about Jerry Jones and the picture that came out, not
not covering it the same way and not just specifically
the media that was there in the audience. But just saying
generally kind of making a statement that the media isn't
giving
the Jerry Jones situation the same coverage as Kyrie Irving
and so and then he walked out he left and Michael and I had
a really lengthy discussion about it yesterday. Our audience was
tapped in, we got a lot of comments.
It's and it's so going the commentary. So I do actually
want you to weigh in a little bit on this because you said
you didn't agree with either me or Michael fully. So I'd love
to know your thoughts on the situation.
First off, I was highly disappointed in LeBron. James
that we he got up and left. He didn't have a little purse or
handbag because, you know, that's the Beast. What between
LeBron walks out? He's got to have a little purse or handbag.
He's got to be wearing short. So, extremely disappointed,
just just just for presentation sake,
on the bronze, we have no, you know, the thing that it and I
Exactly if you real NBA then you know that reference.
So here's the thing. Here's my general
reaction to First the picture, right? And then LeBron James,
I think you know I'm gonna send my quote a great colleague of
mine at the griot Michael Harry, who talked about
the fact that we can dispense with any Notions
the Jerry Jones didn't know what he was doing, right? He
knew what he was doing. He knew why he was there. His own coach
told him not to be there. Everybody in the community
knew,
who sees me everybody in the community new, let's go with me
integrated.
There were people standing in the way, he was an active
participant and presenting kids who look like him from going to
school 60 years ago. We know that that's not in question.
I don't care what Jerry Jones has to say about that. So,
the secondary thing for me
is why do we care?
And I say this, I'm not trying to be funny. I'm not trying to
be sort of contrarian here, but, you know, there's no such
thing as ethical consumption in capitalism. Right? Like you're
buying something that was probably made in an unethical
system and there's
no such thing as ethical or racially peaceful consumption
of the NFL, I could go through a whole lot of these owners who
are just as bad as Donald Trump. I could go for a lot
of owners who are just as bad as what we've seen, Jerry
Jones, you 60 years ago, or things he's done today.
So my question is always okay? So Jerry Jones was a racist
when he was 15, Jerry Jones might be a racist today,
I don't know. But is it going to change anything? Is he going?
To lose his team.
Is anyone going to boycott him is Dak Prescott gonna say
anything. Is he gonna say anything? No no no. And
the answer is no right? Jerry Jones could wake up tomorrow.
Go on national television with a picture. Colin Kaepernick and
tear it in half, right? Like like that one singer. Damn back
in the 90s and people are still going to watch the game. So
I always feel like if we're going to highlight these issues of
the
bigotry, sexism and problematic behavior of animal players or
owners. It has to be attached to a consequence. Otherwise
it's a pointless conversation. That's First thing, the second
thing we can unpack that is LeBron. James is coming. LeBron
was right.
And if the press that was in the room, had any ethics or
consistency to what they were talking about. There was
a simple response. They could have simply said, well, LeBron
Kyrie is a former teammate. He's a basketball player.
You're the Elder Statesman of basketball. That's why we asked
you about Kyrie and we
don't necessarily ask you about the NBA right. That could it be
the NFL that could have been a reasonable response but let's
be honest. It's not that
it's the same thing that you see. See in politics that for
35 years. Any African-American man or woman on television had
to answer for
for any black person's Behavior. One way or another,
you know? If you were black on TV and the early 2000's, you
at, where you at the Million Man? March, what do you think?
Louis Farrakhan? So, basically, LeBron James is highlighting
the fact that black people are always being told to account
for the behavior of other black people.
While white folks, often times in media, can engage in
terrible behavior and they're seen as individuals. And no one
else is held accountable.
Absolutely.
And also, his question was rhetorical, right? Like it.
Really wasn't about whether the media asked him a question. He
didn't want someone to ask him a question. And I agree with
you like,
like, I think people were getting lost in the discussion of.
