Part 2: Dealing With Reality in Our Terminational Years

Part 2: Dealing With Reality Past Our Productive Years

So, some of us survive our formative years and our productive years, and with some luck, manage  at least modest successes. Now what? Diversity generates differences in how best a particular person handles their terminational years. Most people need sufficient social contact with others to be contented in their terminational years. Relatively good health is needed for most people to be contented. If foresight ever means anything, protecting our health in our formative and productive years is important. Probably most people need to let go of their productive years’ career. If that can’t be done it tends to generate frustration because, like it or not, things will be different. A new generation should, and is, running the show at that point. The productive years are the best years to feel important; the terminational years can be a lot of things, but it is rare for anyone to feel more important in their terminational years. The reality is that we are no longer important at all, for the most part. The need to feel important in the greater schemes of things is natural enough, but will always be elusive and fleeting. In some variable sense we have many opportunities to feel important—and these are good feelings—but time either helps us understand our unimportance to the evolutionary process or we proceed to be frustrated till our death. This idea that unless we are important we are failures is a misconceived perception. The only thing we can individually achieve worth a tinkers dam in life is some contentment, for the reality is that we, in the big scheme of things, are not important to evolutionary progress. 

Contentment depends on accepting the realities of life, but these individual realities will differ. Those people who think they are special to God and God is protecting them from the potholes in life, often end up with some version of “why hast thou forsaken me God?” I have heard this a lot from older people. Many people end up with a terrible existence, not because God has forsaken them, but because their fellow humans have forsaken them by not individually or collectively behaving ethically—that is, by living their lives via the Golden Rule. When someone suffers because their job does not pay a living wage or their pension gets dropped, or they can’t afford proper medical care—God did not forsake them, humans have collectively failed them via their government. That, it seems to me, is reality. 

We may not have evolved yet to the point where we know all that much, but all humans, at this point in the evolutionary process, understand that the Golden Rule as an ethical principle. All humans have to do is have most humans at all levels of society follow the Golden Rule and most of the misery apparent across our globe would be eliminated. There is no reason why every child in this country and throughout the world cannot have the same amount of money spent on their education as other children, or every child cannot get good health care, or all adults have an opportunity for a job at living wages, or have adequate vacation time to enjoy life, and the list goes on and on. This is the reality that humans collectively will not accept. Instead humans invented various religious sects to keep us at ‘war’, in one way or another, with each other. Then to justify man’s inhumanity to each other we invented ‘family values’  which allows many humans to justify their self-centered behavior as an ethical lifestyle. 

What does ‘family values’ do but justify being satisfied if your own children have good schools, or good health care, or live in a safe neighborhood, or anyone in your family is not one of the 43% of American adults who don’t earn enough money to even qualify to pay federal income tax? Or justify using mercenaries, most of whom sign up as a means to get the money, to fight our endless invasions on borrowed money—at the same time many Americans become wealthy producing all the equipment and services needed to sustain the invasions—including the 800 foreign military bases maintained in order for us to invade anywhere at the drop of a hat. Of course we then don’t have the money to maintain our own infrastructures, or properly care for all our communities and citizens. For decades we actually encouraged illegal immigrants to come here and work for sub minimal wages so our own citizens (another form of family values) can have material goods at cheaper prices via slave labor. Politics, more so today than ever, has been brazenly reduced to each party running for office essentially on the premise that if elected they will grease the wheels of government for their own base and make sure the other party’s base pays for it. This could be endlessly elaborated here, but if there is any point to be made here, it has been sufficiently made. 

Our collective ethics has failed the human species big time.  This is the planetary reality of the present time. This does not spell doomsday for the future, nor even is it to be surprising. Why would we even remotely conclude that the evolutionary process has been completed and a predictable evolutionary correction will not be needed for long term progress? There have been many evolutionary corrections made over time—evolutionary time—and the only thing different now is that these corrections coming down the pike for our age are, for the first time, caused by the actions of a particular species—our species. Fortunately, despite the self serving assumptions that we, as the most advanced species, are running the show now, that we as individuals can get God to bless us and protect us from the landmines of life, that we are indeed important as individuals in the evolutionary process—despite all this self-serving illusionary self-importance, all any of us ever get, is a chance, by chance, to exist for a minuscule period of time, while how much contentment all humans can attain is dependent on just how many humans manage to live their lives by the Golden Rule. To the extent we all do determines the extent to which the most humans on our planet achieve the maximum amount of contentment in their lives. Right now those who live by the Golden Rule are in a distinct minority. And thus contentment is at a minimum for a high percentage of our species.

While we are clearly failing here, like we did with the slavery issue for centuries, our misdirected ethics will likely evolve in a positive way whether it be an improved human species or a new species or whatever, and none of this is under our control as a species. I am more contented in my terminational years than I was in my formative and productive years, but not because I am a better person than anyone else, but because by chance, good luck, genetics, and environment, I don’t have expensive hobbies or an expensive lifestyle and therefore it is no big sacrifice for me to generously pay into my FANAFI FUND, which enables me to treat all kinds of recipients, including our planetary environment as I would like to be treated if I were in their shoes. The Golden Rule is the only avenue to contentment for humans—and so, by default and accident, my FNAFI Fund is the source of my contentment. Many others are not so fortunate, they are burdened with all sorts of addictive and compulsive behaviors centered around more self serving material things, titles, power, wealth, sex, overeating, expensive hobbies, genetic allegiances, and so on. Those who learn to appreciate the simple things in life, appreciate diversity, and treat the less fortunate in life as they themselves would like to be treated if they were, by chance, the less fortunate in life. Those who go this route will be in sync with reality and be contented for it. None of us can control the future—the best any of us can do is to help the less fortunate achieve some contentment in their lives and by doing so maximize our own contentment in life. God, through His/Her/Its laws governing the evolutionary process will take care of the future. We just need to take better care of each other. Evolution is God’s job. Ours is to help take care of each other especially the less fortunate. 

