It is known that to work the sugar plantations and cotton fields in the “New World”, the slave trade was conjured. From the atrocities that humans endured especially through the “middle passage” of the Atlantic, perhaps birthed the phrase, “only the strong survive”.
When slaves ran away from their captors, some even walking a thousand miles, from the South to the North of the United States, it was grit, stamina, and muscle.
For 400 years, 15 to the 19th century, the African was “Black Oil”, making the traders and cohorts rich. Fast forward to 1869, with the creation of American football, where men behaved like Giraffes, who slap necks and heads against each other for a prize.(a female) It was the beginning of the NFL (the National Football League).
Who would best stand up to this head slapping, kicking, drag down in the mud sport? Similar to dog or cock fighting! Maybe, but that is cruelty to animals, illegal! But boxing is bloody, wrestling, and those are legal. If the two were combined, and the money changers saw profit, the legislators would ratify.
Back in the 15th century, who made the “cut” for the cotton and sugar plantations? The 6 feet 4 inches, 250 pounds African. Who then would be best in the NFL ? Who are the best running backs in the NFL? I just asked a rhetorical question.
Back in the day, the women were losing their men, to the plantation fields, to the killing fields (wars); today to jail, and the NFL. After 3 to 5 years, they are disposed of as in the days of “the middle passage”. Lots of brain damage, multiple surgeries, some are committing suicide; Parkinson’s, nerve damage, hip replacements. No after care from the traders (NFL owners).
The women want their men back, to enjoy for more than 5 years. This is the message of playwright KJ Sanchez in her play X’s and O’s now at CenterStage, Baltimore. Could this be the Suffragette movement against the NFL, the “abolitionists” in the offing?
Theculturepagedotcom 