The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. Before I say anything else let me say this: Tennessee Titans Quarterback Ryan Tannehill made some rather shameful comments recently.
He has a right to speak out, and it appears that the organization, from the players to the staff, have no problem with the 100-million-dollar man being the organizational mouthpiece. Tannehill recently stated that America was founded upon “racist ideas” and that those ideas have persisted throughout the last 200 years.
Sadly, the paradigm is that America is and always has been racist. So, it is easy for athletes and celebrities to jump aboard this train and ride it to dumbass-ville! To say America was created upon racist ideas shows me your complete misunderstanding of the past.
The Declaration of Independence states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Unfortunately, the country was not yet living up to those ideals in 1776, with slavery being common in a young America. Fortunately, the founders set such high ideals when this country was born that we realized we were lacking. It was the basis of the principals that America was founded upon that ultimately helped end slavery.
The fact is that America was founded upon freedom, and Ryan Tannehill’s speech to Tennessee fans, residents of Nashville and Tennessee’s youth—made just after the team skipped a day of practice, to protest “systematic oppression,” as Tannehill says—is shameful. The Titans decided to skip practice the day after NBA teams boycotted league games as a statement of solidarity against police violence.
We live in a hypersensitive time, and when people begin saying America was founded on racist ideas and is still to this day racist to its core, what is the only option? Well that option is what many of today’s radicals want: America must be destroyed and created anew. And that concerns me.
So, the advice to the quarterback of my team? Enjoy the freedoms that allow you, and players of color, the opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the freedoms that allowed your wife to leave your AR-15 in the back of a rental car with no repercussions. God bless America and God bless the Titans!
Alright, enough of that, I really hate starting an article off the week before the season kicks off bashing something my QB said. Those comments have nothing to do with Tannehill’s play on the field or the domination that King Henry, A.J. Brown and the play-action will bring in 2020.
The media, ESPN and the world have kind of made it impossible today for us not to discuss race and politics when regarding sports.
This is not creating healthy dialogue. My personal experience with social media, real-life friends and random sports junkies in the world leads me to believe that many are sick of this political activism being stuffed down their throats.
And that is why I will end this talk here with an apology for bringing it all up. We are all so sick of it. I hope that once football kicks off we can all just come together for the love of the game! I promise you I am trying my best. Hell, I just bought a custom-made Titans jersey with Z-TRAIN on the back!
I might as well continue complaining as we move down this article, right? And why wouldn’t I complain about Nashville’s Mayor John Cooper and his decision regarding the Titans. No beating around the bush here. Mayor Cooper was not only okay with the protests in Nashville this past May, he also urged people to come out during spikes in COVID-19. The day Mayor Cooper was walking hand in hand with protesters was the same day protesters later destroyed property and set the historic courthouse on fire in downtown Nashville.
So, you would assume the man who recently raised Davidson County property taxes 34% would be okay with, oh, let’s say 25 percent capacity at Titans stadium for the opening game, especially since this decision was made when Nashville was reporting a decrease in COVID cases. Well, you would be wrong!
Mayor John Cooper, who walked with protesters during the height of COVID as they burned the city that evening, is the same mayor telling law-abiding, cash-spending Titans fans that football be damned, announcing that Titans games in Nashville, at least in the month of September, will be played in empty stadiums. Titans officials did not voice much public opposition to the decision to ban fans from the stadium.
Alright, my friends, that is it. I am wrapping this up. I am sorry I was not more positive. I think it was just necessary, for me, to get that out this month. At least you, the reader, know where I stand. I pray that the next issue after the Titans have started the season and played a few games I will be able to hopefully give you nothing but a Titans football article with no controversial crap in between.
I love my team, my Titans, and I love this country with a passion I feel most people do not understand. If that makes me an oddity, whatever! I wish you all the best. The Train is rolling into the station. Choo-choo!