Why would, why would he be asked the question about Jerry
Jones or like whether he is, or isn't racist. Like, like it
doesn't matter to me,
I don't think it matters. It's not something we're ever going
to get him to admit her. Say, on the record like some people
are going to believe he is. Some people aren't
But when you say, like, there's not going to be any
consequences
or it like really, we shouldn't be talking about it, unless
there's a consequence. Do you think there's some kind of
consequence that's realistic? That's someone like Jerry Jones
should face and if people want him to face consequences like
what could that be?
No, and this is where I bring in. I got to be honest,
other people who commented on this and other public figures
who commented on this, whether that's Steven, Naismith,
whether it's Jason Williams, are other people who've written
about it. The fact of the matter is
the only consequence of Jerry Jones potentially faces is
someone ask them a question. He's been answered asked
a question and he answered it. That's it. That is the only
consequence. He's facing
now. You have commentators like Smith, who will come forward
say, oh my gosh, I can't believe he's going through. No,
oh, he's being done, is asking a question me obviously. If you
if you want to put on the armor of God in the bulletproof vest
of Stephen from Django and jump out in
front of these owners whenever you want to feel free to do so
right. But for the most part, most of us in media understand
that a billionaire owner simply being asked a question about
his behavior. Isn't a consequence? The league isn't
going to make him face any consequences,
right? I mean, Dan Snyder, still got his team, Jim irsay
still has his team
and those are stories that we know about.
So what I'm doing is going to face any consequences.
They're not going to but is there something that we can do
to make them face the consequences when I say we
I mean is there something the media can do is there something
that people can? Is there something that we can force
the hand? So there
is some consequence that he faces.
The only thing that can actually be done
is if somebody wanted to ask Jerry Jones, a question on
a regular basis, not about what he did
and a black and white sepia colored photo right from 70
years ago, you would ask him about what he's doing now.
But we already know the answer to what we've done. Now, we
already know it's one of the few teams in the league to
never have an African-American head coach. We already know
that it's a family run business, that hasn't had
a number of prominent African-American
Executives despite having
Providence Hall of Fame players who have been on and off of
that team. We don't even meet Jerry, Jones has never even
pretending, he's got a higher Deon Wright. India is like
a fantastic coach, so
I don't see I, you know, you can force pressure on people,
but the only thing that matters to individuals like Jerry Jones
of people have that level of wealth is, if you either affect
their money, or their ownership. And those are things
that the Press itself. Cannot necessarily affect the fans,
can
the leak. Can. But again,
if we have a league where on Saturday, a guy who was
credibly accused by over 20-something women of sexual,
assault is about too smart for an NFL franchise and he's not
been stopped. You really think people are going to put
pressure on a team owner of
one of the most popular teams in America for something. He
did 70 years ago, whose Behavior has more or less
probably continue for the last 60 or 70 years. I say next to
nil II. Don't like like we could try but I don't see it
going anywhere and that's one of the
things that I think
I'm I'm more Other
by the disingenuous way in which we have some of these
conversations rather than acknowledging the cognitive
dissonance that we can enjoy the performance on the field
while also acknowledging just like we do with FIFA
that the organization that puts that product on the field is
incredibly problematic and always has been and probably
always will be.
Yeah I mean
you raise a point and plant we had Clarence Hill Junior on
the show earlier this week and he was like and he said that
Jerry. Jones is a capitalist and I thought that was
interesting
but I don't think capitalism and and racism are mutually
exclusive and so I I think they sort of go hand-in-hand,
I think so.
This is what I was saying like, it's very funny. Americans can
watch,
you can watch all sorts of analysis.
What's wrong with
FIFA? We can say, oh my gosh, look at FIFA their corrupt.
They're terrible. People be like, it's not like Americans.
Don't have the ability to understand the problematic
things about NFL owners and how the league operates.
We just don't care
because we like the entertainment
and and I think that sometimes
it's sort of that comment was you mentioned like well he's
a capitalist. Yeah. Capitalism. It's not just that these things
aren't mutually exclusive, you can't have capitalism without
racism. You can.