Here’s one example: We have managed, as a species, to have created 75 million refugees living with no land, no job, many starving, most with poor health care, etc.  Nobody wants them for obvious reasons. If every affluent person across the globe gave money on a scale dependent on their actual wealth, every one of these refugees could have a place to live, a job of some sort equal to their skills at a living wage.  Then, no more welfare for them, case is closed. But those who value money as their main goal in life would have a fit and would irately state: “over my dead body”.

One more example, if every person on a planet with human overpopulation, would simply accept the Golden Rule and understand that any right to have as many children as we might want, is overshadowed by the harm being done to humans as a group with overpopulation. Right now the reality is that raising two kids well is the best thing for everyone everywhere.  If someone wants to raise more, then adopt children. 

There is no evidence that the Golden Rule is gaining traction as the basis for ethical human behavior, and considering how the evolutionary process works, this should not be a big surprise. As human overpopulation surges, the Golden Rule will become less and less practiced. It will, and is, becoming more every one and every group for themselves. As a species we are not yet developed enough in this genetic trait. Mother Nature will get this job done too, as she has other specie deficiencies in the past. Like everyone else I wish my existence could be more important in the evolutionary process. Failing here, at least there is a way to increase my contentment until my time is up. Too many of my neurons have already checked out. But I will try to deal with reality—The Golden Rule and gratitude for the many good things in my past, including people, things, and events, will help me now go gently down the stream to the great unknown. If death is really death, I take comfort in that I will, after death, never be frustrated or angry or disappointed by anything ever again. Fair enough. If I had a tombstone, which I do not plan to have, it would read: “Here only the shell remains. The Nut is gone. If you are here looking at this stone try to give a shit.”

All of the above seems reasonable enough for my particular life, but since we are all different it seems presumptuous that any of the above is any one plan for all. So anyone who reads this may well have wasted their time in that my perception of reality, arrived at through my particular life experiences, probably will not match anyone else’s perception of reality arrived at through their own particular life experiences. My dad made clear to me that once 18, I would be on my own, not comfortably cocooned by any parental umbrella for life. At that point in time I thought this was cruel and lacking in love. I came with time to sense that my dad understood someone like myself could only achieve success on my own, be forced to make corrections after any mistakes, and that any assistance for me would have to come from others, who for whatever reason, would provide support or defend me if my goals at the time were meritorious. And miraculously it worked—not perfectly by any means, but the Golden Rule saved my ass numerous times when the chips were down. Often the life lines for me came from people of all backgrounds, ethnic status, religions, cultures, economic status, sexual orientations, marital states, personalities, and whatever. Rarely were we even remotely best of friends. So I reckon it is hardly surprising that I learned to appreciate diversity and ended up with a strong need to pay back the kindnesses I got from so many diverse people by returning this sort of kindness myself for practically anyone or any group, of any ilk, who needs help. What goes around comes around. Someone like myself who needed so much help at so many points in my life, is going to feel a strong need to be that same kind of person towards those with needs. It became a special sort of reward when a student or adult or total stranger would look stunned and ask “Why are you doing this?” And I learned to reply, “Well I hope you, yourself, will pass this on to someone in need whether you know them well or not, and that way, together, we can make more people have some contentment in their lives. I guess it is a selfish thing for me, at this point in time, in that it brings me contentment, more so now than any other thing I do in life. I just like the contentment it brings me, and value it a lot. 

Just today is one example: I was leaving Home Depot, with 3 8ft two by fours in my hand when some young employee stopped me in the parking lot and offered to carry the lumber to my car. I declined telling him “I am old, but only look useless.” But he insisted that he help and carried the damn lumber to my car. As we put the lumber in my car I told him, “don’t rush away I have something for you.” But, he point blank refused saying “No, no, I didn’t help you to get a tip” and walked away.  Then I went to the grocery store but the more I thought about his simple gesture it bothered me. Here is some kid, making probably $8 an hour, probably in his early twenties, and he just helps someone because he senses they need help. Period. So, after the grocery store, I went back to Home Depot but couldn’t find him, so I asked a clerk if they knew who I was looking for—a black kid who helped me carry some lumbar to my car and I wanted to tip him.  She said she did and called on her phone for him to come to the front of the store. I saw him coming down this far isle so I met him halfway. “Okay young man, this is going to be your lucky day. When the President of the United States feels a need to insult whole races and cultures with vulgar language it is time for others who don’t feel that way to make sure his victims understand that everyone not of that race or culture feels that way at all. You take this as a reminder that your willingness to help others of any age or color is something which I hope you never lose.” I put $50 in his hand, patted him on the back, and told him “don’t ever change, in the long run your attitude will pay dividends”. He looked stunned, but I scooted away as fast as I had arrived. 

Every act of kindness to the less fortunate—direct, or through my FANAFI Fund—provides me with the contentment needed for my terminational years, and when I die virtually all my money will go to those with the greatest needs or to protecting the environment. I am a good American in that I believe every adult needs to earn their own excess wealth and this current obsession with creating genetic cabals is unethical and upon death excess money should be returned into the society from which it came, so all others have a more level playing field to achieve success via their own efforts. Inherited money is unearned wealth. 

