Earlier this week, I wrote about the tone-deafness of Drew Brees and the way that his remarks about NFL anthem protests did not fit into the fabric of the conversation regarding police practices vis á vis the minority community at the time. I doubt that anyone reading these rants was not aware of the controversy those remarks had created before reading any of my remarks. Today, I want to tell you about another tone-deaf individual that you might not know about.
Wauwatosa, WI is a suburb west of Milwaukee; there are no eastern suburbs of Milwaukee because that would be Lake Michigan. One of the business enterprises there is a gym called Anytime Fitness. One of the personal trainers employed there exhibited his tone-deafness in the following way:
- He posted a sign in the gym depicting a workout that the trainer was using as a “challenge” to gym patrons.
- That challenge consisted of distance measured stretches on a rowing machine alternating with intervals of burpees [or squat-thrusts as they were called when I was doing gym exercises]. It is a long list of alternating rowing and “burpeeing” workouts with a time goal of 35 minutes and 29 seconds posted. Sounds harmless so far – – unless you try to meet that challenge and pull a muscle or endure a “cardiac event”… Here is the rub.
- On the same whiteboard where this challenge routine was written there is a graphic. That graphic consists of a depiction of a man on one knee and the graphic is drawn with a black magic marker. That is not horrible but wait, there’s more…
- There are words written on the white board too and they say:
- “I Can’t Breathe”
- And
- “Don’t you dare lay down.”
All I can do here is the channel Dick Enberg and say, “Oh my!” As you may imagine, this mis-timed posting of a workout in a gym has received a ton of attention and the trainer who created the posting and the graphics has been put on leave by Anytime Fitness and according to a company statement that trainer’s “employment status is under review”.
I think there is an important comparison to make here. After Drew Brees said what he did, lots of NFL players reacted in the moment and in character to his remarks. Malcom Jenkins posted on one of the social media sites a video where he spoke from his heart and his gut to the point that he came to tears. Others reacted and spoke or wrote in plain English what they felt/thought about what Brees said. It does not matter if you agree with what those players said about Drew Brees in that moment, but it was absolutely clear that what they said and wrote on social media was real and genuine. Please compare those reactions to the ones that emanate from Wauwatosa in this matter.
` Here are statements from Self-Esteem Brands and Anytime Fitness:
“One of our publicly-stated commitments to antiracism work is to bolster training efforts for our franchise owners to lead with empathy, love and respect. This incident makes it clear that we have work to do in this space; immediately, we are sharing this incident with our franchise owners worldwide as an example of what not to do, why it is offensive and what locations should be doing instead.”
As in the “Brees Incident”, it does not matter if you agree with this statement or not, consider if this sounds like something those brand executives would say in any normal discourse – – or if this was conjured up in a session with folks from “Legal” and “Public Relations”.
In a separate statement, the execs also said:
“This experience has further galvanized our commitment to antiracism education within our franchise network. To our employees, franchise owners, members and communities – especially those who are black, Indigenous and people of color – we deeply regret today’s events and we will continue to learn from these experiences. Our commitment to eliminating racism within our business is stronger than ever.”
As above, it is hard to disagree with any of the words or sentiments here – – but does anyone speak that way? For that matter, does anyone write that way unless they are “putting out a statement” with the intention of putting out a fire?
Here is a link to a report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about this incident where you can read more about the matter. Also included, of course, are statements issued by local political leaders who reflexively seized the opportunity to do some virtue-signaling.
Moving along… The Carolina Panthers signed XFL QB, PJ Walker to a one-year contract and Walker got a signing bonus of $150K. Walker played his college football at Temple and he was there when Matt Rhule was the head coach at Temple.
In addition, the Carolina Panthers signed former Vikes and Saints QB, Teddy Bridgewater to a 3-year contract that has $33M guaranteed and could be worth as much as $63M. I really hope that Coach Rhule does not try to portray what happens in Panthers’ training camp as a free and open competition at the QB position.
Oh, and the Panthers also have Will Grier – a 3rd round pick from Florida in 2019 – on the roster…
Finally, let me close today by asking if this ever occurred to you:
- How did the people on Gilligan’s Island stay so happy episode after episode after they ran out of whatever supply of toilet paper they had on board?
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………