{"id":1576330,"date":"2022-07-28T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1576330"},"modified":"2022-07-28T10:01:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T14:01:47","slug":"confessions-of-an-nfl-apologist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/confessions-of-an-nfl-apologist\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions Of An NFL Apologist"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fconfessions-of-an-nfl-apologist%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1576330&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The first step on the path to recovery from addiction, or any sort of personal shortcoming for that matter, is admitting you have a problem. Today, I make one such admission: I\u2019m a fan of NFL football.<\/p>\n<p>I know. As a conservative, I should abandon a league that has long since abandoned me \u2014 a league that has coddled anthem-kneelers and flag-disrespecters; a league that celebrates any and all assaults on traditional American values while virtue-signaling to its leftist friends more vigorously than any wine-soaked, suburban Karen; a league whose leaders, advocates, and journalists practice selective outrage like it\u2019s a bodily function. And there\u2019s really no escape \u2014 woke messaging <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sports-nfl-c10867c92924cc9a59c99e220c8ee84e\">decorates<\/a> every NFL end zone. Sports as a respite from politics is a thing of the past.<\/p>\n<p>But I just can\u2019t help it. As a season-ticket holder, I\u2019m whiling away the sun-baked summer doldrums by welcoming the start of training camp and dreaming of eight trips to my local coliseum (notice that I\u2019m not counting preseason games; I\u2019m not that hopeless) to gather with my fellow addicts for a primitive celebration of tribalism and head trauma. Frankly, I can\u2019t wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, I\u2019ve grown comfortable in my addiction and don\u2019t want to be cured. Much in the same way that I enjoy the work of leftist actors and musicians by separating art from artist, I can\u2019t help but revel in watching the world\u2019s greatest athletes play my favorite sport at the highest level, no matter how frequently or thoughtlessly they insult me.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I know people who have given up NFL football over its anti-American transgressions, but really, those people weren\u2019t hard-core fans to begin with. And those people choose to ignore the glimpses of Americana that still exist at NFL stadiums \u2014 the heartfelt celebration of the anthem (no matter what the players are doing); the emotion of the occasional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bv_6qiFAoP0\">pregame flyover<\/a>; the full-throated celebration, usually accompanied by standing ovation, directed at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/causes\/salute\/\">troops<\/a> any time they appear on the jumbotron or get recognized by the public address announcer. These are all examples of the real America, still in there somewhere, fighting to free itself from the zip ties of political correctness and leftist groupthink.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are still players who gather to <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/1324452-a-former-nfl-players-perspective-on-the-gameday-fans-dont-see\">pray<\/a> on the field after games as well as players like J.J. Watt who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/dont-sell-your-shoes-j-j-watt-steps-up-offers-to-help-a-fan-pay-for-her-grandpas-funeral\">give generously<\/a> and mostly keep their politics to themselves. For every headline about a player who\u2019s run afoul of the law, there are many untold stories of quiet selflessness and good citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The sport retains its power to unite people of varying races, economic strata, and political viewpoints like few other things aside from religion can. Just in my little section of the stadium, there is a diverse mix of individuals \u2014 black, white, Asian, rich, middle class (admittedly, not many poor; the tickets are too damn expensive), suave urbanites, unsophisticated rednecks, boomers, zoomers \u2014 who unite as one in support of the guys in the home jerseys. At kickoff, differences don\u2019t matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And as for the games themselves, the quality of football being played has never been higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My advice: If you\u2019re a football fan, don\u2019t deprive yourself of the NFL as part of some quixotic quest for ideological purity in your entertainment options. Life\u2019s too short.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first step on the path to recovery from addiction, or any sort of personal shortcoming for that matter, is admitting you have a problem. Today, I make one such admission: I\u2019m a fan of NFL football. I know. As a conservative, I should abandon a league that has long since abandoned me \u2014 a &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1576414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1576330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1576414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}