Vengeance Has No Foresight

The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. Laura Hillenbrand

I started watching the first Sunday of the 2020 NFL football season with a slight feeling of excitement. For over 30 years, the NFL (in particular my Denver Broncos) has been the great distraction of the mondacity of life for me. And like many other Americans, specially those on the West Coast, I was in dire need of one. We’re currently still on lockdown from a deadly pandemic, as the election for president of our country looms closer, the incumbent in the White House continues his neo-fascist assault on what little freedoms we have left in this country. A blistering heat wave hit California accompanied by a string of rolling blackouts followed by one of the most devastating string of forest fires this region has ever known. Blood red skies over most of the West (California, Oregon and Washington state) coupled with unbreathable air filled with hazardous particulates. It looks like the movie/game Silent Hill. Air so unhealthy, Los Angeles now has some of the air quality in the world. So, football was the escape that was needed in this time of crisis.

Lately, the American sporting world has been dominated by the discourse around player protests centered around police violence and extra judicial killings of American citizens. Colin Kapernick pretty much sacrificed his career for his stance, or kneeling on the issue. Choosing to kneel during…