Opinion

Fawn is a former music writer, lawyer, and a classically trained dancer and musician.

This is the 2nd post from Fawn. Read Fawn’s bio here. Read Fawn’s first post here. 

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Okay, so we’re heading into week five of the NFL season, and I’m beginning to feel a little more confident about my knowledge of the game. I’ve watched the last few games with the boyfriend, which has been helpful and informative, but not much fun, I must say. Here’s what I’ve learned thus far…

Those fiftylevenhundred men on the field, that I complained about previously, are all there for a reason; a very strategic reason. Apparently without those linemen and linebackers (look at me, fancy with the titles, lol), the high-profile positions/players wouldn’t thrive. I get it. I still won’t pay them any attention, but I get it.

That said, I understand that the quarterback is the highest profile position, but I feel like there’s too much pressure on them. Quarterback throws the ball, wide receiver misses the catch,everyone is hammering the quarterback. The way I see it, everyone else has one job. In the wide receiver’s case, his job is to catch the ball. Your entire career is based on your ability to do one thing- catch the ball. The quarterback, however, has multiple jobs he must execute under the most pressure; yet, everyone is angry at him when things go wrong. That’s baffling to me. I’ve also learned that you can’t miss a minute of a NFL game, because in a minute the ball can be fumbled or intercepted and everything can change drastically. This has forced me to rearrange my Sundays so that the quesadillas and wings are done before kick-off. A woman’s work is never done.

 Now let’s talk about why, despite my newfound understanding of the game, I haven’t been able to really enjoy a complete NFL game yet. First off, my team is 0-4. When I decided to become a New York Giants fan, at the behest of my boyfriend, I didn’t know that they weren’t going to win any games. This is embarrassing, and has made for a very tense gaming experience on Sundays. I can’t get my questions answered because the boyfriend is so pissed about the game that he doesn’t want to talk. Also, as I’m learning about the game, when I come to an understanding of something I get excited. For instance, once I learn the rules of fumbling on a fourth down, it doesn’t matter what team it is, i’m anxious for the fumbler to recover the ball…even if it’s the opposing team. Naturally, that pisses my die-hard Giants fan off. So maybe watching with him isn’t such a good idea after all; at least until I become genuinely invested in the Giants.

Until next time… Go Giants (I guess)!

Fawn is a former music writer, lawyer, and a classically trained dancer and musician.

Oh great! Another NFL season is upon us. That means ceaseless trash talk by my friends on all social networks, Sunday dinner at the bar with his brothers, and one irritable baby deer that could care less about any of it.  But not this year. This year, I have succumb to the old adage, “If you can’t beat them, join them;” which means I’ll be tuning in this season, with hopes of learning the game enough to understand what the hell everyone is so excited about. And maybe, just maybe, I can come out of the proverbial “kitchen” that these chauvinist send women like me to during sporting events, and join the fun.

I thought about starting with college football, for my introduction to the sport, since I tend to enjoy the competitiveness of collegiate sports a bit more than professional sports. However, more NFL fans surround me than college football fans (ironically), and since I could use all the clarification I can get, I decided the NFL was the way to go.  Because it seems absurd to gain an in-depth understanding of the game from studying some 32 teams (yes I Googled that number), I decided to pick a team to study, and root for. Without a good frame of reference, by default I picked my boyfriend’s favorite team. So without further ado, please welcome your newest New York Giants fan. Yes! Send all your hate mail; just wait until the end of the season. I should understand what you’re talking about by then.

My first game of the season was the New York Giants vs. the Dallas Cowboys.  I watched alone, since my boyfriend hasn’t accepted my newfound NFL fan status. Whatever. More wings for me.  I went in with limited knowledge about the object of the game- get the ball to the other end of the field, via running or passes, for the touchdown. Each team has four tries to do this, before the other team gets their shot. How’d I do? All the other details of the game sound like pig Latin to me.

Anyway, the game came to an end. A very depressing end as my Giants lost. However, this left me with many unanswered questions. Why are there so many players on the field? What’s all the hype over these Manning brothers? Who is Dez Bryant and why did I hear more about him before the game than I heard about him during the actual game? How does a running back fumble the ball and still be allowed to play? Isn’t it his job to hold onto the ball, whilst running? But back to my original question- why are there so many players on the field. If I’m only paying attention to the person with the ball, and there are fiftylevenhundred other players on the field, who ARE they and why should I be paying attention to them?

Despite my confusion, I must admit that I enjoyed my first game as an NFL fan. I love the suspense. I respect the skill of the key players. I have decided, however, not to make a habit of watching anymore games alone.  That’s a lonely life. A lonely, confusing life. Anyway, can’t wait to update you guys on my next NFL game experience. In the meantime, let’s go New York football Giants!