I don’t do this because I am a nice guy or more ethical than anyone else—I do it because it makes me feel contented to do it, a simple way of being useful as a hermit and returning to others the same kind of kindness I got from other strangers throughout my life. And yes, it is possible that, for example, the  father of the kid at Home Depot could be one of the wealthiest persons in town or whatever, but it makes no difference—whatever his station in life he will be appreciative and thereby be more likely to help others down the road as he was just helped. The example we all should be setting is that, as responsible citizens we help each other out—and not just our own family or own group of any sort. This social and political atmosphere in this country today is becoming more and more toxic, one of ‘everybody for themselves or their own group’. This is sad, and my hope is that soon, enough people will utilize what Lincoln termed “the better angels of our nature” and start being concerned about not only their own problems but the problems faced by other groups of citizens and begin to support each other and each others problems the same way we focus on our own needs. If this happens, all will become better than ever; if it doesn’t it will be another Civil War—not one with soldiers on a battlefield, but this one will be on all the streets of America, with terroristic acts everywhere, until the rubble here is similar to all the rubble in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and so on. Communities will end up being ruled by thugs until some other thugs gain control for a period and the cycle proceeds this way with positive feedback and no end in sight. Why we think we are exempt from this sort of outcome is beyond me. I can sit and hope for maybe another 7 years of good living before I croak, but the younger people don’t have that luxury and all these people determined to take care of their own kind and thus make life more miserable for others are illusionary. We have three huge populations, none of which is any longer in a clear majority. They either decide to get along and support each other and each other’s problems, or another civil war erupts. These kind of wars, once started, never cease until there is little left to save. Not a pretty picture. Welcome to modern warfare where our country with vast military superiority has not won a war since basically Korea—which was really just a stalemate and going strong yet. Even there in North Korea, the Trump clone is obsessive about an opportunity to create as much infrastructure damage to our country as we did to theirs during the Korean War. Every other invasion by the U.S. to bring peace and prosperity to the invaded country failed miserably, and on borrowed money to boot. Crazy. 

Part of reality appears to be that a parent cannot create any lasting sense of contentment for their offspring via inheritance or financial support past their formative years. Perhaps there are a few exceptions. The ‘American Way’ is to earn ones own wealth on their own. Handing offspring wealth or titles or power is rarely successful. Andrew Carnegie was one of the first really wealthy Americans to understand this: “I would rather leave my son a curse as the almighty dollar”. The wealth of Bill gates is greater than the total annual national incomes of the 54 poorest countries. Unlimited capitalism is not healthy for any society and Bill Gates understands this— so on his own he puts most of it back into the society from which it was obtained. After all, this vast accumulation didn’t come from the Federal Mint but from the rest of us—an informal form of taxation. I don’t know what his son does for a living or how contented he is. But Warren Buffet’s son is a farmer and very contented at what he does. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, from all appearances, are two of the most contented people in our country. Buffet still lives in the $40,000 house he bought back in the 1950’s. Compare his level of contentment with Donald Trump whose compulsive/addictive behavior toward wealth has gained him 24 hours of anger at everything, almost every diverse group, with zero contentment to show for it all. With a trophy wife and resultant family he and his wife sleep in separate bedrooms while it now appears he  paid a porn star for sexual favors for at least a year and then paid her hush money to keep her quiet. If true, and it’s hard to know how much is true about Trump, but the immense callous weirdness of this man will certainly be sifted through and more accurately assessed as time passes. If one tenth of his purported life is true it will be a sad sad spectacle. Talking of shit-hole environments, his must be right up there.

Letting offspring become adults and be on their own is typical of the animal kingdom. What is different with humans is the long formative years before adulthood is reached. The healthiest relationships between parents and offspring seems to be when the offspring have succeeded on their own and everybody immensely enjoys Holiday gatherings. Many families never have these kind of holidays because the children have never left the nest. Is this ever successful or healthy? Hard to say and for certain I am not the one to pass judgement on this. Defining a good parent is way past my pay grade. My father’s role as a parent was certainly life saving for me, but my brother had a totally different take on it and was bitter toward my dad all his life. If life is anything it is complicated. 

To end this in some sort of fashion I guess reality is different for different humans. There is never any clear view of reality because we all see it through the prisms of our own eyes and neural network. But, in my mind, contentment cannot be maximized without  adherence to the Golden Rule by the maximum number of humans. We are indeed, dependent on this principle of ethics for any society to be peaceful and prosperous for the greatest number of citizens. Even if this is true, it sure took myself a long time and many mistakes to figure it all out. I suppose better late than never, and I reckon understanding too much too fast, just as acquiring too much wealth too fast is probably not a good thing. Spreading personal progress out over the years seems to generate a greater degree of eventual contentment. The lucky are probably those who, for whatever reasons, are contented with the simpler things in life, and therefore enough is enough comes easy for them. That is probably better than winning the lottery. “Indeed, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards says nearly a third of lottery winners declare bankruptcy—meaning they were worse off than before they became rich. Other studies show that lottery winners frequently become estranged from family and friends, and incur a greater incidence of depression, drug and alcohol abuse, divorce, and suicide than the average American.”  That does it. If I ever win the lottery (although I can’t because I never play it. That’s for people who can’t do the math) I will give all the money to someone I don’t like. Smile. 

Dealing With Reality Past the Productive Years— Part 1 of 2 (to be posted within 2 days)

Dealing With Reality Past the Productive Years— Part 1 of 2 (to be posted within 2 days)

It takes humans long formative years before any, even modest, understanding of life realities can be vaguely understood. Compared to other species, we clearly are the smartest, albeit that barely puts a dent in our understanding reality to any appreciable extent. I reckon it is reasonable enough, as the smartest species on our planet, to assume we must be here to run the show. Some of us never lose this youthful cockiness. While I think my formative years’ bewilderment of all things good and bad was worse than most others, the persistent feeling remained that life must be, to some extent, an experience that necessitates pondering things ad nausea. So many assumptions, about so many things, kept falling by the wayside, to be replaced by new perceptions based on new evidence. Time after time, after I had the pins all set up for a strike, my actions produced a gutter ball. So back it was to the drawing board, and while I got better clarity on so many things, this clarity didn’t always enable me, by myself, to effectuate a needed outcome on so many matters.  It seems we all seek contentment, but human diversity prevents any clearly marked expressways to contentment. It seems too many people, frustrated by all the complexities and diversity, choose rigidity as their main defense strategy. Belief becomes the holy grail upon which these people (not me of course) base much of their understanding. Belief is something we can wrap our arms around, a sort of bubble wrap, for our feelings and actions. It seems some of the things we take the most pride in, are our strongest beliefs. Try taking a ‘lucky teddy bear’ away from a child and the child will erupt like a volcano. When things we value are taken away from us there is no way currently to accurately measure the existence or extent of any permanent damage to our soul—whatever our soul might really be. 

