually athletes or fraternity pigs, gang-rape a drunk girl, taking turns doing it and standing around watching and laughing as the next guy does it. In this day and age, we have the added brutality of picture-taking on cellphones and then the sharing of said pictures to futher humiliate the victim. And then, the school administration sides with the rapists -- usually so the criminals won't miss playing any of their precious football games, which, of course, mean so much in the grand scheme of things. Besides, the rapists are always "nice boys" from "good families."

After all, we all know about the "value" of sports. 

Then most of the school administrators and students -- women included -- blame the victim, ridicule and harass her on campus, if she has the fortitude to stay at the school (I wouldn't), and the cycle repeats, again and again, all over the country. 

DHS, TSA, FBI, VIPR in love match with NFL

In their continual quest to invade all aspects of our lives, our alphabet-soup security agencies will be on the prowl today at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. For the gladiatorial combat known as the Super Bowl will be taking place there, and our overlords don't want the players on the field to be the only ones showing some muscle.

Americans and Their Hypocrisy Over Football

I'm 56 years old. Like most people my age, I've had to endure my share of bores at dinners and cocktail parties blathering on endlessly about their personal obsessions, not noticing the glazed look in the eyes of their interlocutors. These bores are often men. And no subject gets them going quite like the testosterone-soaked game known as American football.