The Bionic Mosquito has an article today about the differences between love of country (true Patriotism or honest Nationalism) and militarized, jingoistic love of the country’s government (Statism). He compares the Icelandic pride in their national football (soccer) team to the American worship of government, disguised as football (real football). Naturally, the news being as it is of late, he mentions Kaepernick’s capering.

LA Times.

The story got me thinking. Now it has me typing. Actually, I’ve been thinking these thoughts for a long time. Now, it may be I’m nearing an action point.

I’ve been thinking about football (American “real” football) outside of the political context. Then it occurred to me that is impossible for those reasons spelled out by the Mosquito.

Football isn’t just football anymore. In fact, it’s hardly football anymore, period. Rather, it has become an extension of the state. Attending a game – any game at any level and anywhere – is like attending a “church” service in honor of the federal government. Football has also become the new culture which is, itself, another extension of the unholy state religion.

Kaepernick took a stand (or rather did not) against the new false faith. For this his former fans are burning his jersey. I really know little of Kaepernick but I support his protest. If I understand correctly, he is half black and is upset about the treatment of black people in America. Black people are mistreated here. It’s mainly by other black people thought that usually goes unsaid if not unnoticed. The government mistreats everyone unless they are commercial bankers, insurance lobbyists, or warmongers. It isn’t right and it warrants a protest.

I have no interest in pledging allegiance nor anything else to any piece of fabric. Nor do I care for allegiance to any government, especially one that no longer exists. Still, I get goosebumps when I hear the Star Spangled Banner played or sung – a reminder of my former home. It was all about freedom or it was supposed to be. Thus, I see the value of the protest.

All the same, some people see Colin’s resistance to part of the evil as an even greater evil. They say he has somehow disrespected soldiers and police officers. Those groups happen to be, all of them, agents of the government which mistreats everyone. This is all truly an odd parable for the modern age.

That modernity has seeped slowly into football and consumed it, perverted it. The examples are so numerous as to be ubiquitous. Think for a second and you’ll realize what I mean. When does pink season start again? While comprising virtual temples to the aggrandizment of the state football has become anathematic to the former unique American culture. It is anti-American (in the sense of the former people, not in reference to Washington).

Half of American households own nearly 300 million firearms. When was the last time you saw a Remington ad aired during a football game? .00000001% of Americans are trans…whatever (or even really know what that means [if anything]). Yet the NFL and the NCAA condition bowl and championship games on the regional accessibility of peculiar restroom facilities. Their own facilities are financed by taxpayers so as to increase profits.

A friend of mine owns a cigar shop. For years he had a special relationship with a local television station which allowed him to cheaply run his commercials during the Super Bowl. Someone at the NFL found out. Now he is forbidden to advertise at any price. Overweight felons in pink are all-Amerikan, harmless tobacco is not.

The game itself is slowing to a pitiful crawl. This is due to the advent of rules no-one understands, copious reviews of everything, politically correct and nauseating commercials, and the shenanigans of the afore-mentioned felons. One must suffer an hour of mind-numbing nonsense in hopes of seeing but one good run or pass-play. Is it worth it?

That question has led me to my football crisis of faith. I follow three football teams: UGA (the men of my family, myself included, are alumni); Mississippi State (raised in Starkville and on campus largely) and; The Patriots (deep connections to New England). Overall these teams rank as follows: MSU – respectable; UGA – impressive; NE – incredible. Still, their games and organization have all succumbed to the blight.

Recently I wrote that Dak Prescott had renewed my faith in the NFL, if but for one more season. He’s a great player and a likable man. Yet he nor any other single player will be able to reverse what has happened. So I judge.

Players do make a difference. I follow the Lions sometimes out of respect for Matthew Stafford. That’s an example of a good player with a lousy team. I similarly follow the Panthers because of Cam Newton. I was never a fan until I watched the 2010 Iron Bowl and Newton’s electric and contagious play on and off field. By the way, I watched it from a bar in Lawrence, MA – the NE connection again. Player differences only go so far.

This season is a trial for football. I think I have already made up my mind but I may allow a final chance. Barring some major development or spectacle I think we shall part ways. This may be only a page in my divorce from popular culture.

It will not be, if it comes to pass, absolute. I still watch the occasional baseball game even after disavowing that sport in the summer of 1994. Then, I had Braves tickets made useless by the whining of men paid to play a game, who though their impressive compensation insubstantial. That was enough for me. I still cheered the Bravos on in 1995. An AJC front page hung in a frame in my former garage workshop. I even went back to games – so long as I could manage luxury box seating (thank you, Trammell Crow). Football may become like that to me.

And what else? What happens next? Unlike many of the portly jersey burners, I, myself, engage in regular athletic activity. That is generally enough. Once a decade or so I enjoy pulling a fish from the water or a bird from the sky. There is always golf, a sport I respect immensely though I am flatly no good at it personally.

Boston Bruins / Wiki.

I begin to consider a replacement team sport fan-ship. I lean precariously towards hockey. This is a sport I know almost nothing about. We don’t have much ice below the sixth level (the block at the bottom notwithstanding). I do understand that hockey moves at a rapid pace and is yet to fall wholly to the new anti-culture.

The Bruins are a natural choice and my front-runners. One of the two cities I split my time between has a NHL team. My chosen retirement state and true spiritual “home” has a newer team. I have choices, professionally. The college scene is somewhat bleak. There are something like 70 D1 college teams and none at schools I am really familiar with. The only southern team is in Huntsville, AL of all places. I will not follow anything from Alabama. Sorry.

This fall I will work on these quandaries. Once or if my mind is made up there will be no stopping me. And I ask none to follow. I do understand many have gone ahead. In conclusion I ask those who love freedom, those who remember America, to reconsider things and institutions which do not. Kaepernick’s “scandal” will come and go. Football may also be gone.