Posted on by Californiacontrarian

“Holding!” . . . Or Is It ?

It’s the time of the year for the NFL playoffs, and so I can now stop my boycott of the NFL, and watch some games. This coupled with a recent absurd statement by Bill Walton that Barack Obama would be a good choice for the open U.C.L.A. basketball coaching job probably caused me to wake up suddenly in a cold sweat! Was it just a bad dream?? Barack Obama was the commissioner of the N.F.L.! My initial thought was that the N.F.L. deserved it, but then I thought about the integrity of the game and what a mess he could make of it. 

Consider: In pro-football there are many more black (African American to be P.C) offensive linemen than white or Asian offensive linemen. Why? I don’t know, and I don’t care – that’s just the way it is. What I do know is that these offensive linemen not infrequently get called for “holding” by the referees. They are penalized because they are breaking the rules. (“Holding” is not allowed and everybody knows it.) If Barack Obama were ever to become the commissioner of the N.F.L., he would probably send out a “guidance” letter to all of the chief referees that essentially threatened action if holding penalties on black linemen were not reduced. Even though his new policy would not specifically mention race, the referees would be in violation if there was a disproportionate effect on offensive linemen of a specific race, meaning that if more holding penalties were called on black linemen than on white linemen, the referees would be disciplined. When you look through B.O.’s non-colorblind vision of guards and tackles, it would not matter to him that the vast majority of holding occurs on the offensive line of scrimmage, and that the vast majority of offensive linemen are black. Can you imagine what would happen if a white ref called a holding penalty on a black left tackle? Even if the holding call was found to be justified on replay, B.O. might call the ref a racist, and then . . . perhaps hold a beer summit after the game, so that the press could fawn over him!

After the cold sweat stopped, I realized that I was merely dreaming. Obviously we can all recognize that this football analogy is ludicrous, but Barack Obama applied the same sort of faulty reasoning in 2014 when, in essence, he demanded racial parity in school discipline –  no matter who was causing trouble. This meant that a holding penalty (misbehaving in school) was, in essence, ignored by the referees (school teachers and school principals), because too many children of color were being disciplined. If this type of illogic were to be followed, what would happen on the football field? Duh! There would be real holding by the offensive linemen on practically every play. The game would be chaos. The referees would no longer be in control. Basically the same thing was happening in schools as the teachers were losing the option of disciplining unruly students. On the gridiron, holding is holding, no matter the color of the left tackle’s skin, and in the classroom those acting out and being disruptive should be disciplined,, no matter if the perpetrator’s skin is black, white, yellow or green!

Finally, recently Betsy DeVos and the School Safety Commission rescinded the Obama era policy “that was supposed to reduce racial disparities in school discipline.” Hooray for common sense, and hooray for the concept that schools are for educating children, not coddling trouble-makers. Usually one can tell if a reversal of an absurd policy is a good thing by observing who is against such a reversal. In this case both the Washington Post and Rachael Maddow of MSNBC thought that the School Safety Commission erred in reversing that Obama policy . . . do I need to say any more?

Even though I do not care for Roger Goodall, I am glad that his tenure as commissioner of the N.F.L. is holding!

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