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Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz
The "There are 800 convicted felons playing in the NFL" started as a pretty thinly veiled racist "stat" during during the BLM protests and kneeling during the anthem, and used these exact stats as "Proof".
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I didn’t know that.
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Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz
Certainly the NFL isn't perfect, and every league looks the other way if a player is good enough.
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Which is exactly my point - which you seem to be deliberately trying to misconstrue. I said “pro sports,” then used the NFL as an example. Because it’s the most popular one.
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Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz
You said yourself, "Hard to find exact numbers", so what do you think the number is?
If you really don't know, why bring it up?
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Because there have been several high-profile cases of NFL players getting jobs after they’ve been charged with serious crimes. If I walked to a C-Train station right now and started asking people to name a famous athlete who was signed after facing serious criminal charges, I’m betting DeShaun Watson is the first name to come up. Is that because of racism, or because the NFL is the most popular sport in North America and Watson is a star player?
Now, maybe some enlightened, non-racist person would site a white Norwegian water polo player. Or a white Belgian cyclist. While I think we can agree that person has a lot to teach us about anti-racism, we can’t all expect to be held to those elevated standards.
The identity of the person who transgressed isn’t important anyway. The people making the ethical choice are the ones doing the hiring. If the NHL, the NFL, or the Norwegian water polo league hires someone with a serious transgression in their past, it’s because the managers want to win and the owner wants to make money, and they’re willing to take the PR hit in the pursuit of that goal.