As a child, I spent an inordinate amount of faith in my inherited religion. It puzzled me why so many other people did not believe the Baptist wing of Christians (Northern Baptist of course) were not God’s chosen people. When Billy Graham worked the crowd into an ethical fervor, why didn’t everybody just go forward, be saved, and live life happily ever after?  Hundreds of thousands of years after human existence on our planet, the picture is still as clouded as ever as to whose inherited religion is the true religion sponsored by God. After living all this time I don’t think I have any clearer image of what God is really like. Ok, wherever there is a gift, there must be a gift giver. After that I am basically either speechless or mumbling fairy tale like dribble. Whatever God really is, God had to have come first to create everything, or at least create the laws which enable new things to be created. But how can something come from nothing? This is not the first time my mind has come face to face with something I clearly have no mental competency with which to comprehend. For example, I don’t know why you are you and I am I, and what would be the point to ponder this at all since there is not the remotest chance either of us will ever understand it. So, rationally, much of what we ponder ends up being “It is what it is.” Maybe if I could chat with God, like some claim they can, He/She/It would be constantly telling me “Because I say so, that’s why”. Since I am the dumb one and God is the smart one, that would probably suffice as an answer. 

Ready or not, the formative years end, and the productive years begin. I, for one was not really ready. I got fired from my first job, and an attempted firing at my second, before I managed to get hold of the situation and understand my modus of operation had to change. We all change, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worst—but change is inevitable. Other people change too, and this just complicates all our lives even further. Relationships get strained and sometimes break, sometimes hang together by the thinnest of threads, and sometimes relationships end bitterly. Sometimes the end of a relationship can’t be avoided—via death or incompatibility, or external situations which end it for us. Be this as it may, our own relationships are only part of the picture. What are we to do individually about all the less fortunate with whom we actually know, or at least realize exist? Whatever life really is, it is certainly no zippy-do-da-day permanent sort of existence. Not for anyone. Like it or not, there are so many people just going no wheres fast. We often feel that if these less fortunate would just have the good sense to live their lives differently things would be better for them, so it’s all on them—not our problem. The age we grew up in was a world in which it was the best of all possible worlds for some, but for far more it was a not so great of possible worlds.

Our perception of the world depends to a large extent on our own environmental situation. From a practical standpoint this means diversity, by it’s very nature, generates widely disparate opinions and conclusions about so many aspects of life, and how we feel about people we know well, and about people we only vaguely know exist. If we are affluent, how many times are we really ever on the streets of our urban, rural, or suburban ghettos? During our lifetime the size, personal safety, and depravity of our ghettos have grown. How many times a year are we ever in the midst of these ghettos? Probably zero in most cases. When I was young we had Hunter Street and Crotonville, black and white, wrong side of the tracks, communities. It really wasn’t unsafe to walk through these communities, but then we never felt any desire to do so and felt it probably would be unsafe. I had a strange neighbor who still lived at home as an adult with his parents and often would walk miles to town and the train station, take the train to the city, then return and around midnight, would walk from the train station right through a ghetto neighborhood and to my knowledge nothing bad ever happened to him—except his strangeness, which he had from day one. 

Teaching university students can be an everyday enlightenment about the life situations of so many students from so many walks of life. But this is not a universal experience for many University Professors. They barely know what student individual grades are, let alone any other aspects of student lives. They teach, often very well, the concepts of the subject matter and that is the all of it. This, after all, is what they are paid to do. Other professors for varied reasons, end up knee deep in discussions with students about situations in their lives. One would have to be exceptionally dense not to realize how many unfair hurdles are often in a student’s way to professional success—hurdles that someone like myself never faced—and to be honest, had I faced, I doubt I would have ever gotten to college, let alone graduated. 

Diversity dictates that we gravitate to our own peculiar areas of interest. Progress in evolution depends on diversity. This diversity can make it quite difficult for us to line up strict labels of right and wrong when it comes to human behavior. If right or wrong behavior is to be the measure of who gets to go to Heaven or Hell, then certainly God would make it a level playing field, do away with all this genetic and environmental diversity. Since diversity in genetics and environment, along with chance, drive the process—-who earns going to Heaven gets a little dicey. So instinctively we kind of figure out who we are and what we like or want and then pursue whatever the pathway seems best.  Lot of retracing our steps and going a different pathway involved. However, it does not seem to be that simple. Sure, if we like to paint, we may become an artist. Or maybe we like the adrenaline thrill of potentially dangerous activities so we may climb cliffs or bungee jump etc. But suppose we kind of enjoy harming other people in some way or another?  Is this ok? It is not—for the reasons to follow in a bit. The goal of everyone is contentment. But we need understand that addictive or compulsive behaviors of any sort can not, by definition, generate contentment. If you feel compelled to wash your hands or sweep the floor 100 times a day this does not make you contented at all, but if you don’t do it, you feel uncomfortable. It’s a trap. 

Let’s take Donald Trump here because everyone at this point is familiar with his lifestyle. He enjoys wealth, power over others, notoriety, and making sure the other person or group always gets the short end of the stick in any relationship  by him with them. He was born into a wealthy family, inherited millions, and quickly realized that with millions to start with, and the ‘art of the deal’ (stiffing others) he could amass more wealth. Every behavior which helped him amass his varied wants became compulsive and addictive. Enough was never enough—and even now, with endless wealth, power, notoriety, a trophy wife, and devoted followers—enough is never enough. When enough is never enough, contentment is non existent. A contented person is does not rant and attack somebody or some group, almost everybody and anyone, 24 hours a day.  And worst of all, he simply cannot help it. He proudly claims he has amassed all this because he is a genius, but then a genius would never amass the degree of discontentment he has achieved. 

