Alright, so you've all been kept abreast of the recent tweets and whatnot from one Mr. Chris Kluwe, our beloved punter/ pundit. Now, I'm not going to comment here on the general situation with the CBA as it stands now- it sucks, but there's not a whole lot of finger pointing I'm going to do right now, because as has been the standard over the past month or so, we've got less than half a clue most of the time what's really going on. Maybe the players are acting like punks, and their whole ‘let us play' thing just got turned on its head. Or maybe the owners snuck in a whole lot of provisions and whatnot into the CBA that were never previously agreed to, and the players are rightfully steamed and not willing to be treated like idiots. Who knows?
But again, that's not the point here. The point is this... wait a second, I'm going to tap into my own personal inner-Kluwe to continue, which therefore naturally includes some occasionally less than family friendly language (not too much though). So, let's actually go over the point after the jump, and use this paragraph as a disclaimer.
OK so, the point. Perhaps Peyton Manning and Drew Brees never intended to hold up the CBA, and they got hit with crap flung from a fan because of Vincent Jackson and Logan Mankins. And maybe now Logan Mankins sees the error of his ways and is backing off (or not, hard to tell). But Vincent Jackson's, by all accounts, still on board with holding up the process for every single other NFL player so that he can fix what he feels is an injustice done to him.
As Kluwe himself pointed out, yes, Mankins and Jackson were both on the short end of a stick shoved you-know-where recently thanks to a change in RFA rules. You know who else was? Ray Edwards. And guess who else?
A whole bunch of other players.
Now, if Vincent Jackson was being a ‘necessary bad guy' by sticking up for all those ‘wronged' by these RFA/ UFA changes and upheavals lately, fighting a crusade for others stuck in a situation similar to his own, perhaps there might be something there to back. But he's not. He's looking out for #1, damn the rest of ‘em. And do you know what that makes him?
A douchebag.
But my G-d if a punter dares to call him that. As Kluwe himself so eloquently put it, as a punter he happens to be a player in the National Football League, and therefore, someone who has quite a bit of interest in the whole CBA settlement. You know, maybe even as much as Vincent Jackson. Maybe even as much as Peyton Manning! What a concept.
I won't delve into the whole matter of being a punter here, because Kluwe's done a far better job than I will ever be able to do- to point out that he is a player who is highly specialized, at a position most teams usually reserve only one roster spot for (as opposed to the 4-6 spots reserved for the position of Wide Receiver), and at a position upon whom teams rely on actually more so than, say, LB (if a linebacker misses one tackle, the game is usually not lost- whereas one bad punt can spell doom, easily). Instead, I'm going to delve into the matter of why, exactly, Chris Kluwe is a bad person for using the word ‘douchebag' on twitter for other NFL players, yet a player who holds the process up for everyone else, players, owners, and fans alike, is seemingly absolved.
Shortly after Kluwe's tweet, the twitterverse experienced a minor explosion. Mike Silver from Yahoo! Sports jumped on it immediately. Others couldn't believe their eyes. Chris Kluwe, a lowly punter, calling Peyton Manning et al. douchebags was a sin of the gravest sort.
Tapping into my inner-Kluwe, here's my response:
Bullshit.
No one wants to write a piece blasting VJax for his greed and self-centered decisions. But Kluwe cannot call him a douchebag for it?
See above.
And now the whole... well, I guess we're not calling it by name, the whole ‘Red Bin' article. Yeah, it's pushed me over the edge. Enough's enough. I'm going to war, and I'm creating a craft for my fellow Viking fans- nay, the entire fanbase of the NFL that has a functioning left and right brain lobe- to join me. It will be my, let's say, ‘war craft'.
We as fans need to show our support for a player, regardless of their position, calling out another player, regardless of their position, for their greedy and self-centered antics. I'm not bold enough to suggest we'll actually convince VJax to drop his BS money-grab, but at least we can paint a picture that most sports writers are not willing, for whatever reason, to paint- that we don't give two craps if Kluwe's a punter, or if he used the word ‘douchebag' on twitter. What we give two craps about is that he's right, and that ironically, he's being called out for being right, yet the person who is wrong is escaping all blame.
Jump on your twitter accounts if you've got ‘em, create one if you don't. Use the hashtag "#PPStldrUmadbro" and let's start firing a few bullets here. Let's keep things clean(ish) and keep personal attacks out of it- making ourselves look like illiterate, foolish foul-mouthed morons will do more harm than good. But with all these people blasting Chris Kluwe, it's time we all step up and point out the very simple truth that he's the one who's right.
Skol Vikings, and Skol Chris Kluwe!!!