USA Today Uses All-Black NFL Officiating Crew To List Racial Grievances

November 19th, 2020 12:45 PM

Jarrett BellNext Monday night's NFL game pitting the Rams against the Buccaneers will feature the first game in the league's history with an all-Black officiating crew, and USA Today's Jarrett Bell ridiculously blows the significance of this far out of proportion. He also exploits it to re-open ages-old wounds about racism in America and in football.

This intentional NFL statement on race is obviously yet another example of corporate America overkill -- a "we're not racists" wink and a nod to Black Lives Matter and race-obsessed leftists.

Bell (appearing in file photo) does a whole lot of ridiculous extrapolating on the significance of tonight's game, writing:

"This is huge on multiple levels. When referee Jerome Boger heads an officiating crew comprised entirely of African-Americans to handle a showcase game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, it will mark a milestone more than 100 years in the making."

Furthermore, an all-Black officiating crew is "cool optics" for the NFL, writes Bell.

The NFL is making "a distinct social statement" in this time of racial reckoning in a polarized country.

It's a reminder that African Americans were previously denied opportunities to play the quarterback and middle linebacker positions.

This comes at a time when only three African Americans are head coaches in the NFL.

Bells says that for this to happen a few months after the heinous killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer "means something to us as Black people."

An all-Black officiating crew for one NFL game arrives "wrapped with hope and motivation for the future," in the same vein as African American Kamala Harris becoming the first woman elected vice president. This factually challenged statement deserves a warning symbol made famous by Big Tech to dispute the validity of the claim, pending the vote of the Electoral College on the presidential election.

Monday night's officials-overshadowing-the-game stunt also sends a message countering "so many negative images in recent years of Black people being abused – and even killed – on national TV while racial stereotypes and fears have been stoked ad nauseam by some people at the highest levels of our government."

This race-based event was preceded by another event which Bell turns from molehill into mountain. On Nov. 1, CBS Sports paired director Mark Grant with executive producer Harold Bryant and producer Kimani Morales for the first NFL telecast run by African-Americans. Grant and Morales have been pushing for greater diversity, and CBS displayed its white guilt by mollifying them.

Apparently, the men officiating the Bucs-Rams game are also calling attention to the need for greater diversity and inclusion ... in a league where 70 percent of the players are minorities.

The Big Ten Conference had already beaten the NFL slackers to the all-Black officiating punch when, on Oct. 24, it assigned only African Americans to officiate the Minnesota-Michigan football game. The Minneapolis location of that game was intentional used for the all-Black crew because of its proximity to the George Floyd killing, said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren.

That college game was also close in proximity to Black Lives Matter rioting, where more than $50 million of damage was inflicted on nearly 1,500 heavily damaged or destroyed businesses. At least 40 businesses were damaged by rioters in Tampa, the site of Monday night's NFL game. Just some little facts not found in Bell's grievance piece.