Because it's based on extracting labor from people
who you don't see as being worthy of being able to fully
appreciate the benefits. I want to preach, okay? But it's based
on extracting labor from people who you don't think deserve to
have the full benefits of that
labor, which is exactly what most professional sports is.
So, why are we shocked by this? I mean to say he's a capitalist
is the same thing as saying, Hey, The Sun Shines, every day,
the entire league is based on taking people who have been
systematically oppressed.
Rest and kept out of the economic system and only used
for their bodily labor to make someone else Rich. We enjoy it
but we can't pretend that. That's not how it's made.
If these leagues were based ethically, then people will be
getting paid in college and be paid in high school and
wouldn't go to segregated elementary schools which is
what leads them to this system. Anyway, come on, y'all
like like I just think Jerry Jones is a result of a system
and not necessarily the first place that we should be
criticizing that system.
Okay. Wow, you know, there's nothing wrong with taking us to
church on a Friday and not Sunday, but we are here to
pre-drill talk about things so
you and I have so much more that we need to get into, but
before we leave the NFL,
I mean what do you think? I mean this story is probably just
you know LeBron sort of resurfaced it but so much
happened yesterday that we are going to get into that. It's
kind of not even the top news story anymore but what do you
think is going to come of it? Like
His sort of challenge to the media, do you think they'll be
any more stories? Anything else that will come up? Do you
expect that will hear any more from Jerry Jones? Dak
Dak had a response. Did you see it? Did you see his response?
Yeah, yeah. Well I
here's here's what I think honestly, that
it's not going to happen with Jerry Jones,
but we had an instance of this was it for five years ago, in
Virginia, where you had the governor at the time, Northam
get caught with a picture of him. And
Right back in the early 80s. He's like, oh, I don't have any
more of those. And then there's like three more that other
people are black face. I think there's probably
an entrepreneurial reporter
out there right now,
looking for this kind of information
about other owners.
Now, that may turn into a story, I don't think this ends
as far as looking at the past in the backgrounds of some of
these ownership groups.
I do think it ends with Jerry Jones because the man is
essentially Teflon and like I said, unless there's
a consequence. Sense,
unless he says something egregious like, that's right.
I'm glad I kept the black people from attending on high
school which is something. I doubt he agrees with today.
I don't see it. The story's not going to continue with him.
Will continue with other owners.
Yeah, you know, that's comments, he, you know,
mentioned that he's biracial and he, you know, except
you know, extends Grace tries to extend Grace
but he also, you know, talked about kind of looking at
people's actions and like what they do now and I'm
paraphrasing
but that's why it's so funny to me the
That I see some wanting to extend Jerry Jones since, like,
have you looked at his actions? Did you see his response to cap?
Do you see the political campaigns? He's donated to,
I mean what like what are we doing?
What are we doing? People like he was a big supporter
of trump so, you know, it's like
I just don't understand
this grace that people want to extend him, but we've talked
about this enough. So I don't have any more to say on Jerry
Jones. I don't I'll say,
I'll say this quick. Neck, it ain't Grace. It's called
a paycheck, right? Dak works for the guy. I don't expect anybody
to have full store the criticism for the person who
signs their checks.
Just like when the Iranian
when the Iranian journalist asked Taylor, who's the captain
of the USA team. Hey, what do you think about races America?
He works for America. Hey, go say nothing critical.
I don't expect anything enlightened from Dak Prescott
or anybody who's part of the extended La Mafia Cowboys
family, because they still owe their power.
Their credibility, their access to the screen by having access
to that team. So you're not going to hear no real criticism
from anybody who's ever worn that star.
Excellent point that. Yeah, it's like okay, I don't expect
more from back because like he works for him but excellent
point. Thanks for pointing that out. Socks with Jason one of my
faves today. You're being good. I like that.
All right, we're going to do.