This musing is not about Trump other than his example of how we can follow our wants down the wrong road too fast and end up knee deep in discontentment. He who has little and is satisfied is richer by far (in terms of contentment) than he who has much and wants more. Enough is enough is one of the most important aspects of life to master. Everything that glitters is not gold. 

If the formative years are the years we learn how to exist in life given our own peculiarities, then the productive years are when we seek achievements. It is like in most sports where you practice and practice but then at some point the games begin in earnest. Competition is good in that it helps us maximally develop our talents. Obviously our talents (genetic) and personal environment differ. Everyone is not equal at all. The distribution of talent and varied environments make life unfair. Whatever is going on in reality, we as individuals are not the center of importance. Religions attempt to change that and suggest we can be individually important if we inherit or marry into a particular religion and follow the human scriptures written as the roadmap to either success here and now or, at the very least, some sort of Heaven after our death. We are all bad, God is all good, and if we don’t meet God’s need for us to properly worship Him/Her/It we will go to some sort of Hell. Fortunately, God loves us, and if we shape up sometime before death, God will forgive us for all our sins (save us) and we go to some sort of Heaven. It is not clear what happens to those who our actions or politics or religion or inactions have their lives destroyed, and because we helped kill them or made their lives miserable, they never get ‘saved’ as a consequence. In the extreme case, if we killed several people out of anger, or in war, or ran them over in a car with reckless driving etc. and they were not ‘saved’ at the time of our action towards them, they can never go to Heaven, and we, on our deathbed even, can be ‘saved’ and go to Heaven. Huh? Something is very screwed up here. 

Religion certainly does give a lot of people hope and the strength to endure a lot of situations in life.That’s why religion is called the ‘poor man’s opium’ and the poorer a community is, the more intense and animated their religious services. One community is thanking God for their success and the other community is begging for some help from God to have success. The religious services of the affluent are usually much more subdued, formatted, and ritualistic. But just like heroin, religion can dull the pain of our current situation. While that may be necessary in hopeless situations, dulling the pain (making you care less about the realities of your situation) also tends to make it less likely that a person will make the changes necessary to better the situation. If we are all God’s children then why is life so unfortunate to some and very fortunate for others?  The ugly kids hate proms and the attractive kids love proms. Why would God, Who we believe loves all his creations, do this to the ugly? The answer seems to be this: the evolutionary process works. It has generated progress now for billions of years. God, however we conceive Him/Her/It to be, created the laws which govern this successful process. And just like the person who invented the rules for Poker is not responsible for who wins or loses at Poker, God—who created the laws for the evolutionary process, is not responsible for who is better genetically and environmentally to succeed at this game of life. There is no evidence at all that God ever intervenes and protects any particular person from the laws which govern the evolutionary process. That is to say, there is no evidence that the ‘fix’ is in for anyone or any group by God for them. Somebody who claims God talks to them is anecdotal, same as somebody who has a grandmother who claims this or that cured or helped alleviate some medical condition. Without more scientific evidence both are pure anecdotal and must be believed on faith alone. 

At this point God would seem to be a real bastard. If I am born in the worst ghetto with a crackhead mother for a parent with the worst schools, the worst teachers, the worst medical care, and live in a most dangerous neighborhood, it is all because God allows chance and diversity to exist. This is far different from “God decreed this be so”. This makes us feel like ‘stop the world, I want to get off’. And why doesn’t God personally give each of us a Bible written by HIM so we can follow HIS laws and get to Heaven? The answer seems to be this: humans have an innate genetically driven ethical trait called the “Golden Rule”. Everyone everywhere recognizes this as an ethical principle. This trait, a genetic gift from God via the evolutionary process, makes it possible for the greatest number of people to achieve the greatest degree of contentment. Thus, we have the ability individually and collectively to maximize contentment for the greatest number of people. The problem is we seldom follow this ethical principle that we all understand is an ethical principle—it is in our genes, although like other human traits, it will vary a lot from one person to another. 

So, at this point we might say, “Well this doesn’t work very well, so leaving it all up to us to help each other is a bad system.”  I guess it would be if evolution is now over. But by what logic could we claim this? At one time most people imagined slavery would always exist. But, for the most part, it no longer does. Of course getting rid of slavery left many other human deficiencies alive and well. We cannot even begin to envision what the future will be like, unless we are fundamentalists about a particular religion then we just know we are going to Heaven. Really?  Strange then that, at least some of them, don’t jump in front of a speeding car when much younger as a quick way to get to Heaven. If knew conclusively that I was going to heaven, I would get there as fast as I could. 

An Intriguing Personality—Terrell Owens

An Intriguing Personality—Terrell Owens

Some individuals are simply intriguing. They are different. They are complex and fascinating. They march to a different drum. They achieved successes in life because they think, feel, and act differently from any norm. My most admired character study is Abraham Lincoln. No matter how much you analyze him the intrigue never wears thin. This is also true of Victoria Woodhull. To a lesser degree the same is true of Barack Obama or Allen Iverson, or Teddy Roosevelt, James Baldwin, Barry Goldwater, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Gandhi, and so on. On the ‘evil’ side Hitler, Stalin, and Trump come to mind. 

Terrell Owens was raised in a very unusual home environment under extraordinary influence from his grandmother. Except for school and sport practice Terrell Owens was not allowed to leave the small yard to play with other kids because his grandmother said he was “special” and destined to be somebody whereas the other kids were going nowheres in life. Terrell was raised in a poor town in a poor state (Alabama). He seemed to spend his young years intimidated by everything around him. He was so shy right up through college that hardly anyone remembers much about him. He didn’t talk much, just watched and listened, especially to his grandmother who told him never to trust anyone, that people would try to bring him down and stop him from succeeding. There was certainly racial overtones to the advice. His father lived across the street but Terrell had no knowledge that was his father. His mother worked long hours for slave wages in some factory, and he had a sister and brother.

