* In the recent Winter Olympics, both the women’s and men’s hockey teams lost to their Canadian counterparts, who went on to capture gold medals. Like any American who watched, I was disappointed. But hardly devastated.
For one thing, it was too early to be in a sports bar cheering for your country. But more to the point, this was Canada. Our neighbor, our friend, our ally. Marty St. Louis plays for them. It’s not like your team is losing to North Korea or the New York Yankees or the University of Miami or whatever team Lane Kiffin is part of.
* We understand that the NFL is under pressure to clean up some of the inflammatory language that is often commonplace on the field, as well as in the locker room. As a result, however, the league is now seriously considering making the “N” word a 15-yard penalty. Good luck with that one.
This is a league, mind you, that is majority black. A league where players take ownership of that onerous word and retool it as a brother-to-brother shout-out. However repellent and hypocritical, its intent is not to demean. That has to matter in the subculture that is the NFL. And, by the way, most of those N-word penalty flags would be dropped by white officials. Good luck on that score, too.