Photo : Joe Sargent ( Getty Images )

The NFL is the Trump administration of American sports leagues. Despite being almost 70 percent black, the NFL ownership doesn’t care about black people. They bend policies, hire accused domestic abusers, and make no bones about doing whatever they want with impunity. Sounds a lot like the current administration, doesn’t it?




So either Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid, one of Colin Kaepernick’s closest allies in his fight against the unjust killings of African Americans by police and the first player to kneel alongside Kap when the two were teammates with the San Francisco 49ers, is either the unluckiest player in the player in the NFL, or the NFL is targeting Reid for speaking out.

After Monday night’s game against the New Orleans Saints, Reid returned to his locker to find a note saying that he’s been “randomly” selected to take another drug test, marking his seventh drug test in 11 weeks.


Yahoo Sports breaks down the probability that Reid’s drug tests are “random”:

Let’s go through some numbers that we first dove into when Reid received his fifth drug test of the season. There were 72 players on the Panthers’ roster eligible for drug testing. NFL drug-testing policy dictates that 10 players from each team, supposedly chosen randomly by a computer, are tested each week of the season. Reid has been with Carolina for 11 weeks and says he has been drug-tested seven times, though one of those would have been his mandatory annual test that is basically part of his physical. That means six positive results out of 11 chances on odds that work out to 72 divided by 10. Using a cumulative binomial probability calculator, those numbers work out to a 0.17 percent chance of Reid getting randomly selected at least six times in 11 chances, according to the NFL’s rules. That’s a 1-in-588 chance. Reid would have a better chance at correctly guessing a coin flip nine times in a row.

I’m sure that Reid’s seventh drug test in 11 weeks had nothing to do with the fact that he’s still kneeling during the national anthem or that his game cleats just so happened to celebrate protests throughout America’s history and featured the quote: “If not us, who? If not now when.”


To understand why Reid’s “free black man” posture and protest cleats irritate the NFL, one needs to look no further than the Trump administration, as both are dictatorships disguised as democracies.

The NFL is a mirror of Trumpian thinking that bands together to form an evil orange spray-tanned Voltron of racism and good ole boy thinking. Free-thinking black men don’t survive in this land. Make no mistake about it, Reid is being punished for his outspokenness. He’s being punished for kneeling next to his friend and standing up for what he believes in. He’s being punished with the only weapons that the NFL can form against him, which are the inconvenient drug tests.


Like the NFL, The Trump administration doesn’t like being challenged. Remember CNN reporter Jim Acosta and “karate chop-gate” in which the White House attempted to have him banned for daring to challenge the president? Remember how Trump “randomly” decided to take on Amazon’s deal with the US Postal Service, or how he said Saturday Night Live’s comedy should be “tested” in court?

That’s what’s happening here.

The NFL, much like the Trump administration, operates with impunity. Until a judge hands them their ass, they are basically a sports version of today’s White House. The only difference is that black folks en masse don’t support the Trump administration but love them some football no matter how badly the owners of the team treat their players.


So Reid will submit himself to another urine analysis that will show he’s not violating the NFL drug policy, the NFL owners will continue to act as if it’s all random, and black folks won’t stop watching the NFL. The current administration will still build the wall and continue to criminalize skin color. It’s all cyclical, and the only mistake that both Reid and Kaepernick have made is daring to try to break the cycle. How dare either of these men be bold enough to speak up and speak out?

During slavery, masters would beat their slaves publicly in front of other slaves as a show of force. It was also a chance for those slaves who were even considering speaking up or running away to witness what would await them should they attempt to leave. Trump publicly lashed Jim Acosta in front of a room full of reporters, and Reid came back to his locker to find a note telling him that he’d been randomly selected for the seventh time in just 11 weeks. This isn’t accidental.


But I know you’re tired of talking about all this when your ‘Skins are still in the playoff hunt.

Roger Goodell, the NFL, and the powers who seek to silence black protest all thank you for your support.