It probably is no surprise that Terrell’s world was very small, not too much of a stretch to say his world consisted of himself and his grandmother with other family members playing a bit role. Whatever his thoughts, they were limited to this small world within his own mind. Not surprisingly, Terrell had no social interactions with others of any note. He went to school, he passed his courses, and he participated in sports, just silently listening to his teachers, his coaches, and other students. He had little athletic talent—he was tall, scrawny, and was never first string on the team. He likely day dreamed a lot, mostly about becoming somebody instead of a nobody. He believed God was on his side and still does to this day. 

If Terrell did not have noteworthy innate genetic athletic talent, he did have a genetic endowment of amazing willpower. Modern science now has demonstrated that we are essentially born with a certain degree of willpower, and that it can be used up. We don’t break someone of their willpower, we simply make them use it up. The reservoir of will power varies from person to person.  From his grandmother he learned to focus on goals and never ever give up, and that only he could help himself—others were never to be trusted. Terrell chose football as the means whereby he would make a name for himself. By high school he devised his own training program and started running all over town before school and spent time in the weight room to develop his muscles. Here he was blessed genetically  with muscles that responded well to his training program.  He spent a lot of time listening to what coaches would tell starters on the team. When it came to his teenage goal—to become a ‘great’ wide receiver his focus was singular, intense, and became a compulsive obsession. Compulsive is a word that would be used with Terrell Owens a lot.

Many great athletes were obvious in their talent, even in Junior High, and were ‘spoiled with attention and support’ by coaches, fellow students, teachers—while they were inundated with offers to help them with their career. Terrell Owens got none of that in high school or college. If he played it was mostly because the starter got injured. He did well, but not well enough to draw any great amount of attention. He had no serious girlfriends and when in college he talked almost every night with his grandmother. By the end of college he had become a good wide receiver, was now a starter and he was drafted 81st in the third round of the draft by San Francisco. 

This musing is not about football, but about the character of Terrell Owens so football will be mentioned only in so far it relates to his character. When Terrell Owens showed up in San Francisco as a distant third round pick, he was still a shy, withdrawn, quiet person with no enemies simply because he was inconspicuous. But by now all the weight training and running and a personal exercise regime had bulked him up and he was a very strong tall wide receiver. He had devised his own diet, and no other aspect of his life got any attention except football. His social life was limited to sexual encounters on the one or two days a week football was not the entire focus. Romance, like all other social endeavors, seemed non existent. 

From high school on Terrell was an extreme loner. He did not seek or respond to any effort by others to be his friend—not teammates, not teachers, not coaches, not trainers, not girls, no-one. There is this current notion that Terrell was a real distraction in the locker room, that he was verbally attacking others, throwing others under the bus and just a real social disturbance in the locker room. Nothing could have been further from the truth. He hardly spoke to anyone else, he had, and still has, this protective bubble around him and no one is permitted into his solitary mindset.

When Terrell Owens reported to the San Francisco 49er’s he was still a shy, quiet, observer in life. He had developed his body on his own to the extent he was a very strong and well trained athlete. Steve Young, his quarterback likes to tell the story that he had to tell Terrell Owens to stop calling him sir. Finding himself on the same team as Jerry Rice, the top receiver in NFL history gave Terrell Owens a perfect person to study. At some point Terrell noticed that the quarterbacks and coaches were under constant pressure from Rice to give him the ball, and if they did not, Rice raised hell. Terrell, if nothing else, paid total attention to all aspects of being a wide receiver. On his own he took care of the fitness issue, the strength issue, the endurance issue, and at some point early in his years at San Francisco he decided to create the T.O. personality. 

Whether fans or coaches or other teammates like it, wide receivers depend on getting the ball a lot or they will be traded as not very productive. Like everything else relating to football T.O. determined to be an explosive force to ensure the ball came his way. His physical size and mysterious personality put him in a perfect position to be effective with his pressure. By the time he reached San Francisco Terrell Owens already knew just about everything he needed to know about the position. His innate intelligence and focus and willpower were such that probably no other wide receiver ever spent as much time developing his mental abilities as related to the wide receiver position. It would be hard to find anyone at that position who ever came as far as him in terms of developing limited natural talent into something quite admirable. It is literally true that from high school to the NFL Terrell Owens owed only his own efforts and learning for his progress. There were no coaches taking him under their wing thinking he would be a great NFL star, no parental pressures, no social forces at work to motivate him. He motivated himself, in part because he never allowed others to penetrate the mental cocoon from which he related to the outside world. 

In practice he hardly talked to anyone. Coaches found him rather unapproachable. He distanced himself fro the media. He remembered how much his grandmother admonished him that others would try to ‘keep him down on the farm’, to become hurdles on his way to success. He really didn’t bother anyone. He just didn’t relate well to anyone. Jerry Rice said “Don’t ever cross T.O., he never forgets and you will be his enemy for life”.  Bill Walsh, who tried to work with T.O., remarked that “Terrell Owens is not an act; it really is him. His perception of what others think about him is does not always match reality. Things can be going along smoothly and all of a sudden he will tip the whole boat over.”

Terrell Owens, over the years, has had very few personal enemies amongst those on the same team with him. Off the field he is soft spoken and simply aloof. No one ever had to worry about T.O, getting in trouble off the field, getting drunk, assaulting anyone, hanging in bars with his ‘homeboys” or “posse” or any other group. In fact it was rare, and still is, to find T.O. out in public with anyone but himself. The basic problem at San Francisco seemed to be that while the coaches and players admired T.O., his work ethic, his contributions on the field——he was aloof, not close to anyone, and was a one man band celebrating his own performances. Terrell had the ultimate confidence in himself and distrusted anyone else. Many fans tired of his bragging and touchdown celebrations: “Why can’t he act like he has been there before and let others do the bragging and celebrating for him”. Well, in reality he had not been there before, especially not as a child. He really did not have a normal childhood and develop any social skills to speak of. He really was a one man band. His wild excitement surfaced for his own performance and not enough excitement for the achievements during the game of his teammates. Terrell lived in his world, and everyone else lived in their collective world. 

