An NBC Sports writer gets what Christianity is and what America is all wrong

First, let's look at what San Francisco Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod said about taking the knee:

San Francisco Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod refused to kneel in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement ahead of the team’s season opener Friday, saying he would feel “like a hypocrite” because of his Christian faith and personal beliefs.

“I don’t think I’m better than anybody. I’m just a Christian,” he told reporters. “I believe I can’t kneel before anything but God, Jesus Christ. I chose not to kneel. I feel if I did kneel I’d be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”

He added that he “just can’t get on board with a couple things I’ve read about Black Lives Matter. How they lean towards Marxism and … they said some negative things about the nuclear family.”

All his teammates, as well as all the opposing Los Angeles Dodgers, knelt before their game last week. Giants manager Gabe Kapler was gracious about Coonrod's decision, and Coonrod returned the graciousness:

“The one thing we said is we were going to let people express themselves,” Kapler said. “We were going to give them the choice on whether they were going to stand, kneel or do something else. That was a personal decision for Sam.”

Coonrod said he meant “no ill will” by his gesture and added, “I’m not mad at someone who decided to kneel. I just don’t think it’s too much to ask that I just get the same respect.”

Now, NBC Sports journalist Monte Poole seeks to get in on the graciousness vibe, but you can see from the setup that it's going to be backhanded:

All the Giants pitcher did was exercise the right that all Americans have, at least theoretically. Freedom of choice. The right for which millions of Americans fought, with many dying. For that reason, Coonrod’s decision to stand rather than join his kneeling manager and teammates during a pregame moment of unity at Dodger Stadium should be above criticism.

He did nothing wrong.

Okay. So that's the long and the short of it, right?

Not so fast. You see, Coonrod self-identifies as a Christian, and Poole deigns to have the real understanding of what a Christian is - and, for that matter, how humanity is defined:

He said plenty wrong, though, offering up an explanation that slid off his tongue and went dribbling down his chest like liquid contradiction.

"I'm a Christian,” he said.

When did real Christianity opt out of humanity? Give a pass to injustice and inequality? Decide that it’s disrespectful to offer support, if not shelter, to those in need? Does Coonrod not realize that pastors of all faiths are joining crowds around the world fighting for these very ideals?

So being uncomfortable with the significance with which taking a knee is fraught means one is ignoring injustice and inequality? And it seems we're veering awfully close here to saying that America - whose anthem is played when athletes take a knee - is inherently unjust and unequal.

In Poole's formulation, well, yeah, because focusing on BLM's inherent radicalism is just an excuse to take exception to the claim America obviously that it has a core flaw. You see, one is morally obligated to agree that it has a core flaw and bring it to light whenever expressions of patriotism are on the agenda:

But if Coonrod had taken a moment to inform himself, he would see motive behind this movement need not be affiliated with BLM but, rather, to bring greater awareness to the racial injustices that is its focus.

Ian Williams, NBC Sports Bay Area analyst and former 49ers defensive lineman, responded to Coonrod’s reasoning by calling BS on it.

“Let me make this clear,” Williams tweeted. “You don’t have to be on board with BLACK LIVES MATTER. But I do need you to be on board with EQUALITY FOR ALL and ENDING RACISM.

“It’s simple. If you don’t want those 2 simple things, you know what you are.”

Which is to imply Coonrod’s own interests are in conflict with protesting racial inequality.

Why Poole is up to here is really insidious. He's trying to forever, from 2020 on, change the point of sports in American life. It's not just about home runs, three-pointers and touchdowns, about players establishing the status of legends with career achievements, or the legacies of teams. It's about drumming into the heads of all who follow sports that America is wretched and we can't let a little entertainment take our minds off of that. It would be downright un-Christian. 

I don't post about this in order to make some small effort to reverse the tide. The tide is irreversible. The self-ruination of professional sports is now complete. 

All that's left is to stomp the few remaining patriotic Christians involved in that sector of this nation's life into the dust.