Baker Mayfield 2020 | Page 2 | Barking Hard

Baker Mayfield 2020

I 100% guarantee you that if (when) Jarvis and OBJ kneel, Baker will be right there with them. Stefanski said it's a team decision, they'll decide together.

The big change is this: Five years ago and change, after Eric Gardner couldn't breathe, like 42% of white people thought systemic racism was a problem. Now it's creeping closer to 70%, an enormous change you can clearly see at the protests. NFL, NASCAR, and the U.S. military clearly have access to polls and know where the wind's blowing. There's no turning back and the pace will actually accelerate, the last few incoming "gens" abhor racism down to their souls.

My point: The primary visual will be white and black players kneeling together and linking arms. And it should be.
 
Shep said:
My point: The primary visual will be white and black players kneeling together and linking arms. And it should be.
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The only caveat I would add is that the National Anthem to which they would kneel should be: "This land is your land."

To me, that song represents so much more of what we should aspire to be than the phase: "Oh say can you see." Also, the final phrase of the song, "this land was made for you and me" is as great a unifying theme as has ever been written.

Perhaps with this as our National Anthem, everyone would kneel when the National Anthem is played.
 
That's pretty damn cool, bud. National Anthem was played before players came out until like 1992. The NFL is to blame for tying it to military so closely. It's not like we're all about war and big, fun killing machines flying overhead... right?

But seriously, I know that it's an overly bomb-ey and fight-ey song in the first place, as has been our way and should stop. I never listened to O, Canada but I'm guessing it isn't a battle song. We just need to rethink so damn much about our fixation on guns, military, and cops. It's super fucking toxic and racist, baked way deep down.

Hand-to-hand or rifle-to-rifle Nick Fury shit isn't the way we'll murder the planet anyway. It's Nerd Warfare now, on multiple fronts, from information to blowing shit up with flying robots.

But I digress: I love that idea, but for the short-term, I have a feeling the league would actually like to kneel across lines (racial and players/coaches/owners) to the actual anthem. Ownership is clearly ready to send a message to players.
 
Shep said:
But seriously, I know that it's an overly bomb-ey and fight-ey song in the first place, as has been our way and should stop. I never listened to O, Canada but I'm guessing it isn't a battle song. We just need to rethink so damn much about our fixation on guns, military, and cops. It's super fucking toxic and racist, baked way deep down.

Hand-to-hand or rifle-to-rifle Nick Fury shit isn't the way we'll murder the planet anyway. It's Nerd Warfare now, on multiple fronts, from information to blowing shit up with flying robots.
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I understand you are saying that we don’t need a battle song for our National Anthem. If so I agree. I have said as much myself. But I do not buy your anti-gun, anti-military, anti-cop narrative. I do not agree that support for the military and the police is toxic and racist.

I support our second amendment rights to self-defense. In order that the necessity to protect oneself is rare, I support the expansion of the police forces to more fully protect the general public and businesses against criminal elements so that citizens in general can live in peace and relative tranquility comparable to the peace and tranquility enjoyed by those living in the safety of gated communities with their own private security forces.

I believe in the brotherhood of all for all within the concept of civility and peace.
 
I just wrote and erased an entire page on this black/white/kneel/stand BS.

WHO THE F CARES!

All I want to see on Sunday (or whatever day they play) is the Browns to act as a team on the field and kick some ass. If they all want to kneel, some want to kneel, none want to kneel...who cares. It is a peaceful demonstration and as an ex-military man I potentially put my life on the line to defend the right to peaceful demonstrations. PERIOD.

Back to football.

Go Browns!!!
 
I'm betting if we had a conversation, we're not disagreeing at all except for affiliation/psychographic/family stuff.

My stance: Of course we need military to protect ourselves but we have about 1,000 times what we could ever use. Why? Why do we make super duper planes the military quite literally doesn't want? Well, money, of course. Somebody gets a megabajillion buck contract out of that, like useless Georgian voting machines from the former head of Kemp's campaign.

That's 'Merica! Funnel that money upwards. And if anybody tries to stop you... LOBBY!! Tell your constituents that anybody who tries to make the rich less rich must hate America!!

Of course there should still be 911 calls that result in uniformed and armed police... but that's about 10% of what they show up for now and they've wanted out of mental health matters and marriage counseling for a long while. We put WAAAAY too much money into cops and their military gear that's used once a year to make mobs angry. A big ol' crush-your-souls show of force doesn't turn out to crush souls. Just pisses people off.

