As a fan of the Ravens I’m so done with the Ray Rice drama.
As the publisher of Russell Street Report I’m exhausted by the topic.
And as a follower of this site you are probably nodding your head in agreement and hoping that this isn’t yet another Ray Rice story.
It isn’t…
I’m tired of the Ravens bashing.
I’m tired of Keith Olberman’s pompousness and Roger Goodell’s cowardice and ESPN’s erroneousness and Mike Florio’s self-righteousness.
In a Chris Rock kind of way I’m TIRED-TIRED-TIRED of the entire lot.
How did this become such a mess anyway?
Nevermind, I vowed not to go there.
You know it’s funny (not in a ha-ha kind of way) how we choose to focus on bad news. Turn on the 11 o’clock news and their teleprompters read like police blotters.
Let’s face it, TV is all about ratings because ratings drive advertising rates. So if the TV stations’ programmers seek content that yields higher ratings they must believe from their professional experience that bad news sells and good news doesn’t.
How else do you explain the plethora of reported violence that makes the headlines and the few and far between good news stories that are mere filler before the commercial breaks?
What does that say about all of us?
In a twisted way do we somehow feel better about ourselves through the misfortunes of others?
I hope not but you might if your name is Mike Florio.
It’s an unfortunate thing for NFL players that the DUI’s, cases of domestic violence and the use of banned substances is reported far more frequently than the many wonderful things that NFL players do within the community.
Consequently many believe that thugs dominate the league.
That’s so far from the truth.
The truth is there are far more God-fearing, exemplary family men in the NFL than there are bad guys. Some would say the NFL is simply a microcosm of society and that the percentage of bad guys in the world is on par with the percentage of bad guys in the league.
I actually think that’s wrong. I believe on a percentage basis the number of bad guys in the NFL is FEWER than in society in general.
The percentage of players who donate their time to charitable causes is greater than the general populous; the number who profess their faith is far greater than the percentage in your neighborhood; those who give of their time to children dwarfs the average Joe’s.
And it’s probably not even close.
One day I’d like to see a Tweet from haters like Florio or Olbermann that reads:
The Baltimore #Ravens @TorreySmith82 took a 10-year-old Baltimore City student to Hershey Park for the day to reward the boy’s straight A report card.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Nor should you!
How about we try this novel approach moving forward?
How about we focus in on good things, fun things and the things related to the pastime called football – the real reason you are all here to begin with. Isn’t life stressful enough without taking something fun and lacing it with the things we seek to escape? Pimping it with negativity that apparently sells?
We’ll let ESPN try and rain on our football parade and we’ll use the good news, the real football chatter and the fun stuff as our umbrella.
It’s pretty sad that ESPN’s parent company trumpets the slogan, “Where dreams come true” yet the subsidiary will happily crush them if they can cash in.
How disgusted Walt Disney would be.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/SzT10MSgKtU[/youtube]
