The Packers returning home were
13.5 point favorites over the hapless Cardinals. Some people thought that was a
bit “optimistic” since the Packer season has been heading in a directly
southerly direction for the past five weeks, as has Aaron Rodgers’ play.
Rodgers and the Packers seemed to only need that by-week to refresh and refuel,
and exactly the opposite has occurred. After soul-crushing losses to the Rams
and Patriots that were winnable games, the Packers looked—at least on offense—inert
and listless. Against a team they should have handled easily, Rodgers again
looked like a third-tier quarterback, throwing for just 233 yards on 50 pass
attempts. Again and again, Packer drives
stalled and petered out almost before they even began. Aaron Jones ran for a
touchdown but was otherwise ineffective and a non-factor. On the final drive
that ended in Mason Crosby missing a game-tying 49-yard field goal attempt,
Rodgers couldn’t come up with the big play when it was needed, completed just 4
of 9 passes for a measly 26 yards.
The 20-17 home loss to the previously
2-9 Cardinals effectively ends the Packer season, as they are now 4-7-1. There
is just no way to paint this any other way than a season that is inexplicable.
The Packers re-signed Rodgers for an astronomical amount and he has since
regressed for all to see and comment on. Is it all McCarthy’s fault? Certainly
not, but it seems that someone has to bring some fresh ideas to the table,
because something isn’t working here. It is not as if Packer fans have not seen
this kind thing in recent years; in 2005 the Packers went 4-12, but there were
some differences. Brett Favre was without his two top receivers most of the
season, and it did have an effect as the Packers lost five games by three
points or less, and three more by a touchdown or less. In 2008, in Rodgers
first season as a starter, the Packers were 6-10 but the team still played like
they had a future, and would win the Super Bowl two years later. But this
season feels different, and not in a way that makes one feel hopeful that
things will be turned around unless significant changes are made.
**********************************
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I can’t help myself, so I am
going to comment on the Kareem Hunt case. Hunt—one of the leaders in rushing
this season, was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs after TMZ, which deals in
bottom-feeding “news,” somehow obtained a tape of an incident that occurred
outside of Hunt’s hotel suite earlier this year. Naturally the video doesn’t
tell the whole story or provide any “context,” but since it shows a clearly
irate Hunt—who is black—in a physical confrontation with a white woman, the
Chiefs and the NFL decided to act in its typical knee-jerk way, dispensing with
Hunt’s due process rights altogether in order to satisfy the gender advocates,
apparently out of fear of having their own reputations and livelihoods
destroyed by equally fearful corporate officials interested only in their
bottom line. Of course if you are someone like Donald Trump who is beholden to
no one, loud denials and disparaging characterizations tend to send the opposition
into tail-tucking retreat, revealing a great deal of hypocrisy, usually of a racial
variety.
Black men like Hunt have no
chance to tell their side of the story, because it doesn’t matter—especially when
it involves white women no matter how appalling their own behavior clearly is.
The so-called “victim”—Abigail Ottinger—and her friend never actually made a
formal charge and in fact has refused to talk to the media as far as I have
learned. I find it appalling that the media has not commented on the aggressive
behavior of the “victims” as clearly seen in the video, only that “boys” should
not be hitting “girls” even in self-defense. Even the female judge who threw
out the NFL’s lifetime ban on Ray Rice pointed out that his now wife had
already struck him in the face twice and then lunged at him with closed fist
for a third strike before Rice’s “response,” which she criticized the NFL for
not taking into account and thus violating Rice’s due process rights. The video
being shown of the Hunt incident clearly shows the two white “victims” behaving
belligerently; Hunt is seen being held back while Ottinger is right in his
face; witnesses stated that Ottinger called Hunt a racial slur and other
insulting things, and we can surmise that this at least partly explained Hunt’s
rage. We know people like this “victim”; they keep “talking,” spewing out
insults even when warned they might get “hurt” by the bigger person, believing
that nothing will happen to them, and then play the “victim” when things go too
far.
Another fact ignored in this case
was that in the original police report, it was stated that after some stops at
some bars the women were brought up to Hunt’s suite, but then were told to
leave when it was learned they were 19 and underage for consuming alcohol,
although the women thought it was for another reason. They were removed to the
hallway in the expectation that they would leave on their own and given $20 for
taxi fare. But Ottinger became belligerent and refused to leave, repeatedly
bagging on the door, yelling and screaming. Eventually, Hunt became
sufficiently irritated (he claimed that he had gone to bed and couldn’t sleep
because of all the noise Ottinger was making) and confronted Ottinger in the
hallway, and from there we see what then occurred. Hunt should have called
security instead of allowing Ottinger’s words and behavior drive him to
physically confront her, although one could also point out Ottinger’s own behavior
in instigating and exacerbating the confrontation. But in this country women
are not held liable for their own behavior if there is any chance to label them
as a “victim.”
The irony is that if you believe
the current statistics, in incidents of this kind by NFL players they are as a percentage less likely than the population as a whole to engage in this behavior; but because the NFL is a "boys
club," vindictive-minded gender advocates inside and outside the media have
singled it out for “special treatment.” And again the culpability of women in
instigating these incidents is either ignored or treated as irrelevant. Yet a
white player like Ben Rothlisberger can be accused of rape and everyone has
forgotten about it, and the U.S. Senate confirmed a white man for the Supreme
Court who was accused of sexual assault. But if you are a minority man who
touches a woman (especially a white woman), your life is over.
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