#LetsRoll, Or Not…

First of all, I hate the Chiefs’ chosen hashtag for this playoff run.  “Let’s Roll” is the phrase that was generally accepted as the phrase that was used when a group of people decided to take down a plane on September 11, 2001, over Pennsylvania instead of crashing into whatever iconic target as planned.  To be clear, I’m not a ‘Merica kind of person (like, I believe in everything she could be, not everything she really is), and I even believe we were never really told the full story about that horrible day.

And, that’s just one example of why I’m a hypocrite.  Because no matter how much I hate that hashtag, I’ll be watching the AFC Championship.​

So, maybe I should just make a list.  I hate the NFL.  I think American football is dangerous and barbaric.  I think the NFL doesn’t really care about the life-long effects of injuries to its players who make their owners so rich.
 
But, I’ll be watching the AFC Championship.
 
I hate that the Chiefs are named the Chiefs.  The Native American imagery and imitation is gross.  We built this country by removing (and that’s a euphemism) its indigenous people.  Then, we reason that it’s some kind of honor to Tomahawk Chop our way to the playoffs.
 
But, I’ll be watching the AFC Championship.
 
I hate that Chiefs fans yell, “Home of the CHIEFS!,” at the end of the National Anthem.  And, don’t get me started on the NFL and its relationship with the National Anthem.  The NFL has been part of the inaccurate narrative that its players were protesting the Anthem when 1) they were protesting something far more pervasive than the Anthem (like culturally engrained racism), and 2) part of what makes the United States special is that we really aren’t supposed to be Nationalists honoring the flag and the Anthem by requirement.  We can choose to sit for it, and that actually makes us pretty darn patriotic when we exercise the freedom to sit, kneel, or not otherwise stand.
 
But, I’ll be watching the AFC Championship.
 
I hate that the NFL hasn’t taken domestic violence committed by its players seriously.  I hate that only when video surfaces of an incident that a player release is considered.  I hate that the release doesn’t occur until the NFL has confirmed that the (very good) player can’t play for any other team for the remainder of the (soon to be releasing team’s promising) season.
 
But, I’ll be watching the AFC Championship.

And, if we’re talking really high level, I hate sports.  I hate the drinking that accompanies it.  I hate that people think God cares about which team wins.  I hate that our players are paid unbelievable money, and I hate that the rich get richer at the expense of people who just want to be in the stands to root for their hometown team.

But, to know the truth about me is to know that I LOVE SPORTS.  Baseball is my favorite closely followed by college basketball.  But, I will watch almost any sport being played.  I LOVE SPORTS.  I tried in college to pretend like I didn’t love sports because I was running with a super cool music focused crowd (like, they were super cool… I was hanging around them hoping some of the cool dripped off on me).  BUT, I LOVE SPORTS. 

I’ve seen all too closely the positive impact a sports team can have on a community, and even though I believe all of the things I said earlier in this entry, I STILL LOVE SPORTS.

And, part of this blog for me is opening-up about things that make me… well, me.  And, one of things is my tendency towards being hypocritical because I was born to see things from too many different perspectives.  I’ll be exploring this further as we go along, but my parents’ personalities almost seem like complete opposites.  I’m the product of that (both nature-like and nurture-like).  It means that I truly often believe two things that are completely contrary to each other. 

As I said, I hate the NFL, and I’ll be watching the AFC Championship rooting for the Chiefs and wearing my red sweatshirt (which totally says Rock Chalk on it and has nothing to do with the Chiefs but is my way of showing support without giving money to the team through apparel purchases).

So, #LetsRoll.