Chase Cummings
ET Essay
Thoreau and Emerson, a group of transcendentalist who brought great ideals with them, through a time of struggle in the mid 1800’s.
The NFL, or National Football League, where stars can shine doing what they love for millions of fans.
Just as Emerson and Thoreau present their ideas in Civil Disobedience, the players in the NFL still emulate their ideas, maybe not all of the ideals, but they all feel they consist of a “majority of one.”
A first example of an NFL player protesting and emulating Civil Disobedience and the idea expressed throughout is Marshawn Lynch. Marshawn Lynch is a runningback for the Seattle Seahawks, and is known for his dynamic running and ability to power over people, which he receives the nickname …show more content…
Brandon Marshall is a former Chicago Bear player and current wide receiver for the New York Jets; however, his form of “protest” takes place when he was a Bear. Marshall suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder, which means it can make you act out in places that you don’t want to. This affected him greatly over the years as he went through the beginning of his career moving from team to team as he had a couple domestic violence cases which were the result of this disorder. Brandon Marshall protested the NFL policy that "Each team must designate a dominant base color for its shoes, either black or white (with shoelace color conforming to the dominant base color of the tongue area of the shoe)." He wore in two cases bright neon cleats which resulted in a fine for both times. This sounds very familiar to Lynch’s case as presented above, and shows the same argument can be made. Thoreau uses a similar story with a different topic, the government, and shows that to never back down as long as you have a purpose to not do doing so. So what is Brandon Marshall’s purpose to wearing these obnoxious neon cleats? He uses them to wear awareness of mental illness. In response to the fine, Marshall posted this on …show more content…
One example of this is the use of PED’s (Performance Enhancing Drugs) in the NFL. In a more recent case the San Diego tight end, Antonio Gates, was charged for using PED’s. The NFL strictly prohibits the use of these as they first off, give that player an unfair advantage against others, and secondly are extremely dangerous to one's health. The people who use these don’t even know that they are protesting. In Gates’ case, he “[has] never knowingly ingested a substance that was banned by the NFL." This “accident” was to try and give Gates an unfair advantage by rehabilitating him faster from the injuries he suffered last year. The Gates’ case seems completely different from Thoreau’s ideas, and for the most part it is but there is one way it is very similar. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau says that it is important that each person do what they believe is right. Sure, Gates may have known the PED’s he was taking were illegal, but he felt that he was doing the right thing by taking them. When you take into account how old he really is and how much of a beating that these NFL players take, it seems like the correct thing to do. Going out on a further stretch one might propose the cases with Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice. Both violated the NFL’s policy of abuse and outside the league protocol. Adrian Peterson was charged with beating his child, and
ET Essay
Thoreau and Emerson, a group of transcendentalist who brought great ideals with them, through a time of struggle in the mid 1800’s.
The NFL, or National Football League, where stars can shine doing what they love for millions of fans.
Just as Emerson and Thoreau present their ideas in Civil Disobedience, the players in the NFL still emulate their ideas, maybe not all of the ideals, but they all feel they consist of a “majority of one.”
A first example of an NFL player protesting and emulating Civil Disobedience and the idea expressed throughout is Marshawn Lynch. Marshawn Lynch is a runningback for the Seattle Seahawks, and is known for his dynamic running and ability to power over people, which he receives the nickname …show more content…
Brandon Marshall is a former Chicago Bear player and current wide receiver for the New York Jets; however, his form of “protest” takes place when he was a Bear. Marshall suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder, which means it can make you act out in places that you don’t want to. This affected him greatly over the years as he went through the beginning of his career moving from team to team as he had a couple domestic violence cases which were the result of this disorder. Brandon Marshall protested the NFL policy that "Each team must designate a dominant base color for its shoes, either black or white (with shoelace color conforming to the dominant base color of the tongue area of the shoe)." He wore in two cases bright neon cleats which resulted in a fine for both times. This sounds very familiar to Lynch’s case as presented above, and shows the same argument can be made. Thoreau uses a similar story with a different topic, the government, and shows that to never back down as long as you have a purpose to not do doing so. So what is Brandon Marshall’s purpose to wearing these obnoxious neon cleats? He uses them to wear awareness of mental illness. In response to the fine, Marshall posted this on …show more content…
One example of this is the use of PED’s (Performance Enhancing Drugs) in the NFL. In a more recent case the San Diego tight end, Antonio Gates, was charged for using PED’s. The NFL strictly prohibits the use of these as they first off, give that player an unfair advantage against others, and secondly are extremely dangerous to one's health. The people who use these don’t even know that they are protesting. In Gates’ case, he “[has] never knowingly ingested a substance that was banned by the NFL." This “accident” was to try and give Gates an unfair advantage by rehabilitating him faster from the injuries he suffered last year. The Gates’ case seems completely different from Thoreau’s ideas, and for the most part it is but there is one way it is very similar. In Civil Disobedience Thoreau says that it is important that each person do what they believe is right. Sure, Gates may have known the PED’s he was taking were illegal, but he felt that he was doing the right thing by taking them. When you take into account how old he really is and how much of a beating that these NFL players take, it seems like the correct thing to do. Going out on a further stretch one might propose the cases with Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice. Both violated the NFL’s policy of abuse and outside the league protocol. Adrian Peterson was charged with beating his child, and