The Super Bowl, Kevin Chapman, and Me

by Angela K. Durden
The Most Brilliant Woman in the World

Citizen Journalist.  Novelist. Author of other stuff. 

Business writer.  Songwriter.  Protecting creator's copyrights. 

Super Bowl Sunday. February 3, 2019. When the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams came to my town — Atlanta, Georgia — to make history in game LIII. And make history they did.

Besides having not one touchdown in the game until the fourth quarter, the game had the lowest final score ever.

Patriots won 13 to 3.

One touchdown (NE) and four kicks (two field goals and one conversion for NE, and one field goal for LA) were the only opportunities the crowd had for rooting for their teams.

In fact, social media meme legend already has it that fans were catching up on their sleep during the game. All that partying they’d been doing pre-game had worn them out and nothing was keeping them alert.

I watched the game and have to disagree with those lazy, ungrateful fans. The game might not have been full of photo-op action, but my goodness was it ever full of high drama. First, you had your battling game-opening singers (one old, two young) though, frankly, Gladys Knight won that just by being there. When she opened her mouth, the first note told you the other two young thangs had a long way to go. Knight got the screaming ovation and the young thangs got the polite applause. But that’s okay.

Next, you had your battling coaches (one old, one young) pacing the sidelines and screaming when they should and wiping sweat from worried brow. Then you had your battling quarterbacks (one old, one young). One with a supermodel wife, the other lining up for his. Then you had your TV announcers playing armchair psychologists — that is, drumming up reasons — explaining why Brady had only led his team to score 3 points in the first half and had not already obliterated the Rams.

Then there was the schizophrenic halftime show wherein all the pieces were there for a great performance, but no amount of big-hair slinging, tattoo-baring, bling-flashing, smack-rapping, drum-rolling, incendiary-bleeping, guitar-shredding effort saved it. Maroon 5, Big Boi (half of Outkast), Travis Scott, and the musicians and choir that backed them up are fabulous. The artists, singers, and musicians should not have been blamed.

I bet it is was a committee made up of New York apparatchiks in the NFL’s Marketing Department that put that lame show together.

The whole evening sounds boring. I get it.

But I was watching the field closely and let me tell you, there was not one player on that field who was phoning it in. That low score was because you had two teams equally situated in talent, strength, and maneuverability. Each team fought for every yard forward — in one case, mere inches — and did not willingly give up any advantage. Each player’s heart and soul was brought to the temple and sacrificed on the green altar of top-of-the-line monofilament fiber called Revolution 360 from FieldTurf with some sort of padding under it.

In any case, whether running on padded carpet or not, respect was earned that night. Each team should be proud of what they did.

Of course, not everybody agrees with me. First thing I see on Social Media, before the game is barely over, is a bunch of people complaining about the low entertainment factor. These same people must be Democrats, Liberals, Socialists, and pussy-hat wearers. You are correct. That last statement was redundant. Still, I feel like I need to restate it because they miss the fine points of everything. To them, a struggle is having to march in the street without a Starbucks nearby to get their fix of caffeinated Socialism.

So, anyway…

There I was on a fine Super Bowl Sunday, making like a photographer in Downtown Atlanta while Andy Zabinski, a friend of mine who is with the symphony, plays violin on the sidewalks, when this guy walks by. Our eyes caught and I thought, “Wow. He looks familiar. I wonder if I know him from a Jazz jam or something?” And he was looking at me like he knew me, therefore, naturally it would follow I would point and say, “Hey! You! I know you, right?”

The man nodded in the affirmative. He stopped and turned toward me and I was just about to ask him where I knew him from when I said, “Oh! You're that guy on that show.”

He nodded again and held out his hand and I shook it.

By now I totally could see the show in my head but could not remember the name of the show or the guy's character's name, but I knew it completely.

After a few seconds of me not saying anything and trying to think of the name of the show and just staring at him while we kept shaking hands, I realized he was asking me a question. Several times he said, “What is your name?”

I said, “My name?”

Then came another long pause, not because I didn't remember my name (though I have forgotten it in the past), but because I was wondering why he wanted to know my name.

He said, “Yes. YOUR name. What is it?”

