Prior to tonight's game against the San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots will light 26 flares and hold a moment of silence to memorialize the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy. They will also wear the town of Newtown stickers on their helmets pictured above. Many other teams have offered similar recognition of the shooting, including the New York Giants, who wrote S.H.E.S. (Sandy Hook Elementary School) on their helmets. Individual players chose to honor the dead in their own special way, including the Houston Texan's J.J. Watt, who wrote "Newtown, CT" on his gloves. As ESPN reported "Two players who wear No. 26 joined hands with the coaches of the St. Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings in tribute to the victims of the school massacre..." 26 being, of course, the number of children and teachers who lost their lives yesterday, and having sports guys stand there with that number for a few minute seems meaningful somehow.
UPDATED FOR MY A SIGNIFICANT MISTAKE BELOW.*
UPDATED FOR MY A SIGNIFICANT MISTAKE BELOW.*
Each one of these gestures is emptier than the next, but at least it's doing something, right? Because what can you do? What can anyone do other than to pray and remember and hope really, really hard that nothing like this ever happens again? More concrete, non magic-based gestures might seem more appropriate, particularly if you're in a position to give them, like the Kraft family who own the New England Patriots. The Krafts, in a selfless gesture of good will, have pledged to donate to the town and the families who lost their kindergarteners at the hands of a mass-murderer.
As Jonathan Kraft told the NFL's Albert Breer this morning, they felt the effects of the shooting acutely -- they own a box company in the town just a mile from the scene of the literal waking nightmare in which more than two dozen people, the majority of them babies, were sacrificed on the altar of our nation's "hunting" fetish.
Kraft, an obscenely wealth man, pointed out that having had a company in the town for over two decades made the decision to help a no-brainer.
That's why he and the team have taken out a press release about how much they care that has been covered far and wide by media national and local and resulted in outpourings of good feelings for the company. The price of that press release? $25,000, less than $1,000 a corpse in corporate branding. Seems like a bargain, particularly considering The Kraft Group boasts revenue of $2.1 billion.
To be fair, the Krafts have done a lot of good over the years through charitable donations, as they'll be happy to tell you themselves
Considering what I've said previously about the Patriots being the NFL's most "conservative team" and Bill Belichick being the NFL's Karl Rove, it's becoming harder and harder to reconcile my fandom of the team and my liberal politics.
"To me, the adults who lost their children in this are so important, the future of the school and how it moves forward is important, the town is important," Kraft said of the Newtown shooting. Not, you know, real expenditure important, but still.
"It's not for us to make the decision on what to do with the money. But we're gonna help," he continued
No doubt, but help who exactly?
Many of the players on the Patriots were, no surprise, distraught over the incident, Kraft pointed out. "You never hear guys talk about current events, but the guys were talking about it on Friday afternoon and Saturday in the building. A lot of guys have young children. A lot of guys have guns. There was a lot of talk here."
There was a lot of talk here indeed, although strangely nothing about changing the culture of gun worship, or donating toward gun control groups like the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (to whom thousands of people have donated a much more significant percentage of their own money this week than the Krafts have said they will do here, albeit without any of the attention, patting themselves on the back, or good for business PR bump), because that would be seen as taking a political stand, a big no-no in the NFL. We saw what happened last week when Bob Costas spoke out against gun violence in the wake of the murder suicide of an NFL player.
So, in the mean time, the Patriots, and the Krafts, in lieu of any sort of meaningful commentary or action, the kind that might actually shift the conversation about the insanity of gun fetishism, have decided to extend a fraction of a tax write off toward helping the families of the victims. It was the least they could do, literally.
*A previous version of this post idiotically suggested The Kraft Group was related to Kraft Food Inc. and all of the evil-ass shit they've done, including supporting the NRA, which is a good reminder of why you shouldn't trust bloggers, and also not to write things while drinking Scotch and watching NFL Red Zone. The larger point still stands.
*A previous version of this post idiotically suggested The Kraft Group was related to Kraft Food Inc. and all of the evil-ass shit they've done, including supporting the NRA, which is a good reminder of why you shouldn't trust bloggers, and also not to write things while drinking Scotch and watching NFL Red Zone. The larger point still stands.
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5 comments:
Bob Kraft has nothing to do with Kraft Foods.
You are correct.
Sometimes I think you need to step back and take your shit off the list, man.
After reading this Kraft magnanimously waived the child labor laws and hired the surviving school children at the town's box company.
I'm really impressed that you went to Boriqua college or whatever and have achieved this level of critical thinking.
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