While I understand why discussions continue in all of the collegiate and professional athletic organizations regarding protocols for opening their seasons while there are still concerns over the pandemic.  Their concerns are for the players and their fans.  That’s not what’s bothering me.

ALL THIS STUFF ABOUT SYSTEMIC RACISM HAS TO STOP – We saw the mea culpa’s over racism by Rodger Goodell at the NFL, Drew Brees and a number of other players, even suggesting hero status for Colin Kaepernick.

Then there was NASCAR and driver Bubba Wallace eagerly signing on with the Black Lives Movement, followed by 15 FBI agents being called in to investigate the fabricated story of a noose in his garage.

Now we learn that two major college sports programs have caved to the Black Lives Matter movement.

EMBARRASSINGLY, Mike Krzeyzewski, one of the most respected voices in college basketball with an impressive string of NCAA championships and 1,084 Duke Blue Devil wins to his credit, issued a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter.

“Black Lives Matter.  Say it.  Can’t you say it?  Black Lives Matter.  We should be saying it every day,” he says in a video.

“Do we not see the problem, the disease, the plague that has been with us for four centuries?” he asks, obviously buying into the New York Times 1619 project.  “Do we not see systemic racism and social injustice?  Come on.  We all see that,” he adds.

Unfortunately, “Coach K” reveals that he’s out of touch with what has been done within the Trump administration.  He cites the need for criminal justice even though it was with Trump’s direction that the First Step Act was passed in December 2018.

And while he cites the need for “economic opportunities for our Black communities,” he conveniently ignores the opportunity zones Trump created with Sen. Tim Scott, and the low unemployment rate and increased wages for Blacks established prior to the pandemic.

Is he aware that the left blocks funding for school choice, while young Blacks participating in school choice, including in Washington DC, are outperforming those in public schools?  Stick to basketball, coach.

EARLIER THIS MONTH, Mike Gundy, the winningest football coach in Oklahoma State’s history caved to the outrage voiced by one of his running backs, Chuba Hubbard, for wearing a T-shirt with the logo of the One America News Network.

Reportedly, the cable channel network aired commentary referred to the Black Lives Movement as “a farce.”

Although Hubbard backed off a threat to boycott the college, he initially twittered, “I will not stand for this.  This is completely insensitive to everything going on in society, and its unacceptable.  I will not be doing anything with Oklahoma State until things change.”

After a meeting with the team, Gundy voiced his disgust with the network saying, “Once I learned how that network felt about Black Lives Matter.”  A directed apology.

Rush Limbaugh criticized the coach and school for caving to Hubbard, indicating “running backs are a dime a dozen.”  True, but the other players supported Hubbard.  And, eliminating the football program would result in a revenue loss and, no doubt, a hue and cry from alums, many of them donors, who are willing to give in to Black Lives Matter.

IN THE PGA, where I have an interest as a golfer, I read that Black tour golfer Harold Varner III asked PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan if he thought the tour had been “working to promote diversity and access to the sport.”

Varner certainly knows what it takes – talent – to make the grade in the rigorous entrance test rounds.  Diversity is not an issue.

While Monahan did not make a full-throated endorsement of Black Lives Matter, he did allude to the timing of the rise of the movement and the “demands for social justice and political reform.”

THERE’S MORE – A statue of Calvin Griffith, who moved the Washington Senators to Minneapolis in the 1960s to form the Minneapolis Twins, was removed because of a racist remark he made back in the 70s.

Taking advantage of the wave of racism concerns, Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, is again being pressured to change the name of his team, even though Native Americans don’t have a problem with it.

Seemingly accepting racism culpability by not insisting he change the name, some in the media, including liberal Juan Williams, refer to the team as the Washington NFL team.

As much as I like football, I stopped watching NFL games when all of the kneeling in support of Kaepernick was taking place.

STILL MORE – If you plan to watch the 22 teams of the NBA return for an abbreviated schedule in Orlando on July 30, 2020, you will see the words Black Lives Matter painted on the floor.

REMEMBER THE SAYING, “As American as baseball and apple pie?” Major League Baseball passed up a chance to bring baseball back on the Fourth of July, deciding on July 20, 2020 instead.  I see it as an obvious politically correct move because of concern that the media might surface stories about racism in baseball during previous celebrations of our nations birth.

Here’s an example.  I recall reading an anti-American flag remark made by Jackie Robinson on July 3, 1969 when I was researching a piece on Kaepernick, the anthem and the flag.

I believe this nation has made great progress in civil rights since Robinson first played with the Dodgers in 1947.  Stop. Think about it.  Yet, 25 years later, in his 1972 autobiography, he repeated his 1969 remark, “I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.”

PONDER THIS SIDE NOTE – Of course, those of you who are sports fans know that Blacks have done well in sports at all levels, but have you noticed how many Blacks are seen on television today?  As anchors, reporters and even in commercials?  That, too, is progress.

Clearly, we have advanced civil rights over the 73 years since Robinson played ball, but we now appear to be bowing to the outrageous demands of the highly questionable Black Lives Matter movement.  Wake up, America.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.