Texans owner Bob McNair demonstrates why everyone – everyone – needs to read SJWAL and SJWADD:
Doesn’t matter if it was said in private or misconstrued, there are things NFL owners can’t touch. And most of them won’t need this memo—any parallel between their workforce and prisoners is one.
It’s been 10 days now since a small group of players met with 11 NFL owners in New York City and, as we reported back then, the general tenor coming out of the summit was that there was cautious optimism that progress had been made on what remained a very fragile and sensitive situation.
On Friday, that optimism seemed to go out the window, and we saw just how fragile and sensitive this situation is.
Early that morning ESPN posted a story by Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham on the aforementioned meetings. It was a balanced, detailed and rich piece, reflecting the progress made, as well as the divide in attitude among various factions of owners. One anecdote, however, stood out, and created an immediate firestorm.
“We can’t have the inmates running the prison,” Texans owner Bob McNair said, according to the reporting of Van Natta and Wickersham (we’ve independently confirmed it), during a debate over the impact the player protests were having on NFL and team business. Later on Friday morning, McNair released a statement apologizing for using the expression.
In the statement, McNair said, “I never meant to offend anyone, and I was not referring to our players.” Sources said McNair displayed some anger over the league office’s handling of the matter in the meeting, in addition to making the comments he did about the players.
Needless to say, the media quickly fanned the situation into open flames and the precious snowflakes that presently pass for NFL players promptly melted down, as if on command:
The Texans will show up for their game in Seattle on Sunday, but if NFL contracts were guaranteed, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman predicts Houston players would stay home.
“Oh, yeah, those guys would probably sit this game out,” Sherman said, via Gregg Bell of The News Tribune.
Texans owner Bob McNair apologized after his comment about not having “inmates running the prison” was published by ESPN The Magazine.
“I appreciate when people like that show who they really are,” Sherman said. “More people in the world have to be that kind and that open about how they really feel so you can identify them — and make sure you stay away from those kind of people, and keep those people out of power.
“But, you know, of course they have to sit back and apologize, because it’s politically correct to apologize. But eventually you have take people for their word and for who they are. For most players, even when once we apologize they still take what we said and judge us by it. So you should do the same with him.”
What part of “never apologize under pressure” is hard to understand. An apology is always – ALWAYS – taken as a confession. It does not, and will never, resolve the situation, it will only make it worse. That’s why SJWs and the media – but I repeat myself – always press hard for an apology from the start. It is the guilty verdict that permits them to move on from the prosecution to punishment.