16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 12-18, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Take a Knee The NFL season starts with a harsh reminder that the league views Black bodies as expendable. By Dave Zirin FORUM Before the game on Sunday, Sept. 8, the Miami-Dade police pulled over Dolphins All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill outside his hometown stadium. From the video footage, it’s clear that the police put Hill face down on the concrete—twice. One of the officers appears to have struck Hill while the NFL star was complying with orders. The incident was broadcast within minutes. This news overtook the game-day hype before the first Sunday of the season, surely a distressing fact for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. After the game, one of Hill’s teammates, the 38-year-old locker-room leader Calais Campbell, said he tried to de-escalate the situation and that the police also cited and cuffed him. Against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Hill went on to play one of his typically brilliant games, but afterward he looked shaken when recounting the experience to the press. He quietly asked the question: “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?” You might expect the NFL to stand up for one of its most famous players, but the NFL does not cross the police. This is a league that blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the national anthem to protest racist police violence after the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in 2016. It is also a league that, in the wake of outrage from all sides over how it handled Kaepernick’s protest, turned to public relations instead of honest dialogue. It wanted to be seen as a force to “end racism”—words it emblazoned in the back of every end zone. It would play “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before the “Star Spangled Banner.” Notice what these gestures elide. They refuse to address what Kaepernick called upon the world to confront: racist police brutality and those in uniform “getting away with murder.” There have been loud voices online that said Hill should not receive sympathy because of his ugly past of spousal and child abuse. While that behavior was awful, this is absurd. It is a logic that advances a reactionary line of thinking in which only a perfect victim deserves justice. The police did not know or care about Hill’s past, and it wouldn’t matter if they did. No one should be subject to state violence. Eight years ago, amid a vacuum of leadership, NFL players started to build a movement, using their cultural visibility to fight back against racist police violence. The league killed it and offered a series of empty gestures in its stead. The NFL is run by billionaire franchise owners who are mostly Donald Trump supporters—many of whom are bankrolling Trump’s promise of unaccountable policing. They are profiting off of Black bodies on the field and criminalizing them off of it. If Hill and Campbell want to understand why the police saw their lives as something less-than, they could start with the owner’s box. Their boss, real estate developer Stephen M. Ross, has fundraised for Trump, who is campaigning on a promise of mandatory stop-and-frisk policies. Dave Zirin is the sports editor at The Nation, where this story first appeared. OPINION They are profiting off of Black bodies on the field. To register, visit York.org/Admission or scan the code! ADMISSION 101 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 6:30 - 8:00 PM Curious about our warm and welcoming community? Join us for an engaging open house and get a jump-start on your application! Grades 8-12 | 9501 York Road, Monterey, CA 93940 831.372.7338 | York.org
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