No Kap, No NFL: Three Years without Football

June 30, 2020 by Soul On Ice

The last NFL game I watched was in January 2017, a divisional playoff matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. Anyone who watched that game knows it didn't end well for Dallas. My boy Tinsley chronicled his experience in real-time, exposing people to a day in the life of a Dallas Cowboys fan. It was also the last time Tony Romo would ever wear an NFL uniform as he went on to retire later that calendar year. As was the case after every Cowboys season before that, the disappointment would carry into the later months and I would simply recharge the batteries for more anguish and pain once the 2017 season began.

However, there was no 2017 season for me, because the 2016 season was also the last time Colin Kaepernick would play in the NFL. Once it became obvious as to why he wasn't on a roster and allowed to compete, I renounced my NFL fandom and vowed not to watch another game until he was signed to a NFL roster. I have not watched it since. The way I saw it, if Colin Kaepernick was willing to jeopardize his career on behalf of people who looked like me, then I was willing to give up the NFL as a source of entertainment, no matter how long it had been a fixture in my life.

There is an expression as battle-tested as the days are long and it is very simple: God don't like ugly. That was a reason why it's been easy to not watch an NFL game, not engage in conversations about the NFL with anyone who continues to watch the product for over three years, and why it has been easy to never return. Colin Kaepernick took a knee to highlight systemic oppression against black and brown people and people of color in the United States and, as someone who has been black all my life, I knew exactly what he meant. It was easy to align with what he was doing. It did not take having to bury an unarmed loved one killed by the police for me to be upset. I see myself anytime I see stories of black and brown men who are treated unjustly by American law enforcement. It is impossible not to take it personally when people who lack empathy trivialize your feelings and stance about what has long been an issue in this country.

The Revolution Will Be Live: LeBron James and The I Promise School

August 07, 2018 by Soul On Ice

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Malcolm X

From the moment LeBron James was thrust into the national spotlight, talks of his greatness were primarily centered on the game of basketball. Through no fault of his own or anyone else’s, he was framed through the lens of the game that was introduced to the masses by James Naismith in 1891. People compared him to Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, two of the greatest basketball players who ever lived. They did not compare him to past humanitarians, or past individuals who used their platforms as athletes to make the world a better place for children and families in their communities through the vehicle of formal education. As long as he lived up to the hype as a basketball star, all of the attention would be worthwhile.

But July 30, 2018 turned the narrative of LeBron James on its head. It was the day that LeBron James redefined what it meant to not only live up to the hype, but also what it meant for people covering the game and its athletes to look beyond their exploits as athletes and at what made them who they were. As of July 30, 2018, he found a way for this part of his story to be told. One that, had people paid closer attention, could have, and should have, been told years ago. July 30, 2018 is the day LeBron James opened his I Promise School (1), a public school in conjunction with the Akron School District and his foundation (2). The man has officially changed the game, but in ways one would least expect given his backstory.

No Kap, No NFL: A Year without Football

February 01, 2018 by Soul On Ice

In March of 2017, I wrote some words about Colin Kaepernick and making adjustments (1). The sentiment was that Kaepernick took a knee to protest police brutality in the United States, and after doing so for the entire 2016 NFL season, his contribution to the movement would likely need to be modified after the season was over in order for the movement to take the next step, whatever that step was, also give me, a fan of the NFL since I was 9 years old, who became a rabid fan as I got older, an opportunity to make an adjustment of my own and show solidarity to his sacrifice. It was an adjustment that would have been inconceivable years ago: sitting out the 2017 NFL season. Don’t get it twisted; this decision did not come right away. There were people who made the decision long before I did (2). As a matter of fact, it took a good friend of mine, one who has traveled the roads with me to countless Dallas Cowboys games and training camps, to plant the seed.