Cops need to be cops again, wearing normal uniforms and deeply connected to their communities, showing up to do something besides get badass. Camden, NJ, is seriously showing how it's done and it absolutely works. Police is to public safety as a bandaid is to cancer.

Oh, and most of them need fired and then they can reapply, like Camden (and Compton). You can't train a violent racist. You just need to stop hiring violent racists, which requires a clean slate. Hell, 75% of them wear symbols and can't help themselves on social media. They are not bright.

What's better? Ask Camden. If you stop shoveling money at police, you can put it into schools. Healthcare, mental and otherwise. Community centers. Urban renewal and restoration. We've found when police presence in neighborhoods of color looks like it does in my town, Westlake Village? Violent crime goes down, not up.

And when people feel heard, when they're getting a quality education and have access to good, affordable healthcare and live in a reasonably comfortable home while getting those A's so they can go to a good college? They aren't doing crime. It's not like they're genetically drawn to it.

And solving violent crimes? That goes way up. Camden has gone from 16% to 61% in solving murders because the communities trust them. All the AKs and tanks in the world don't solve a murder when nobody trusts you. We've seen where that version goes. We're there right now. It didn't work at all, trying to be the bully.

See, when you dial 911, you might need a caseworker more than armed cops. Unarmed guy dancing in the street is a mental health issue. But cops showed up and he got shot instead. For no good reason. As someone said, what if you called the fire department to help get your dog out of the sewer and they set your house on fire? That's how black communities feel about cops. That's "the talk" black parents must have with their kids.

Being supportive of a reasonable military and normal-ass police force is great and just good common sense. I feel the same way. But when I say our problem is a toxic masculine culture of guns and war and violence, to the point we believe army weapons of mass death should be easily obtainable by just about anybody? When mass school shootings are also known as Tuesdays? When no other Democratic society has the tiniest fraction of a gun violence problem that we do?

There's a zero percent chance we can just carry on like this. And cop stuff is just the beginning. Incoming generations don't feel so emotionally dependent on weapons and violence to feel whole. They have below zero interest in ignorant racism. Deep, meaningful change is happening, feel it under your feet.

The NFL, the military, NASCAR, most of Tucker's advertisers, and practically everybody else knows. We all need to look in the mirror 'cuz shit's changing. The people who need to "love it or leave it" now are the ones romanticizing the evil shitheads we righteously defeated (Nazis, Confederates).

OH: To sum up? If your cops are showing up all locked and loaded with their tanks (Ferguson, holy shit already) and body armor and tear gas and metal bats? That means you 100% failed as a society and chunks of your population are poor, disenfranchised, and they don't believe you really have their best interests at heart, so they either wallow in hell, lay down and die, or find a way.

But it's because you failed as a society. You're broken.
 
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Shep, as near as I can tell, you and I agree on two things. The National Anthem and the Cleveland Browns. I think the Woody Guthrie ode to the land and its people would be far superior as a national anthem than the current battle song that some people apparently revere. And I generally enjoy your views and eternal optimism regarding my favorite football team. As for the rest, I must confess that I started to answer your diatribe point by point when it occurred to me that I had already said what I wanted to say as well as I know how to say it. I see no way to improve on what I have already said, so...

Back to football.

Go Browns!!!
 
I wasn't saying anything debatable, we're all in the same reality. And I'm very hopeful that we'll all find our way... but the way is 100% changing for the better over the next six months or so.

I dig damn near all of you guys, nothing I wrote was hateful toward anybody. It's hopeful for everybody. We all know, whether we feel okay about saying it out loud, that this change has been a very long time coming. I know we agree on that.
 
Baker is absolutely kneeling, made it official. This organization has never made me prouder, clearly the most progressive and inclusive, from Berry to Stef to Callie to Baker. Could not love this team more.
 
I’m guessing things are going to head south quick???

I’ll leave a redirect...

Let’s try to keep it accurate and not use absolute shit sources etc....

Eeeegads.... why cant we just play football....?
 
Me? Sources on Baker's... video? And follow-up statement?

Huh? It's all over the Sports section and we can't talk about it on our Browns board?

Yikes. Is that how it's gonna be? That's gonna get weird. It's a massive part of this next season. I understand the desire to not have anything, even something this important, get all mixed up with our favorite thing in the known universe.

That's it. No buts. I really do get it and feel the same. Okay, here's the but: But, it IS mixed up with football. So it is what it is. It's not gonna be the kind of thing we can ignore.
 
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