“It's Angela.”

“Well, hello, Angela.” And he went to leave.

At which point I said, “Look, don't rush off. Let me say this: I loved your character. You did a FINE job with him. And, you were so good, I cried a few times.”

He said thank you and we parted.

Around midnight, of course, is when I woke up and hollered “Duh! Person of Interest. Detective Fusco!”

The story gets better. On the show, Kevin Chapman (his real name) looks tall and big. Online it says he is 5' 7". Well, if he is 5' 7" then I am 6' 5".

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Protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States is something we all must do.

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.

Aren't you just loving the new wrappers on Snickers bars? I am.

More sponsorship deals are being lost by kneeling NFL players. From car dealerships to beverage distributors, companies are chosing not to put their money where they feel they are not being best represented.

On the other hand, USAA is continuing sponsorship saying they are doing it as a way to show appreciation for the military. Joining them in continuing sponsorship are Under Armor, Ford, Nike, Hyundai, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Bose.

Stand or kneel. Sponsor or not.
In each instance, everyone is right.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is why the health of the Constitution of the United States is so vital. It is why the world comes to the U.S. by the millions to have a better life. There's a reason millions in the U.S. aren't going to other countries. I know U.S. citizens who thought it was better somewhere else and came back forthwith with hair-curling tales.

Yet, the Constitution has consistently been under attack since the early 1900s. There are those who want the protections it affords citizens to be destroyed because they want a socialist, communist, or fascist style of government.

They truly don't care which of the three styles because it all comes down to the same thing: Citizens' freedoms are gone.

Yes, there is drama around the NFL kneeling thing. And yes, it is getting column inches and airplay.

But what a great way to get attention on the multiple ways our Constitution is under attack. One of those attacks involves the rights of creatives to own and benefit from their own creations. Read more about that here.

So, good on the NFL management and all players,
sponsors and non-sponsors,
and supportive and non-supportive fans:
You are why the Constitution will remain strong.

Open Letter to Anheuser Busch, or How to fight terrorism everywhere you find it.

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.

October 2, 2017

Dear Anheuser Busch,

I rarely drink beer and can count on one hand football games I've watched in my lifetime. Still, I called y'all Sunday and left a message. Hope you've checked your machine, though I have a feeling that the message may get lost seeing as so many folks have been calling.

Let me be very clear: everybody knows NFL players are "taking a knee" for all the wrong reasons. But their "taking a knee" is going to be good in the long run for reasons they have no clue about. For that reason, your company should not stop advertising on the NFL shows because to do so would go completely against your company's fine tradition of supporting the Constitution of the United States.

In case you have forgotten — 

— that fine document is the foundation upon which millions, if not billions, of people depend. You got natural-born citizens of the U.S. You got legal immigrants here to seek opportunity and a better life. You got oppressed peoples around the world looking at the United States with hope — Hope! — and saying, "They did it. Freedom is possible."

Heck, as a company, y'all have depended on the Constitution to build your business —  and even go out of your way to hire people who fought to defend it.

Which means you owe it to your employees as well as your customers to understand the roar of the crowd calling for the heads of shortsighted NFL players. The fans know something is not right about what the players are doing. Hear them for that. But your job is to focus, focus, focus on what is actually happening and help the players to do a better job of choosing the hill on which they will die. 

To bring you up to speed, read this article I wrote in support of the NFL just the other day.  You will also want to read my totally brilliant but also spot-on serious article here I wrote last year when Colin first started this thing.

Unbeknownst to themselves, Colin and the others are making a stand for what the United States is all about, the reason it was formed in the first place, and the reason we have such a strong Constitution. 

You see, the Constitution guarantees freedom to think and act according to one's conscience in all things political and religious, and that economic sanctions should not be imposed by any entity in power because those stands are taken.

Way back when the kings of England ran folks out of their country to these shores and then exported their tyranny across the pond, it caused folks here to write a letter they called Declaration of Independence.

They laid out all the reasons the kings were wrong and set forth their intent. If you haven't read it, you should do so now. 

But even then the 56 declarers of independence knew that most folks don't think deeply or long-term. That's why they said, and I quote — 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

In other words, the writers (many of whom liked beer and, I daresay, brewed their own) understood they should not make any decision hastily. Therefore, before they declared independence, they allowed the English king to prove he was not going to change.

