I arrived at my computer this morning, a shade after 3:15 and started scrolling sports headlines.
Blake Griffin did this, Russell Westbrook shoved this, Rob Gronkowski cleared this, Justin Timberlake said.....
Wait, what?
Yes, it seems not even the performer at Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show can escape the slings and arrows hurled by people with nothing better to do than make declarations and decisions on the behaviors and attitudes of people they've never before met.
Apparently, the world is hurtling toward a fiery demise about Timberlake’s comments made this week regarding his son. Timberlake and his wife, actress Jessica Biel, are the parents of a 2-year-old boy named Silas. After Timberlake jokingly offered to suit up himself Sunday as a wide receiver if the New England Patriots needed him, Timberlake was asked by a reporter if he would "support it if [Silas] wanted to run some routes and get in the NFL."
Timberlake told reporters he likely wouldn’t let his son play football, saying in part: "He will never play football. My main objective is that he become a good person. If he wants to get into the arts or sports, then I would fully support that. Right now, we're working on our manners."
Seems those horrifying comments (at least for those brave souls with a Twitter handle and the ability to hit "send") have rendered Timberlake to be called such original names like "snowflake" or "libtard", as it’s been called by the several dozen comments I read in what can best be described as a cesspool of humanity's elite weak.
I don’t know how caring for your child makes you any kind of political affiliation or requiring of anyone to stamp any type of label of social driven agenda onto your life choices. It’s called being a parent, nothing more and nothing less.
I imagine it would be no different if I chose to raise my son or daughter to be a professional athlete from the time they exited the womb, drove them to practice every day immediately after spitting up, then sent them off to football camps and baseball camps and basketball camps with little to no regard whatsoever for their emotional well-being or their ability to make friends and do things that other kids might do.
Would that person be called a parent, or would we label them as republicans or hate-mongers or nationalists?
No, we’d call them parents and we’d watch them by the actions of their kids. We wouldn’t lump them into some politically driven mindset that only serves to undermine whatever stability and civility still exists in today’s world.
Justin Timberlake will get destroyed today by media types and football fanatics as being every disgusting label one can attach to a man. But he has my support. I don’t care whether Timberlake’s child ever plays a down of football, I don’t care if he never sings a song or writes a record. It’s not my concern.
Timberlake was asked a question at a press conference. A press conference he was required to give just days before he takes the stage in a performance at halftime of one America’s most prestigious sporting events. He answered the question honestly and with reason and attention to detail for what’s important to him and his wife.
That doesn’t mean he’s a snowflake. That doesn’t require a letter or word of shame be attached to his name.
That makes him a dad. That’s good enough for me.
It's Almost Gametime
I really wanted to write more this morning about the game. I have great stats, really good information for my reasoning and my logic for my prediction.
But I'll be honest, writing the reaction piece to Timberlake's comments has infuriated me. I am horrified beyond any measure of sensibility. How many different levels of disgusting do you have to be to suggest a person's parental choices -- which by and large appear to be doing no harm whatsoever to said child -- are simply to be derided and minimized into an absurd argument about your political leanings or an instinctual need to characterize a parent as being beneath you?
I'll share my logical thoughts about the game and my statistical analysis for my listeners on the show.
I'm excited about the game. I think it will be a compelling one. It is worthy of your attention.
My prediction: NEW ENGLAND 29-Philadelphia 23