Fortunate Son: In a deluded society, image is indeed everything.

From reading all the post-Superbowl adulation bestowed upon Eli Manning (well deserved for his play on the field) you’d never guess that he was just as unprofessional as Randy Moss on at least one very significant occasion in his life. Moss, of course, held the Raiders hostage by playing only when he felt like it, simply because he didn’t like it there and wanted out. And Moss was (correctly) roundly criticized for that.

Well, when Eli came up for the draft in 2004, he made it openly clear that he would not play for San Diego (who wanted to pick him and had the rights to do so). So he essentially blackmailed the Chargers, left them no option to keep him, and forced a trade (to New York who wanted him and where he really wanted to play, by all accounts). So San Diego has to wonder what would have happened if Eli had decided to man up, act like a pro and play where he was drafted (which EVERYONE else drafted into the NFL has to do) instead of hiding in his father’s large shadow like a whiny little bitch. People who argue that SD got equivalent value in return are merely rationalizing, and furthermore they miss the point---which is that Eli essentially got to a free agent from his first day in the NFL. That is unfair, plain and simple. And we’ll never know how his blackmail of the Chargers changed the course of NFL history. Maybe the Chargers could have won a couple of Superbowls by now, or maybe another QB may have won a championship or two with the Giants instead, or maybe none of that would have transpired. Doesn’t matter; but it does matter that someone strong-armed the system and broke the rules. So forgive me if I’m less than impressed when I hear all this garbage about preserving the integrity of the game, league etc. They bent the rules for Manning, didn’t they? The NFL is so good, and works so well, because it has been set up largely to be fair and competitive. What if more hot prospects start playing this game? ----naah, I won’t play there…..uh-huh, I think that’s the place for me…..don’t bother picking me ‘cos I ain’t signing….Why shouldn’t every other draft pick enter the league as a free-agent, like Eli essentially did? You want to deal with the ensuing chaos? But Eli gets a free pass, chiefly because he had the good fortune to spew forth from the appropriate loins. In an objective assessment of history (whether that will ever be popularly documented or not, the truth doesn’t change) Eli’s accomplishments will always be tainted because it is based on a foundation of hypocrisy and cheating.

But this is nothing new---and relatively minor in the larger scheme of things. We live in a country where intellectually and morally bankrupt wastrels can ascend to the highest offices in the land simply because they happened to be fortunate sperm. And then, having ascended to the highest offices and having demonstrated their ineptitude in spades, they can still count on the support of millions of stupid lemmings for reasons that elude, well, reason.

So listen up kids. If you want to break the rules and get away with it, the key is to keep that “Aw shucks” charm, that “down-to-earth folksiness” while you go about merrily doing your thing, the rules be damned. You’d be surprised what you can get away with. And oh yeah, if at all possible, try and be born to rich, white and unscrupulous parentage; there is still no substitute for that.

I have pages I want to write about that bully extraordinaire Bobby Knight bequeathing the head coaching job at a major state-funded university, mid-season, to his son---filial succession is apparently not an uncommon trend at least in college basketball circles nowadays ---but I am too tired and too disgusted. Can we be too far away from having a House of Lords and House of Commons in this country?

By the way, Bobby Knight is a spoilt brat, an arrogant sorry excuse for a man, who operated through intimidation and fear-mongering. His basketball success doesn’t mean or validate a thing. Heck Stalin and Castro were greatly successful bullies in their realms, and yeah, they had legions of protégés/disciples/followers who swore by them too---so don’t give me that ‘his ex-players are very loyal to him’ crap about Knight. It makes me sick when they call this pathetic bully a great man, teacher and coach. You want to know who’s a great man, teacher and coach? John Wooden. We need more John Woodens and fewer Bobby Knights.

Print this post