The Were-Lion
Here there be sports-political commentary. You've been "warned." Dr. D wouldn't want to deflower your virgin ears. :- )
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Biology Rick sez,
New appreciation for Lynch.
His thirst for battle, and desire to pulverize his opponents, fuels so much of what this team does. There is this "How dare you enter the field of battle with us. Who do you think you are?" Attitude.
Remember the fit the media had when those Marines whizzed on dead Taliban? That is what Lynch's crotch grab was in football terms. The NFL fines him, and the football paparazzi allow them to collect by asking him questions he already made clear he won't answer. They aren't worthy of it, should respectfully step by to go talk to his teammates.
But they don't, and so, when he does speak, it's to fellow warriors turned journalists who he respects and knows understand. When I watch this guy NOT take the easy step out of bounds in favor of staying in and hitting a few more football Orcs...well, let's just say I watched the Hobbit this morning and thought often of Marshawn and the men he fights with and for. May he always remain a Seahawk. We cannot spare this man. He fights.
THAT is what ELO is measuring. And that is what takes it off the charts. Yeah, ESPN and Virginia, there is a hangover effect.
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From a Christian standpoint, obviously I'm not going to crotch-grab on a NesTea Plunge, much less lower my trousers and tinkle on a fallen enemy :- ) But just out of curiosity, what would be the NFL fine for Lynch doing the latter on Patrick Bowman on Colin Kaeperinick? And would Paul Allen float the "loan" on it?
That said, I (and YHWH in the Old Testament) appreciate that there is such a thing as a Man of Valor, and that his sensibilities are quite different from Mommy's. Mommy wants you to bring your galoshes; it might rain. A Man of Valor isn't quite as concerned about getting his feet wet and catching cold.
It's one thing to use the F-word while sitting calmly in our living rooms sipping coffee laced with designer flavoring. Our minds are affected by our choice of language, and a reasoned decision to become violent, for no reason, is unwise. We become what we live.
But it's a different thing to use violent words, when you are defending your children in a fight to the death, no quarter asked and none given. When a gentle man is required to become violent, well, that is what he's got biceps for. GEN George Washington found the whine of bullets past his head to be a "charming" sound. Hardcore, baby. He was all 'bout that action.
It's one thing to kill in time of war, another to kill in time of peace. Lynch is living in a time of war, and will until he retires and goes back to serve the kids of Oakland in the streets.
And it is precisely this vicarious "gladiator" spectacle that we love about the NFL. This includes the reporters, who have worked very hard to become part of the NFL periphery.
After enjoying the gladiation, these "Hunger Games Glitterati" effete reporters then step over to the gladiators, right in the arena, and ask them to speak with a lisp, like they do. (The same thing happens to Marines who have shot down evil terrorists at risk to their own lives.)
No. Human decency demands that we pass judgment on these gladiators according to a different set of sensibilities than we apply to ourselves.
Dr. D fell in love with Erin Andrews -- you know what he means here -- when she handled the Richard Sherman situation with the perspective she did. A lot of times, the women in journalism are less effete than the men are. It sort of had me wondering whether she was a Mom. That process requires a kind of toughness that even Marshawn will never understand.
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Marshawn is football personified. Like Aphrodite is love personified, Dyonisus is carousing personified, Ares is bloodshed personified. If Marshawn lived in 1700's Japan he would evolve into the patron deity who controlled all events that occur within NFL stadiums.
He plays like, and looks like, a Were-Lion lycanthrope. This is the player -- like Edgar Martinez in baseball -- who transcends worries about "dead money." Dead money is important. Players like Marshawn Lynch, Edgar Martinez, and Randy Johnson are more important.
Lynch is a lot more important than niggling concerns about what he might cost in post-retirement premiums. The city needs to wallow in every single game he has left, and if it costs twice as much, so be it.