As his own coach, trainer, and cheerleader, T.O. began to be a threat to the team coach during the games. Steve Young didn’t need any help and was good enough to make last minute decisions during the game and he and T.O. got along just fine. But when Steve had to retire because of a serious concussion, the job fell to Jeff Garcia and he, to be successful, needed help. T.O. would notice certain things about a defender and insist the play called to be changed. Jeff would sometimes do it, and more often than not it would result in a big gain or a touchdown. The head coach was unnerved by this. Back in those days the head coaches tended to give quarterbacks less leeway in play calling. 

This created tension between the head coach and T.O. Terrell Owens is a combination of head-strong and honest. Both T.O. and Jeff Garcia knew the change in calls were usually good ones. The head coach in this case had a choice: demand that T.O. mind his own business and stop pressuring Garcia to change the play, or seeing that T.O. was making some good calls based on some good perceptions about his defenders, give him some latitude with the understanding that his changes better work most of the time. It’s the old clash, between insisting that everyone know their place, and making adjustments of whatever to win the game. Garcia never made the Pro Bowl when Owens was not his quarterback.

Many fans and media figures began to dislike T.O.’s bragging, his post touchdown celebrations, his self-serving confidence, and displaying his raw feelings no matter the consequences. His grandmother had told him never to lie—no matter what. When young he was the class tattletale. The teacher could always depend on Terrell to tell who misbehaved. When students tried to beat him up he ran home but his grandmother would not let him in the house, telling him he needed to go back and defend himself because that is what others always would try to do— to put him in his place. In Terrell’s mind God would protect him and all he needed in life was his Grandmother and God. Well, while in college Terrell’s grandmother developed Alzheimer’s and began to deteriorate before his eyes. Media talk show hosts would book him unto a show and deliberately bring up his grandmother in order to make him cry—a sort of “see the big man cry”. It still works today. In some strange way, his grandmother was his only ‘true’ friend in his life. Context is everything here. With his one friend gone (like who has just one close friend?) T.O. became more inaccessible to others. 

There is this perception that T.O. was in the locker room stirring up trouble, saying nasty things to other teammates, criticizing other teammates in the locker room, stirring up controversy, undermining the coaches, etc. Nothing could have been further from the truth. T.O. paid little attention to other players, let alone bad mouth them in the locker room, and was a sterling example of year long conditioning, focus, and willpower. They all knew how important he was to the team when the game started. Of course they wanted him to be more interactive with them, do things with them off the field, communicate his feelings with them as friends etc. The notion that most of them hated T.O. is a product of media imagination. Frustration and puzzlement was the universal state of mind of players and coaches when it came to T.O. He would often pace the side lines during a game yelling to no one but himself such nuggets as “Who can make great play?  I can, I can” “nobody can stop me, nobody can stop me”,  “I am going to love me some me”, and “Give me the ball, I can win this game”. This was little more in significance than a demonstration of his genetically empowered willpower. It would be hard to find anyone with more willpower than Terrell Owens. Of course one feels sympathy with Coach Mariucci of San Francisco—who  felt he was the coach and Terrell was not going run the game plan during the game. Terrell was never a problem in practice or the locker room trying to the run the show at all. He did what the coaches said in practice. If they said do something 4 times, he would do it ten. Unfortunately for Mariucci, during the game, Terrell’s insight in particular situations was better than Mariucci’s.  Given the combination of willpower, focus, knowledge of his position, and honesty, it is hardly any surprise Terrell, in the heat of the battle on the field, was a force that needed to be used, not suppressed. Terrell only had one coach secure enough to fully utilize his talents and that was Andy Reid. Even Donovan McMan, his quarterback, annoyed by T.O.’s personality, had the good sense to pay attention to Terrell in the huddle during games. Like every quarterback Terrell ever had in the NFL Donovan had his best years when T.O. was on the team. 

It was during his years at San Francisco that certain elements of the media began to really dislike him. Terrell Owens became very selective as to which media persons he would ever sit down with one to one. He learned quickly that so many of them used his commitment to honesty as a weapon to create trouble for him. Honesty is an ethical mantra for Terrell Owens. No matter the consequences, with few exceptions, if any, Terrell simply doesn’t lie about his feelings or his own interpretations of situations. That does not mean that he is always right, but simply that he will give his honest feelings. The incidents the media used to cause trouble for T.O. are, as put downs go, among the mildest put downs one ever hears in the sport world. 

Let’s take the Super Bowl which Philadelphia almost won. Owens seriously tore up one ankle a few weeks before the Super Bowl—lot of fractures and torn tissues. He underwent surgery and had pins put into his ankle. Terrell insisted he would be ready for the Super Bowl. His doctors said “No way”. Terrell insisted he was ready. Andy Reid said no, the doctors were dead set against letting him play. The day before Terrell signed a medical waiver, taking full responsibility for any injuries he sustained during the game. So Terrell played, went well over 100 yards for the game, a medical miracle if there ever was one. Some players claimed Donovan was exhausted at the end, too tired to perform well. Asked about it in an interview, T.O. responded he never made any such claim but he knew “I was not the one who got tired.” He gave an honest answer but his media critics went berserk and said he threw Donovan under the bus.  In another interview later, he was asked how he felt about Michael Irwin saying that Philly would be undefeated early in the season if Brett Favre was their quarterback. Terrell thought about if a bit and said, “yes, I can see the reasoning there”. That was the excuse the Owner of the team gave for suspending Terrell and getting rid of him. The real reason was T.O.’s inability to get a revised contract as Donovan got. T.O. was way underpaid for his production and T.O. realized the big money about to come up in a year or two would probably never come because, in the NFL, the contracts are only binding to the player, not the owner. As Terrell explained later, Donovan has been playing hurt, Brett Favre was a sure Hall of Famer, and so the logic used by Irwin made sense. Does anyone really believe Donovan was a better quarterback than Brette Favre?  So, in reality, Terrell was being crucified for being honest. Did anyone claim the originator of the statement was throwing Donovan under the bus?  

