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Post Independent
Glenwood Springs, CO COlorado

The National Football League is a joke, a bad one at that. Even the designation of “football team” is a misnomer; a fading reference to a time where strength of character was a shared attribute and individual goals yielded to some larger group objective.

To note this gradual shift toward the exaltation of individual achievement over the “team”, I would propose doing away with team uniforms and clothe athletes according to the following standards:

Folks like Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress would wear striped uniforms with helmets embossed with handcuffs or some logo representative the criminal offense for which they are now famous. Instead of having a team number on the jersey you could have a range like 3-5 or 5-10 instead. Individuals returning to the game after brief retirements, like Brett Favre for example, could wear either adult diapers or AARP logos. Steroid abusers, might wear superman capes and be prevented from wearing helmets, for example. Instead of protective gear, they could embroider pill bottles or hypodermic needles on the capes.



Not all team members would require negatively disposed sports garb. The Manning brothers, for example, could wear small satellite dishes instead of helmets. Those who whine about 2 million dollar salaries, like Brandon Marshall, could be clothed entirely in uniforms made of dollar bills and would always be selected for the coin toss. In cases where a number of players requiring the same style of uniform arose, new teams could emerge. Guys like John Lynch, Bill Romanowski or Brett Favre, could start a new franchise like the “Los Angeles Traitors.” Players with vast commercial appeal could be re-branded as the “Seattle Sell-Outs”, for example. Bill Belichick could be dressed as a peeping tom.

Yes, professional football could use a good dose of truth. One might even suggest that the notion that this particular sport contributes in some meaningful way to the social fabric (at least to the extent that its benefits outweigh its burdens) is untrue. Let’s put the horse down. You can start with Broncos for all I care.



Bruce Munroe

Glenwood Springs

In response to Mariane Maynard’s recent letter: I find it mildly entertaining that you say you are upset at people for blaming Obama, and then turn around and blame Bush. And indeed you are right that Bush had his problematic decisions (see TARP).

You cannot, however, blame Bush for Hurricane Katrina. In fact, President Bush never should have had to call out the National Guard to save New Orleans. That responsibility was supposed to go to the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of that city. There was an emergency plan to evacuate the city for just such a hurricane. That plan wasn’t even implemented by the state officials (who ironically blamed Bush for their failure). Blaming Bush for the housing crisis would also be incorrect. That was caused predominately by a bill passed in 1977 called the Community Reinvestment Act (passed by a Democrat controlled congress) wherein banks were required to make loans to people that were unqualified.

I completely agree with you that Kenneth Lay and his role in the corporate abuses at Enron are despicable. But he was not in the government. I find it questionable at best and terrifying at worst that our current President has surrounded himself with self-professed communists and domestic terrorists. Haven’t we spent the last hundred years fighting that? On a different note: How many of Obama’s nominees have “problems” with their taxes? Try four who didn’t make it, and Tim Geithner who now controls our money.

There are undoubtedly some people who hate Obama. Then there are the rest of us who respect the presidency and disagree with the President’s actions completely. Fixing the system would mean taking the existing items and changing the parts that don’t work. But that’s not what Obama is trying to do. In his own words he is “fundamentally transforming America.” I truly hope and pray that President Obama saves this country. But the facts dictate something different.

Matthew Skeen

Glenwood Springs


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