It took Oakland Raiders recently signed and unretired Marshawn Lynch only until the national anthem before his presence has been felt.
The United States of America is facing turbulent times. Civil unrest and anger and hatred are running rampant throughout today’s society. Saturday, Aug. 12 was a day that our country was plunged even further into madness. The deplorable events which took place on the University of Virginia’s campus symbolize the antithesis of what America is supposed to stand for.
Meanwhile, as the Oakland Raiders played their first preseason game, pictures were taken of Marshawn Lynch sitting down during the national anthem. A clear political statement in these turbulent times — or was it?
Was is simply what Lynch has been doing for the last 11 years as he explained to coach Jack del Rio?
The Raiders have always been a diverse organization often being on the cutting edge of equal opportunity employment for people of color and women. The Raiders were the first to have a female CEO: the author of You Negotiate like a Girl, the one and only Princess of Darkness, Amy Trask.
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Tom Flores mysteriously has been left out of football’s Hall of Fame. Flores is more than qualified having been the only person to have won a Super Bowl as a player (the first Hispanic quarterback to start and win the big game), as an assistant coach and also as a head coach winning (again, the first Hispanic coach to do so).
Former Hall of Fame offensive tackle Art Shell was the first African American head coach in NFL history. In a piece written by Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman, Shell talked about his experience and journey, and details how the late Al Davis made history in the feature.
According to reports, Lynch has adamantly denied the sitting to be politically charged in any way. For the sake of argument, even if it was, calling for Lynch’s head is a cowardly move made by those who refuse to address the real issues facing society, instead choosing to focus on athletes and much more easily bashable figures. Discussions varying from comparisons to Colin Kaepernick and being blackballed by the NFL, to athletes not “staying in their respective lanes.”
In an Outside the Lines segment, ESPN’s Bob Ley spoke out on the impossibility of separating sports and current events.
If you believe that sports are an independent refuge from the real world, it's time to acknowledge that's impossible. #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/c7ZGEBiW3w
— Bob Ley (@BobLeyESPN) August 14, 2017
Sights from Charlottesville
Racism and hatred, old familiar evils plaguing our country since its discovery as the new world are seemingly becoming popular again. A quick glance back in history shows us the same.
In World War II, nearly the entire world united to fight Adolf Hitler and his Nazi war machine. The Nazis preached their message of hate and prejudice and poisoned the minds of the youth. Once defeated, the Nazis became a source of shame for Germany, the place which birthed those pushing the ideology. Nearly all of the of the WWII veterans have passed on to the next life, and those who are still with us have to be betrayed by the events taking place in Charlottesville, VA on the campus of UVA.
The actual visualization of watching an armed militia file down the streets with fully automatic assault rifles and other various firearms on full display dressed in fatigues ready for war was surreal. Having it be pointed out that these people, who looked like the national guard, were private militia was bananas.
Even worse, seeing the night filled with unmasked white nationalists chanting their jingles of hate while carrying tiki torches took me back to pictures of the 1960s and the violent struggles comprising the civil rights movement. Equally, these heinous events have saddened me, and it pains me to think this is the world we are raising our children are inheriting.
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What frightens me most was the knowledge that half of a potentially explosive conflict is heavily armed and half of it was not. The question most decent Americans should be asking is, how is it that the police declared an area unsafe and left unarmed civilians to fend for themselves against an armed hate group? A state of emergency was declared and, in the process, another car was driven into a crowd of counter-protestors — used to injure and kill.
It may be the right of every man woman and child to be able to express themselves freely in this great country and demonstrate if they so choose. But with knowing the sociological temperature of the moment, and the fact that people of color are not being treated with the same respect as domestic terrorists is appalling.
As a country, have we really come full circle, with institutional racism and police brutality, while the criminalization of ethnicity is perpetuated on all non-Caucasians? Is another race war ultimately where we’re headed? These are the very real questions facing America.
A glimmer of the real Marshawn Lynch
Many people have the wrong idea about Lynch and just what exactly he’s about. And yes, he is about that action, on and off the field. In 2006, Lynch and Joshua Johnson, both graduates of Oakland Tech High School and Oakland residents, formed the Fam 1st Family Foundation, an organization designed to help underprivileged youth to improve their lives by focusing on the importance of education literacy and self-esteem.
To those that know Lynch personally (unfortunately, I am not one of those people), they know him to be an extremely intelligent, caring, and a savvy financial entrepreneur. NFL Network insider, Ian Rapaport recently went to bat for Lynch:
Marshawn Lynch is one of the smartest players, on and off the field, that I've come across.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 13, 2017
It’s easy to point the finger at athletes and designate them as the bad guy. Too often, the good guys are vilified, while bad guys are trumpeted as something special. The world as we know it is changing. America is not respecting itself, its own ideals and the things that made it the greatest country in the world.
Lynch is a key offseason addition for the Oakland Raiders as they retool for the 2017 season in hopes of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February. His job description is, be physical. Lynch is a hero in the Oakland community, his purpose for unretiring was to represent the spirit of “The Town” in the final days of existence for the Raiders.
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The Bay Area is a proponent of justice for all and quick to protest to bring awareness to wrongdoings. If making a statement was what he really wanted to do, all he needed to do was speak up. And if that’s the case, he’ll have his chance to do so soon enough.