(University Of Oregon DL Ra’shon Harris struts his stuff for an audience of rich white guys and football degenerates watching on television)
Recently, yours truly disparaged the NFL Scouting Combine as “a meat market” , though Jeff Pearlman — never as smart or as good looking as when he’s echoing my sentiments — goes a bit further in likening the televised spectacle to a modern slave auction. That Rich Eisen 40 yard dash doesn’t seem nearly so funny now, does it?
In short: (With rare exception) A bunch of old, wealthy white men sit in the stands with stopwatches, clocking (with rare exception) a bunch of young, inexperienced black men. The bidding takes place in April, with the most money spent earning the most promising (with rare exception) black man. In my radio friend™s words, œIt™s creepy. I agree.
Whenever I watch ESPN or the NFL Network and see their so-called œDraft experts, I think œI™d rather be a garbage man specifically in charge of used condom disposal than report on this shit. Seriously. You™re Mel Kiper. You™re 50-years old. You have a family, a life, hopes and dreams. And your days are spent, quite literally, chasing around 20-year-old kids to find out what their future plans are. You pitch a tent if they text you, and an even larger tent if they call to say, œHey, Mel, I™m going to Miami. It™s a sad existence, one I wouldn™t wish on my worst journalistic enemy.
Ah yes.. a modern slave auction where these “slaves” get paid a minimum of $325,000 a year and the best “slaves” get paid into the millions.
And like real old-timey slaves, they can just quit and find a new line of work if they dont like being treated like modern-day slaves.
The Mel Kiper’s of the world wouldnt exist if people like us didnt care about the slave day in Indy or the slave auction in New York in April. Stop caring about sports and all this slavery will go away and these poor players can get their dignity back.
or, we can care enough to wonder about a monopoly with 100% white ownership and a predominantly black workforce. It’s obviously not slavery (and I’m the one who dropped the s-bomb, not Pearlman) but the combine’s trappings are as creepy as Jeff claimed. Unless you find Under Armor to be a big turn on, in which case the Combine is TV Gold.
I’m just amazed that Pearlman came up with a line as good as “I’d rather be a garbage man specifically in charge of used condom disposal than report on this shit.”