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Woke up today to see an NFL friend treading mainstream news in a non-traditional capacity. Seems we’ve come to know only a few facets of the contemporary athlete’s personality. Most often they fall under domestic abuser of women and children, nightclub survival expert, professional novelty procurer, dim-witted tote mule, ponzi scheme low-hanging fruit target, ‘yessir Boss’ do-boy, and occasionally the involuntary charitable benefit attendant.

Ironically, these are the same athletes we’ve come to love because they don’t ask penetrating questions, they live up to the irresistible level of excitement of their gladiating’ ancestors, they keep the sing-along bouncing ball easy to follow at the bottom of the TV screen, and most importantly they never corrupt us with their true emotions because they are incapable of accessing them anyway.

So you could imagine my dismay, when I arose to see my brother Benjamin Watson filling up the TV screen in an excerpt of a primetime broadcast special professing his pain for the Ferguson debacle with which America has seemed to become so familiar. I thought to myself, ‘the nerve of this buck! He’s got the audacity to adorn a tailored suit and mount the stage of national television and bleed raw unadulterated emotion into the public stream in such a manner that any casual observer may mistake his prose for that of an esteemed sociologist.

Left in a conundrum, I remain curious, to what degree should the athlete be aloud to speak his mind? Should we petition government to mute the opinions of our favorite players? Surely if we don’t, and these quaking thought patterns go unchecked, such raw emotion from the crux of a near trillion dollar global sports industry ($300 billion merely ESPN & Vegas) could implode the political structure that presently guarantees justice and freedom for all. I mean, who didn’t watch at least one of the last 4 SuperBowls? These brutes with whom we identify mostly because of their perfected physical natures and mastery of childhood games we grew up loving, could they be the same individuals primed to transmute their physical excellence into political aptitude and lead the People with their minds groomed by poise amidst the most tumultuous circumstances? Well, that’s only if the old adage stands true, “As within, so without”. I guess I remain befuddled, because these ballers aren’t even suppose to be literate, yet it seems they’re the most equipped to articulate sentiment that will settle a grieving nation.

♦ELUVU – RAVAYE♦,

– Ramses the Jolly GREEN Giant