Link to the tweet

The context for those who don’t care about sports:

The NFL’s Covid policy has been absolute ass and not nearly enforced equally or fairly throughout the year. A Baltimore Ravens coach ignored Covid protocol and his Covid symptoms and practiced with the team. As a result, a catastrophic number of Ravens players have caught Covid, including almost the entire offense and their star players. The game was postponed after the initial Covid diagnoses (including a type 1 diabetic player who has a much higher chance of experiencing acute symptoms) from Thanksgiving, to be played Tuesday, December 1st. In the subsequent days since Thanksgiving, an even larger amount of players have now been diagnosed or deemed ineligible to play due to close contact with players/coaches who have tested positive.

In the beginning of the year the NFL released a statement saying there could be fines, suspensions, loss of draft picks, or even forfeits as the result of failure to comply with Covid protocol. As of now, the league has again postponed, and the game is to be played on Wednesday, December 2nd. Some players are outraged at being forced to take the field when practice facilities have been shut down for over a week, just to go intermingle with each other and a previously unexposed group of players from the other team. There have been rumors of a wildcat strike for player health and safety, and as of now it appears that enough players are in on this idea that the Ravens would not be able to field a full team.

  • OhWell [he/him]
    1·
    4 years ago

    I don't know why NFL players didn't do this to begin with. The only thing the players union was concerned about was money.

    The NFL spent the entire summer and off season acting like this virus was just going to magically go away. They had ZERO plan for it. They did NOTHING whatsoever. It's so bad for some teams, yesterday the Broncos could not even start a quarterback cause all 4 of them on their roster were infected. They had to sign a wide receiver from a practice squad who played QB back in school, who was thrown right into a game to take punishment. That's just one example of their incompetence.

    The NFL's reaction is to just blame the players, teams, coaches and management. Dan Orlovsky was on ESPN today yelling "SHAME ON YOU!" to the Broncos QBs who are all infected. It's their own fault for not wearing masks, they keep saying. No sports media are talking about how the NFL and their owners had all this time to figure something out and had no plan whatsoever. Instead, they blame the victims. Meanwhile the players union from day 1 was only concerned about money. The NFL has been fining teams for mask violations but that's just a drop in the bucket that billionaires can pay millions of dollars.

    I hope this strike works. It should've happened before the season started.

    • opposide [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      NFLPA is weak. So weak.

      That being said, the average NFL career is very brief, meaning the average voting member wants to secure a payout from what limited time they have in the league. It’s understandable but also why the PA is one of the weaker sports unions

      • OhWell [he/him]
        1·
        4 years ago

        I understand that and I support that, but the NFLPA deserves their blame for this. And if we're being real, the most vocal ones over the union are millionaires and usually are just pissed off they aren't getting more money. There is rarely ever talk about increasing the average game salary of $35,000 a game.

        • opposide [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          100% deserve criticism for this. There honestly shouldn’t have been a season at all if there was no bubble

        • opposide [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          It’s a very violent sport with a high turnover rate because of both injuries and young, talented people being drafted into the league every year.

          • UnironicWarCriminal [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Why is it so violent, why is the turnover rate so high? Other sports manage to not cripple their athletes and spit them out at age 26

            • opposide [none/use name]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Because the physical contact is so violent. It’s hard to give it enough emphasis

              • UnironicWarCriminal [any]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Ice Hockey players shove each other against boards constantly and its notorious for fights, teeth being knocked out, etc. Why do NHL players play it into their 30s routinely and NFL players don't?

                It's Labor power. The NFL is a more or less a feudal system. Other sports aren't, they're conscious workers, and safe, secure conditions are a part of that. NFL players are manipulated into seeing themselves as gladiators and warriors, coaches are portrayed as sargeants and generals, all more or less sacrificing themselves for the enjoyment and honor of hooting morons in the stands.

                College sports in general have this issue with slave/army mentality (and youth sports are insanely fucked up, every high school coach thinks that they are a combination hard-ass replacement dad and a drill sargeant), but players in not-football sports don't have to be NCAA slaves for 3-4 years before going pro. They can be actual professionals, either in a minor league or overseas.

    • UnironicWarCriminal [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Because American football is a game for college fancy lads that TV execs found a way to monetize on the backs of poor, desperate black men. Every other major sport has more working class roots and became popular in an era when violent labor struggle was normal.