Kirby Jackson

So to be clear taking a stand on cancer = good, taking a stand on racism = bad? So you really don’t want them to just play? You want them to stand up to causes that you support. Got it

LeBron James grew up with a 16 year-old single mother with drug problems and an ex-con father. He moved something like 30 times before going to live with a family at age 9 to have a better chance at making it. If you don’t believe LeBron James has seen and lived the worst of it I don’t know what to tell you.

Oh, I didn’t know. ??‍♂️ Do you guys get pissed off when the NFL players wear pink to fight cancer? I mean, they should just shut and play right?

You might be interested in the work of Laura Ingraham. I think you’ll find yourself nodding along to her musings. If you’re looking for someone to help you silence the voices of an oppressed population she’s the one for you!!

...which is the whole “systemic” part of the conversation. That’s, in a lot of ways, what this entire conversation is about.

Thoughts and prayers ????

So in other words, “shut up and dribble”

The Bills alone make PSE (maybe not their other holdings) plenty profitable. If you lay people off to afford a couple of extra tanks on the yacht it will offend some. If you’re trying to keep the lights on people will be less offended. If The Athletic falls into the former, shame on them. If they fall into the latter I’m more willing to accept it. PSE falls into the former.

I mean there are a lot of goat emojis flying around twitter at the moment lol. The guy is teflon. I’ve made my opinion on Brees pretty clear on here. I think that his actions are self-serving and he’s fake. With that being said, I’m surprised that he went at Trump. I’m sure that he weighed the pros and cons but it was surprising to me nonetheless. We will see how this all plays out I guess...

FWIW, Drew is back to being an icon in New Orleans.

Ha ha it’s amazing that he came in as the biggest villain in the Soviet Union. He left with them chanting his name. Just saying...

Not sure what this means... Does anyone use school for anything other than to make as much money as they can?

Brees is trying to fight out of it like Rocky in the last round in Russia, lol

From one politician to another:

I didn’t give a crap about working in insurance until I saw what the senior guys were making. I’m sure most lawyers don’t give a crap about law school. They care about the payout at the end. What’s the difference?

The only former NFL player in my office has an MBA and makes about $300K a year. We have another former player out of our Austin office though. He makes about $500K. I guess those must be the exceptions. Believe it or not they’re both black too ?? Retired NFL players have a college graduation rate of about 80%. The general population is about 30%. Carry on though, hope you learned something today. https://operations.nfl.com/the-players/development-pipeline/college-advisory-committee/nfl-player-fact-vs-fiction/

I think that’s definitely true. That’s why I intentionally left off Bills players. We would recognize a lot of them. That message would be very strong on a local level. If Tre White spoke out in Buffalo we’d know EXACTLY who that is. The difference is that someone in Kansas City would be like “who is that guy?” They don’t have the same reach for that reason. QBs are the only recognizable people across the country. I purposely used NFL stars compared to NBA role players to enhance the point. Aaron Donald is less recognizable than Steph Curry. James Harden is more recognizable than Bobby Wagner. It isn’t just “the game being global” either. It’s that we see their faces. It’s the same reason that we can recognize Serena or Nadal. We can spot Tiger 5 miles away. We wouldn’t know John Carlson if he was sitting at our dinner table. Just my 2 cents but I strongly believe that is a big reason that NBA players are so vocal. We “know” them.

Candidly, I’m not sure. It’s an assumption on my part. PSE definitely is profitable which is why I think it rubs people the wrong way. It’s the old, “why does McDonald’s pay minimum wage?” The answer is because they can. Personally, I’m a lot more sensitive to the small boutique having to lay people off or paying minimum wage than I am Wal-Mart. This situation seems to fall somewhere in between those 2 with PSE being closer to Wal-Mart and The Athletic being the small boutique. Obviously it isn’t that extreme but hopefully that example illustrates the point I’m trying (not so successfully) to make.

It’s not though. That video featured stars in the league. Jamal Adams is a 1st team all-pro and the best safety in football. Do you know what he looks like? I don’t. The same with Marlon Humphrey, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Aaron Donald, Julio Jones, etc... I would recognize Patty Mills though. That’s kind of the point. There’s nothing that can be done but it is absolutely a part of it. NFL players are anonymous (the same for hockey players and to a lesser extent baseball players). There are certainly other parts. NBA ownership is infinitely more progressive than NFL ownership. The player leadership and league leadership are in lockstep. There’s trust.

It’s apples and oranges though. PSE is extremely profitable. The Athletic didn’t have the same finances to do that.

Some of it’s the nature of the league too. The NBA players don’t wear helmets. They are the most recognizable athletes in the country. I could pick out a role player on the Sacramento Kings but didn’t know who a few of those guys in that video were by face. There’s nothing that the NFL can do about that but it is absolutely a factor.

I really don’t view it as a ton of mediocrity. There are some young guys ascending and some older guys descending. We really have no idea if Darnold/Allen/Mayfield/Wentz/Goff are going to be great, terrible or mediocre. The middle class of the league are the guys in the bottom that have proven that they can start and be okay. Mediocrity to me is Keenum, Dalton, Taylor, Mariota, Jameis, Fitz, Brissett, Foles, Carr and Bridgewater. A few of those are debatable and there are probably more that could be added. That’s just off the top of my head.