I really hate seeing people’s secrets exposed. It feels filthy. It feels like you snuck into their room and read their diary or grabbed their phone and went through it before it locked. I’m an only child so privacy is really important to me and I don’t like people spilling my tea. And that’s why I’ve felt so sad this week seeing the private photos of Kerry Rhodes some dude named “Hollywood” who thinks he’s going to be famous cause Bossip and BallerAlert and whatever other gossip blogs gave him server and bandwidth to be messy. 

Full disclosure, Kerry is a friend of the blog. He helped me promote it with a contest when I first launched. I find him to be very kind and approachable. But even if not, I’d still be sick about what’s happening to him now.

It’s one thing when homophobic politicians are exposed to be dabbling with the kids or some holier-than-thou leader is found with a mistress…in those cases I can see the point and motivation in outing someone (although, to be honest, I can’t think of any instance in which the outing changed a damn thing!) But when a person is simply living their life, probably in shame, outing them just feels gross and wrong.

I know that there are many people like me who are ready to see the NFL become a safer space for gay players. But that doesn’t mean we want to see people thrust into sharing their private preferences (and pictures!). Plus, if what Hollywood said was true-that Kerry’s teammates saw them together and never bothered him about it- it really begs the question why anyone outside of an athlete’s immediate circle even needs to know anything. Maybe this is what “out” in the NFL is…”out” to those who need to know.  Besides, I don’t think NFL players, on a whole, are as close minded (and may have never been!) as people would like to believe. Lots of secrets are kept between teammates and coaches and agents and sexual habits are just one type.

Still and all, what this fame-seeker is doing to Kerry is a complete violation of trust, privacy, and human decency that I could have lived without. He just seems like an awful individual. 

I’m wishing Kerry the best as he searches for a new team. He played well last season and should get another shot. 

Now that I’ve had some time to sort of survey the scene I have a few thoughts I’d like to share regarding my perspective of media coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs player who murdered his girlfriend in front of his mother and then took his own life in front of team staff.

[To read this long form blog post click Read More]

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It really felt like concussion week in the NFL. Jay Cutler, Alex Smith, Michael Vick, Ryan Clark (I think? again?). Even backup Brady Quinn who had filled in for Matt Cassel has sustained two concussions this year the latest of which he tried to play through (umm fines anyone?). Really surprised he said that in public. Anyway, if you remember, Quinn only got the start after Matt Cassel was concussed.

In two cases — Jay Cutler and Michael Vick — the QBs played through at least two more snaps before being tested and benched. In Cutler’s case, I believe the count was 7. Surprisingly enough, the NFL believed that the teams followed protocol in both cases and no fines are forthcoming.

Multiple reporters this week (including one at the Bears hometown paper Chicago Tribune) argued that a week is not enough for recover. A few have gone so far as to say that ALL concussed players should sit out the following week. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on that? Should it be a rule? That would be going one step further of the fairly new rule that concussed players can’t return to the same game and the tightened up rules for future return.  

Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid called Michael Vick’s concussion “significant” which I took to mean worse than they will admit. Still, there are signs pointing to him starting this coming week. But never to worry, his teammate RB-turned-spokesperson Lesean McCoy has assured us that Michael Vick can “hold a conversation” and isn’t “in la la land.” As comforting as that is, Foles should start this week. McCoy has no report on Jay Cutler’s condition but I think he should also sit. And Alex Smith as well.

I don’t want to see Kaepernick vs. Mccown or Campbell any more than you do but such is life. As it stands right now as I’m typing, none of the concussed starters have “officially”  been ruled out for this week except Brady Quinn.

Ryan Clark (S Steelers) is a whole other animal together. He has a history of stingers and concussions and has sustained two concussions this season alone. There is substantial evidence that one concussion increases your chances of of having another. And Clark looks to be headed the Austin Collie route and that concerns me. I also was concerned at the way he seemed to be overselling his health. He made a point of telling the beat reporters that he was doing just fine and then took to twitter to issue a string of overly happy tweets. I could be reading too much into it, but again, it *felt* like an oversell TO ME. Remember, this is the same guy who expressed a willingness to play in Denver even though the last time he did it he almost died due to the altitude.

I’m no Miss Cleo but I expect the Baltimore Ravens to pose somewhat of a concussion risk for Byron Leftwich this week. Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger is expected to sit out due to sustaining a rib injury AND a shoulder injury against the Chiefs inconsistently stout defense. All I can say about that is Ay yi yi. 

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