What if the situation in L.A. happened in Dallas?

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What do we do, what would you do? The travesty in LA is one that every one and their mother has an opinion on. Should the Clippers play? Should the fans black the game out by wearing all black? Should the fans boycott the game. SO many choices, so many inputs no clear cut answer. A lot of reasonable people are waiting patiently on the NBA commissioner Adam Sliver to reign down his ruling on what will happen to the Clippers owner. Many believe that he (the Clippers owner, which I will not mention by name) should be removed from the team. This is a choice that could happen, IF a 75% majority of the voting NBA board chooses to remove him from the league. This option, being a Democratic one doesn't seem like a vote that will be held within a reasonable amount of time that we will even care about it IF it were to happen. Lets be realistic, in this country we are a missing child, government official scandal or plane crash away from not caring about this issue at all.

When a situation this big occurs it is hard to fathom what the people of Los Angles have to put up with. This being a blog about a team in a separate state and sport. I must pose the question what would we do IF this was to occur within our city? With the owner of our beloved franchise.

Picture the situation. On an ordinary weekend in the winter. Cowboy's owner Jerry Jones is caught on tape making racist remarks to his girlfriend. Not only does he make remarks similar to the Clippers owner. Let us remember, Jones as the Clipper's owner is married and therefore is unearthed as an adulterer. As we all know that Dallas is in a very religious state. The implications that Jones is a racist and an adulterer are two issues that right wing Texans now have to face.

First and foremost I am not from Texas. In the city and state where I live. I am surrounded by life long Washington Redskins fans. One of the biggest reasons I am not a Redskins fan is the fact that the Redskins former owner, George Preston Marshall was an open racist and did not want a black player on his team because it would bring more African American as fans. Marshall was so headstrong on his bigotry that congress forbid the Redskins to play in their stadium (Now known as Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium) that was funded and owned by the federal government. Marshall eventually succumbed to the governments wishes (in order to keep the stadium) but Marshall was openly known as the leading racist in the NFL. This is one of the reasons I am and will always be a Dallas Cowboys fan.

Now this reason is something I have and will always throw in Redskin's fans faces. If forced with the realization that the owner of my beloved team is now a known as a racist what do I do? This is the same choice that Los Angles Clippers fans are now faced with. In football more than any other sports when referring to football team and the separation of a beloved player. Most fan on fan arguments will sometime include the statement "You cheer for the name on the front of the uniform, not on the back". But what does that name on the front stand for? More importantly WHO does it stand for. Does the "Cowboy" name on the front of the uniform represent the city of Dallas? Does it represent every player and coach who are and have been apart of this team since 1960? Or does it solely represent the current owner Mr. Jerry Jones?

At the end of the day, no matter what the correct answer is. Some part of that name represents your personal fan-hood within the team. No matter if you're 5 years old or 50 years of age, you have represented this team all of you're life. In L.A. there are Clippers fans that have been Clippers fans all of there life. How do you throw away a lifetime of memories? How do you throw away the tears in defeat, the celebration of victories? How do you discount the years you've watched countess drafts and having a belief just as a fan of every other team that "This is the year". How do you throw away the heart break at the end of the season realizing that "this wasn't the year". Can and should you even throw those memories away all because of one idiot that so happens to the be the one person in the organization that can't be fired? The one person in the organization that represents the organization to the highest degree just because he writes the checks?

To top it off this scandal goes on in the most important time of the season, the playoffs. These players have been working for an entire year for this moment. If you are a fan you've been waiting possibly you're whole life for this moment. Are you expected to give it away because of one persons archaic point of view?



We can only hope that commissioner Adam Sliver does the right thing. What the right thing is will only be known by Sliver. I can only hope that Sliver does take a play from the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell's playbook. When he was still a "new" commissioner. In Goodell's defining years as commissioner, there were 2 big threats to the shield. The first was Spy-gate, the second was the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal. In the first Goodell gave the New England Patriots coach (Bill Belichick) the highest fine that the NFL allowed (500,000) and in the bounty scandal, Goodell gave the New Orleans Saints coaches and part of the executive personnel the stiffest penalty that ever existed in the NFL.

I don't envy anyone the LA, I don't expect to have the answers and wont profess that I do all I say is no matter what...



#Pray4LA