The NFL Is Slavery

Colin Kaepernick came out with a docu-something about how the NFL is a slave market. I've been saying this for years. Shortly before the actual draft, they do weigh ins and call out stats. They atually stand on a scale and they call out the weight! I saw this process once and realized, you may as well be working with cattle. BUT, the same could be said about beauty contest. That is, before men were able to compete with women. Transgenders and so forth. It's quite funny that biological men who transitioned to female are now dominating all. And that is because of the overly woke crowd. I wonder who they are pandering to. A lot of critics to Kaepernick seem to take the stance that if you are paid millions you have no ground to stand on. In other words, many of the public would gladly be treated like cattle to get that money. How sad. It doesn't take away from the de-humanizing way players are treated. I mean, can we not do that in private? I think it is a spectacle sport so, therefore, everything has to be built up into a show. Look, White people and Black people play in the NFL. It is predominantly Black which is why we see this type of outrage. Though, we also have to define what "slavery" means in modern times. To me, slavery is a place in which anyone would sacrifice their dignity for a reward. That sounds pretty broad, but I often wonder about Hollywood. In my day, we certainly sacrificed a LOT of dignity to work in this field. A co-worker had said, accurately, that the reason why is because people want to work in movies. So, the demand far outweighs the need. It is competitive in that sense. Would you label it "slavery."? In some cases...yes. As a production assistant you are paid pittance (if at all) to do all the grunt work. The logic is that you have to "pay your dues" and that learning is your reward. Though, most learn the school of hard knocks. And are belittled in the process. If you have pride, most of this won't sit well. Never sat well with me. And I don't recall ever being screamed at the way I see portrayed in movies about the industry. But, it's also why I didn't climb that ladder. Much like the NFL, which is a pro sport of breaking down a player and re-building and picking from the best of the best, the movie industry tended to function the same. Creative best of the best, to be clear. Most people suffer a great deal to get a paycheck that sustains their lifestyle which affords them time to follow a dream...of some kind. Most don't. They see the reality. In the case of the NFL, a lot of them realize too late into their lives that this is all they were built for. I mean, by the time you finish college and get drafted you're already invested this much time and struggle...you tend to shut your mouth and go with the flow. People often wondered by Andrew Luck, a Indianapolis Colt quarterback, left the game. I suspect he saw the long term damage the game does to a person's body and abandoned it. He may have other interests as well. But, he wanted to get off the plantation that was breaking his back. If we're to draw comparisons, sometimes people need to leave the movie business before it breaks their spirit.