Sports this 'n' that

Could the NFL's loss eventually be the WWE's gain?

New England Patriots tight end/detergent salesman Rob Gronkowski announced his retirement over the weekend after 9 seasons, all with the Patriots. While coach Bill Belichick may have made some mistakes with Gronkowski, like allowing him to play defense when he was clearly hurting in a late season loss to Miami, a lot of people believe Gronkowski's future lies with the WWE. His pal, Mojo Rawley, is sitting in creative turnaround, doing vignettes that for now seem to be going nowhere, due to all the prioritized storylines running with less than two weeks to Wrestlemania.

However, watching NFL Network on Sunday night, it seems they don't think Gronkowski will make a second career in wrestling, as others have before him, transitioning from the gridiron to the ring, citing his injury history.

The late Ernie Ladd was enshrined in both the NFL & WWE Halls of Fame. Bronko Nagurski, the most famous football player-turned-grappler before Ladd, is also in the NFL Hall. Gronkowski will almost certainly be Canton-bound by 2024 at the earliest, but his future lies in the broadcast booth, not the ring.
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Speaking of WWE, it seems that Chairman/CEO Vince McMahon may have made a mistake with his latest copyright-driven decision.

Smackdown wrestler Mustafa Ali, as of Monday, will now be known simply as "Ali". Sorry, Vince, but there is a problem with that particular decision.

Most folks, if you ask them about "Ali", will wax nostalgic for the late boxing icon, Muhammad Ali, the self-declared "Greatest". WWE's Ali (real name: Adeel Alam) is of Indian & Pakistani heritage, and, as he himself acknowledged, "Mustafa" means "chosen one", which probably doesn't sit well with McMahon, whose bizarre quirks, such as shortening the names of his performers randomly, due, supposedly, to his belief that his audience has a sound bye mentality, and that the simpler the name, the easier it is for viewers to remember, leave some to question whether or not he is not only insane in his on-camera role, but in real life, too.

Couple this with the current storyline surrounding another Smackdown wrestler, Kofi Kingston, and people will wonder if, in fact, the 73 year old McMahon is a closet bigot, just like a certain fellow geriatric in Washington.

In Kingston's case, Uncreative is going out of its way to avoid playing the race card in explaining McMahon's persistent interference in Kingston's efforts to earn a WWE title match against current champion Daniel Bryan, but the storyline is exactly the same, sans the covert racial overtones, as Bryan's struggles against corrupt management five years ago. McMahon goes to the recycling bin more often than you or I change wardrobe, and thinks his audience won't notice.

For Ali, there is a secret undercurrent of racism, too, with the name change. However, out of fear of losing sponsorships, more viewers, and major money, they can't come right out and make race an issue. No matter how they spin it on TV, the casual viewer might see right through the veils, and decide to tune WWE out. Can you blame them?