Saturday, July 4, 2020

Sports this 'n' that

If/when the National Football League begins its season, set for September 10, the traditional "Star Spangled Banner" will be prefaced by "Lift Every Voice & Sing", more commonly known as the "Black National Anthem". This gesture is a means by the league to show its support of African-American players fighting racial inequality & injustice.

The late Aretha Franklin sang this at a live event some years back.



We'll see if the league's media partners (NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN) will air the playing of "Voice" during telecasts.
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In discussing the National League East yesterday, we noted that the defending champion Washington Nationals will be without infielder Ryan Zimmerman, the last original National, and pitcher Joe Ross. Catcher Wellington Castillo, a free agent signee in the offseason, has added his name to the list of players sitting out the truncated 60 game season, which will start July 23-26.
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Meanwhile, elsewhere in the nation's capital, the owner of the NFL's Washington franchise is actually starting to buckle under public and political pressure to change the team's name. Daniel "Napoleon" Snyder has said that he will review calls to change the team's nickname. We ditched it a while ago, and have referred to them as the Trumpets the last three seasons, and before that, the Congressionals and the Hekawis, the latter a riff on the fictional Native American tribe from F-Troop back in the mid-60's. Apparently, Snyder has to change the nickname in order to build a new stadium on the site of the former RFK Stadium in Washington, as he's planning on vacating Fed-Ex Field in Landover, Maryland after the current lease runs out in a few years.

Baseball's Cleveland Indians, meanwhile, are also looking at a possible name change, this after retiring their mascot, the stereotyped Chief Wahoo, a couple of years ago. The Atlanta Braves might be next, even after they were the first to retire their Native American mascot, Chief Nocahoma, some years back.

I don't see too many high school teams that still use the nickname feeling similar pressure, do you?
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As if NASCAR needed more problems, multi-time champion Jimmie Johnson has tested positive for COVID-19, and will be sidelined for at least two weeks.
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The WWE is taking some heat for its handling of COVID-19 as it relates to its personnel, such that the company is now mandating that personnel not appearing on camera will wear masks, although some NXT trainees have been seen masked on television in recent days. Seems CEO/Chairman Vince McMahon got some bad advice from his friend, President Donald Trump. Backstage reporter Renee Young was back on Smackdown Friday night after testing positive, while husband Jon Moxley, the AEW champion, has had his title defense vs. Brian Cage pushed back an extra week to July 15. Taz (Peter Senercia), Cage's manager and a color analyst for AEW, referred to WWE's then-testing policy as "sloppy" on Wednesday, throwing shade on his & Moxley's former employers, which forced WWE to change their policy, although reportedly, they're not happy with Taz calling them out. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't screw up in the first place, and sources are pinning the blame on WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn, who, as the cliche goes, wouldn't know a wristlock from a wristwatch.

In addition, one of AEW's top heels, Maxwell J. Friedman, made it clear in a promo before a match Wednesday that the two promotions are in fact in a ratings war. Friedman, who made his television debut at age 7 on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, ended up on the losing end of a tag team match vs. members of the Jurassic Express, which includes Jungle Boy (Jack Perry), the son of the late actor Luke Perry. When the night was over, NXT outpointed AEW Dynamite in overall ratings. Both promotions, however, are stuck in Florida due to coronavirus restrictions, and can't do much traveling.

2 comments:

  1. Funny thing; I'm black and I didn't know that "Lift Every Voice" was unofficially known as the Black National Anthem until a few days ago. I'm familiar with the song. We used to sing it in music class at school, but as far as it being the Black National Anthem, if it's been this way for years, this year is the first I've heard of it.

    Frankly, who needs this? Networks don't even need to televise the National Anthem. I think that whoever decided this, their heart is in the right place, but I feel that constantly celebrating the differences between blacks and whites only widens the chasm between us. My 2 cents.

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  2. It's called keeping the movement relevant, it seems. Like you, I didn't even know about the whole "Black National Anthem" thing until this week.

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