Phil Mushnick

Phil Mushnick

NFL

NFL, TV networks ignore worst offenders while promoting MLK’s messages

I’ve tried to understand it. For years, I’ve tried. But two-plus-two can’t equal anything other than four. Thus, I can’t understand why racial inequality, in either direction, can create racial equality. Can’t be done. 

Last Saturday night on CBS’s Patriots-Bills pregame show, host James Brown narrated a solemn salute to Martin Luther King Jr., two days prior to MLK Day. 

CBS then leaned on the eloquence of Pats defensive back Devin McCourty, a Rutgers man, to emphasize the legacy of Dr. King, one that must not be forgotten. Amen. 

But as I was watching a large chasm created by the mindless minds at the wheel of the NFL could not be bridged. 

Dr. King and his civil rights marchers, black and white, courageously filed past hate-filled crowds of whites who called them “n—ers” or “n—-er-lovers.” Dr. King lived — and died — to eliminate that most disgusting of racial slurs. 

So why, CBS, James Brown and Devin McCourty, has the NFL helped return that hideous slur to the mainstream through the invited acts of black rappers? 

Why has the NFL continued to engage those who so shamelessly rap the N-word and promote and sustain every negative black stereotype — from the use-’em, dump-’em mistreatment of women, to drugs and booze, to guns, to the conspicuous possession of wildly expensive and opulent cars and jewelry as testimony to black America’s values? 

And why does NFL commissioner Roger Goodell — who appointed vulgar, N-word-spewing, top-shelf rapper Jay-Z as the NFL’s Minister of Social Rectitude — continue to present such repulsive acts, especially in view of the league’s annual salutes to Dr. King’s legacy, as those most favored by the league? 

Or is this is an element of Goodell’s plan to avoid being called a racist at any and all costs? 

Here we are again, another Super Bowl halftime “show” the NFL has assigned to that, by Goodell’s own admission, he prefers to leave both undescribed and unexplained as too vulgar for someone in his lofty position to address, let alone publicly repeat. 

Roger Goodell ignores the NFL’s worst offenders. Getty (4)

He knows what’s going to happen. The NFL again will present to its largest audience a show intentionally as low as it possibly can go. And he’s good with that. Again. 

The most willing accomplices are my brethren in the news and sports media. They refuse to address it — they run from it — lest they, too, would be called racists by those who have no sense or decency, beyond hopeful, empty rationalizations. So they pull the covers over their heads, as if that promotes genuine racial equality. 

Matters of wrong from right have become matters of black or white — a dead heat for last place. 

Or are we to believe that calling black men the N-word and vulgarly denigrating young women as cheap sexual discards can be rapped, let alone spoken, in a good context? 

During the Raiders-Bengals game last Saturday, NBC’s Mike Tirico twice vaguely noted that the Raiders this season have had to “overcome adversities.” Later, he identified veteran WR DeSean Jackson in the game for Las Vegas. 

Tirico didn’t say why Jackson was signed during the season, but he replaced WR Henry Ruggs, charged with driving under the influence and vehicular homicide for killing a young and hopeful immigrant woman as he sped 165 mph on a Vegas street. No big deal, I suppose. 

So there played Jackson, with one of Goodell’s “End Racism” messages stretched outside the end zone. Yet the only proven racist in the house was Jackson, who as an Eagle disseminated a tract borrowing from Black Muslim hate-monger Louis Farrakhan and a wrongly attributed Adolf Hitler quote to condemn Jews. 

Had a white player expressed his admiration for the Ku Klux Klan, he’d have been instantly and forever been done. But Jackson’s hideous, wildly ignorant anti-semitism didn’t draw as much as a public rebuke from the NFL office or Goodell. After an apology citing his profound ignorance, end of story. Carry on, DeSean. 

Now it seems that the Rams’ Aaron Donald trying to strangle a Cardinals player during their game Monday night has been met with Goodell’s silence. Donald, as of Friday, had not been fined, when a suspension was in immediate order. 

