Why I will root for the Chiefs

A leftist's racist attack on a 9-year-old boy cannot stand.

The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs will battle for the championship of the world in Super Bowl LGBT or whatever the number is. KC played in the first one when it was called the World Bowl. The halftime show featured Al Hirt and the marching bands from the University of Arizona, Grambling and Anaheim High School. Vince Lombardi’s team won as the Good Lord intended.

Big Al playing the Flight of the Bumblebee inspired a nation to learn karate. Well, that and Bruce Lee playing Cato on TV in The Green Hornet, whose theme was that song.

In 1970, the AFL and NFL merged and there was peace in the land of E Pluribus Unum.

Decades later, conservatives dumped the NFL when players decided to protest the playing of our national anthem because Colin Kaepernick hates America. He hates America because that is a good marketing tool to peddle shoes made by slaves in Red China. The rappers lied. It is not all about the Benjamins; it is about the brogans that bring in the Benjamins.

But time passes even if quarterback Kaepernick doesn’t. Conservatives began following the NFL again, which means they have had to deal with Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift PDAs all season long. Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen. Nobody knows the sorrow.

Conservatives don’t like Swift because she is rich and famous and supports Biden. The list of the disliked is long and dull, just like this presidency. Rob Reiner and Keith Olbermann are so predictable that they are the Old Faithful Geyser of politics. Every three days one of them tweets something silly.

Liberals have focused on MAGA dislike of Swift, but it is her boyfriend who really draws the wrath of the right because he sold out to Pfizer to peddle its vaccine, which did not stop the spread of covid nor give immunity. It is a vaccine in the same way Bruce Jenner is a woman. In fact, the vaccine increases the odds of getting covid.

Conservatives said that at the time and were called crazy. Kelce took the money and promoted the covid-attracting vaccine:

With my schedule, saving time is key. The CDC says you can get this season’s updated COVID-19 shot when you get your flu shot if you’re due for both. That’s why I got two shots in one stop! Ask your doctor or pharmacist if it would be right for you. You can also visit CDC’s vaccines.gov to learn more and schedule an appointment.

Is the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance a psyops designed to distract us from the World War 3 the military is provoking? I laughed at the question until Jimmy Kimmel mocked that as a conspiracy theory just as he blew off complaints about the covid vaccine, which failed him twice. So Kimmel’s response increases the likelihood that it is a psyops because he fronts the deep state.

But before we all jump on the San Francisco 49ers bandwagon — hoping no homeless person took a dump in it — let us remember Holden Armenta.

He’s the 9-year-old Chief’s fan who suffered a malicious attack by a racist sportswriter who wanted to gain attention to land a job bigger than grinding it out at Deadspin. The kid attended a Chief’s game in Las Vegas wearing a headdress with his face painted the team’s colors. He enjoyed it. Viewers watching him at home enjoyed it. Writer Carron Phillips hated it. He hopped aboard the using-Indian-names-is-evil bandwagon to signal his virtue — and to use his new notoriety to get out of Deadspin.

He wrote:

The image of a Chiefs fan in blackface wearing a Native American headdress during a road game leads to so many unanswered questions.

Why did the camera person give this fan the attention?

Why did the producer allow that camera angle to be aired at all?

Is that fan a kid/teenager or a young adult?

Despite their age, who taught that person that what they were wearing was appropriate?

The answers to all of those questions lead back to the NFL. While it isn’t the league’s responsibility to stop racism and hate from being taught in the home, they are a league that has relentlessly participated in prejudice. If the NFL had outlawed the chop at Chiefs games and been more aggressive in changing the team’s name, then we wouldn’t be here.

Deadspin illustrated the commentary with a photo from an angle that made the boy appear to be in blackface.

Now I could point out that the team was named for Mayor Roe Bartle who brought the team from Dallas to Kansas City, Missouri. Everyone called Bartle the Chief and if someone is handing you a multi-million-dollar stadium, you name your team whatever he wants.

And I could point out that the lad is part Native American, but so what? There is nothing wrong with calling them the Chiefs and marketing themselves as Indians who play at Arrowhead Stadium.

Team names honor people. Calling one New York football team the Giants does not mock men over 6-foot and calling the other team the Jets does not make fun of air transportation.

My once-favorite ball team transitioned from the name Cleveland Indians to the Guardians. I moved on. I last lived in Cleveland 43 years ago in the Joe Charboneau era.

10 days after attacking the kid, Deadspin added a note to the column.

Editor’s Note: On Nov. 27, Deadspin published an opinion piece criticizing the NFL for allowing a young fan to attend the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 26 wearing a traditional Native American headdress and, based upon the available photo, what appeared to be black face paint.

Unfortunately the article drew attention to the fan, though our intended focus was on the NFL and its checkered history on race, an issue which our writer has covered extensively for Deadspin. Three years ago, the Chiefs banned fans from wearing headdresses in Arrowhead Stadium, as well as face painting that “appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.” The story’s intended focus was the NFL and its failure to extend those rules to the entire league.

We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family. To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan. We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story.

I wonder if lawyers were involved in the note.

I have nothing against the 49ers.

But when a bully attacks a kid, Americans must stand up to the bully. I will ignore Taylor Swift and her tight end (as well as her boyfriend) and root for Holden Armenta’s team. The kid went through a lot. His team should prevail in the end.