There is no doubt the NFL's business is being affected negatively because these guys are taking a knee for all the wrong reasons. So, as a business decision, all this is not good, as I wrote in this article. And you, as a company, will not want to pull your ads hastily. Find another way because —

Isn't it at times like this when one should act with prudence? 

Taking a knee is not the problem because the real problem is what has been happening behind the scenes for over a hundred years: There is a concerted and growing effort to gut the protections of the Constitution of the United States and turn it into a country ruled by one of the Big Isms. Read what I say about that here.

NFL players who are taking a knee themselves do not know they are defending the Constitution of the United States. But they are defending it. Granted, that defense is getting buried in a mucky mess of political correctness and it is that political correctness you should be fighting because it is designed to destroy freedom.

Dear, dear, dear Anheuser Busch. You who have the hearts, ears, and eyes of millions of folks on and with you. Yes, it is you who should get that marketing agency of yours busy on a series of ads lauding the fact that the Constitution is so strong it will defend the freedoms of even those easily manipulated idiots on the field.

Get them to put together a kick-ass ad campaign that will show domestic and foreign rabble-rousers — hell, let's call them what they are, terrorists — just how much the U.S. citizen will not put up with.

I can see it now. That cute dog of yours makes a stupid decision and goes to play in the woods all alone. Doggy sees other dogs, not knowing they are big, bad, and mean. Doggy is set upon! Doggy yelps. Your horses hear their dog friend yelping "Help! Help!" Horses come galloping around the corner as a body and kick the sh*t out of the predators. Horses safely escort Doggy home. Happy ending.

See? Brilliant! Metaphor dripping everywhere.

Fans will love it. Terrorists will not, but they'll get the point.

Do your duty. 

Sincerely,

Citizen Journalist.
Lover and defender of freedom.
But not a beer or football fan.

Slippery slope to the Big Isms.

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.

Yeah. This is humorous.
But the subject is much more serious than this. 

When Colin Kaepernick started his public thing last year I wrote an article in defense of his right not to be forced into public displays of patriotism. You will want to read my totally brilliant but also spot-on serious article here.

Unbeknownst to himself, Colin was making a stand for what the United States is all about, the reason it was formed in the first place, and the reason we have such a strong Constitution. Which reason was formed and defended, I might add, at great sacrifice by thousands, nay millions.

Google Search screensnip.

And while I do not have a problem with Colin or anybody else not saluting the flag, come to find out the NFL has been taking money each year from government entities to put in flag ceremonies. Government-funded fan marketing. Hmmm...

So the short-sighted owners have brought this war to their own doorsteps. Idiots? Maybe.

Like many gubment programs that seem good to start with, this one has gotten out of control.

"The Hammer" should know better
than to diss the right to protest.
Hello? Donald? 

Now many players are taking a knee in protest of this and that. The whole subject even has Donald Trump spouting his opinion using cuss words and slinging Yo mama insults.

"The Hammer" should know better than that, but he might very well be using this debacle as an opportunity to deflect attention elsewhere. Everybody has their limits when under fire.

As a business decision, all this is not good, as I wrote.

But isn't that when one should stand up even more? Private companies might have a right to demand their employees do certain things that go against their religion, politics, or personal belief system. They might even have it written into their employment contracts.

But such things like that do not a free country make.

Business requiring such acquiescence backed up by threat of economic sanctions sure does sound a lot like how Hitler started getting his power.

Many folks — soldiers and civilians alike — who fought for and defended the Constitution on the battlefield and through the Court, may not truly understand that their righteously patriotic indignation against football players is misplaced.

NFL players who are taking a knee themselves do not know they are defending the Constitution of the United States.

But they are defending it.

When government entities by law or hook-or-crook, private enterprise via economic sanctions, or your preacher or your daddy or your good buddy via public humiliation, attempts to force you to prove your patriotic or religious quality, then we are on the slippery slope heading fast toward the big isms: Communism. Socialism. Fascism. And oligarchyism. (I made that last word up, but it will be a thing. You read it here first.)