Aaron Donald grabs at D.J. Humphries throat during a Rams-Cardinals altercation. ESPN

In Week 12, Donald, who has frequently been flagged and fined for dirty play, was fined for trying to choke Packers offensive lineman Lucas Patrick. 

Donald, who might’ve been arrested for aggravated assault — there’s certainly video of Monday’s episode — wears one of Goodell’s “Stop Hate” helmet messages, another can’t-miss absurdity likely to be ignored on NBC before and during the Rams-Buccaneers game Sunday. 

But TV chooses to not offend the most offensive, while Goodell’s NFL promotes racial justice and equality by featuring acts, on the NFL’s biggest stage, that promote the sustaining worst of backward-pointed black culture. 

So last weekend, the NFL and its partner TV networks solemnly and soberly saluted the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and his martyrdom for racial equality. Coming up soon: N-word-spewing, rap-sheeted rapper and pornographer Snoop Dogg, among similar others. 

And I just don’t get it.

Too many gambling ads? Now too many Mannings

Reader James Heimbuch writes that the young blond DraftKings commercial hostess — the one who borrows from strip clubs to declare, “Make. It. Rain!” — is the most annoying commercial TV presence since the guy in the Crazy Eddie ads. 

Meanwhile, since sports gambling has become legalized, TV network “experts,” who comically think they have fresh info and insights, have proliferated. 

As per CBS Sports’ website Wednesday: “Why unranked Alabama is favored over No. 13 LSU.” 

Why? Simple as it always has been: ’Bama, which won by three, was the home team! 

Alabama defeated LSU at home on Wednesday. AP

While we’re at it, the Manning Family, who appear in those lavish Caesars Sportsbook commercials — the ones in which Archie, Peyton, Eli and Cooper are paid to encourage suckers to lose their money — don’t include a warning: 

Once Caesars has your money, good luck having anyone from the operation answer questions via phone or email. Online complaints about unanswered questions about their money have piled up, especially on Reddit. 

Furthermore, those with NYRA horse-betting accounts have been involuntarily solicited by MGM come-ons, as the privacy of their NYRA betting accounts have been violated, their names, email addresses and other info landing in the hands of MGM — who negotiated a partnership with NYRA, a deal for which subscribers had no seat at the table. 

But I’m sure all the celebs paid to appear in betting app ads, like Caesars’ — the Mannings and actors Patton Oswalt, J.B. Smoove and Halle Berry — will get right on it to guarantee satisfaction as per the public’s trust, appearance payments and their reputations. Sure. 

Cheating OK, but losing is a no-no

I recall Arizona State football coach Darryl Rogers saying, “They’ll fire you for losing before they fire you for cheating.” 

An arbiter has ruled that taxpayer-funded Connecticut owes former basketball coach (and player) Kevin Ollie $11 million in back pay over his firing in 2018. UConn alleged Ollie was dismissed “for just cause” — i.e., violation of NCAA rules. 

But that didn’t bother UConn during Jim Calhoun’s long tenure during which the program was hit with NCAA sanctions for illegal recruiting. And Calhoun recruited some shady young dudes with arrests to prove it. 

Ollie’s last two seasons, however, were losing seasons. 


Lookalikes: Reader Peter Levine submits Tom Brady and actor Kent McCord, who played officer Jim Reed on NBC’s “Adam 12,” 1968-75. 

Kent McCord, Tom Brady Courtesy Everett Collection, Getty

The Jets last week held a sale of 65 percent off all team merchandise, meaning they sold everything at a loss (not likely) or without an obscene in-season markup.


Maryland assistant basketball coach Bruce Shingler recently was arrested, charged with soliciting an $80 prostitute who turned out to be a cop. Hey, not all recruits pan out. 


After careful consideration, I’ve adopted a zero-tolerance policy. My previous tolerance policy was 12 percent.