Donovan himself gets too much criticism for his actions during all this. Donovan is human too. He didn’t like T.O .’s antics and attention he received by the media and fans. Despite his feelings once the game started, he worked with and depended on T.O. just like before the clash began. They were on their way to a possible second chance at a Super Bowl. Even today, Donovan admits T.O. is one of the top three wide receivers ever. Coach Reid today says Terrell was one of the most fun players to coach he has ever had. T.O. was not a coaches or player’s nightmare, but an owner’s nightmare in that he was one player on the football ‘plantation’ over which the owner had no control. T.O. and the bubble within which he lived came as a package deal. 

The reasons media critics give for teams getting rid of Owens are mostly disingenuous. San Francisco was a situation where Terrell wanted out on his own terms. Both Mariucci and Owens had valid personal reasons for wanting out. The difference was that Owens wanted out on his own terms to go where he wanted to go and San Francisco wanted to trade him where they wanted and to get the most money from a trade. Terrell won that battle in a grievance. End of story there. In Philadelphia the owner was known to backload contracts and when the time came to pay out big money he would trade the player and get a lot of money while saving money on the contract. End of story right there. Had the owner given him a new contract (an often done thing) Terrell would have remained at Philly. Certainly Coach Reid didn’t want him out, and afterwards even Donovan said it hurt the team a lot to lose Terrell. But Rice said it right: “Don’t ever cross Terrell Owens. He will never forget or forgive.” Terrell just could not easily or ever forgive—the person targeted would be one of those people his grandmother said would try to put him in his place, keep him down on the farm, teach him a lesson. It is doubtful at his age now that he will ever really trust anyone his entire life.  Dallas was a situation were Terrell was caught between a pillar and a post career-wise. Both Witten and Owens were on a track to be Hall of Fame bound. But each needed the yardage and touchdowns to get there. The coach and quarterback wanted to feed it more to Whitten, and as Terrell would say ‘nickel and dime it down the field rather than go for the big play’. At first Jerry Jones was on Terrell’s side, but Owens lost as Jones, Romo, and Whitten became close social friends off the field. So Owens was released for reasons which also included his age and the perception he was beginning to go downhill. This may or may not be true. 

Both Buffalo and Cincy picked up an aging receiver to see if he could bring them to at least the playoffs. He couldn’t, although his stats each of the seasons were very good, especially considering that with Cincy where he was on track to receive bonuses for his good stats, but he got injured at the end of the season and lost out there. 

At this point in his career he probably was not blackballed. No teams are eager to spend a lot of money on a receiver that age. Plus, times had changed and most teams wanted to spread the ball around to the receivers and that clearly would not be the best scenario for Terrell. 

When his turn came to getting into the Hall of Fame the scene was set for the voting members ( most obscure local sports writers who deeply resented having no individual access to Terrell at any point in their career). No one else ever did either, not coaches, owners, players, fans, even gals since Terrell was off limits to all from Tues thru Sunday during the season and off season. By nature, he needed a lot of personal space. These ‘pencil pushers’, as Terrell described them, saw their chance to humiliate him and even the score for him not being accessible to them. They simply declared the locker room an extension of the playing field and declared him a poison to every team he had been on. Never mind  that no team he ever left became better after his departure. Not a one. These writers claimed no one wanted him and that is why is was on so many teams. That’s a neat argument. He was in the league 16 yrs and during that time he was employed every single year. Not exactly the track record of someone nobody wants. So they rejected him as a first ballot selection, then a second ballet selection and it still goes on. It mattered not that every coach (even Mariucci) supported him for first year election to the Hall of Fame. So did every quarterback, every receiver coach, and seemingly every former teammate asked, including Donovan. 

Terrells reaction to these media critics, who called him every nasty character assassination name possible, was muted throughout his career and right up to the present. He doesn’t return the name calling but just defends his character. He has always shrugged them off as ‘they are paid to do what they do, they are good at it, and I cannot defend myself. it is what it is”. He then would follow this with: “ I am a football player. That is what I do. I play football. And my goal is to be the very best wide receiver I can be during the games.”  He did not have the time or inclination to engage these writers in any nasty character assassination games. Off the field he is basically a soft spoken, friendly enough, honest, aloof mystery to others. He speaks well, is very intelligent, has never been in trouble with the law, or suspended by the league, or fined by the league for any off the field behavior. Naturally the locker rooms are under the control of each teams coaches and players. It hardly is the business of some distant local sports writers to cast career judgements about which players are the best locker room teammates, not that any very specific guidelines could ever be written up. Players are as diverse in their personalities as the general public. These local football writers who comprised Terrell’s enemies on the committee seem to be saying that they will be the judge of locker room behavior, not the coaches or the players. What player or coach ever stepped forward and stated T.O. should be stopped as first time Hall of Fame induction because of his locker room presence? This was simply a new twist invented by his media critics on the committee and they got away with it. 

Many major national media analyses tried to soften the assassination by saying there was a backup of players waiting to be admitted and that was the reason he had to wait. But many members of the committee willing to state they voted against him, made it crystal clear this was no backup situation, that Terrell Owens was being denied because of his personality, antics, and that their vote was personal—they immensely disliked his personality, and—if his coaches, quarterbacks, and teammates would not take a stand against his personality, they would, and teach him a lesson he would never forget. 

Well, he certainly will never forget what they did, but the reality is that T.O. is very stable mentally. The bubble he created to block anyone from getting inside that bubble, has remarkably worked very well to allow Terrell to focus on whatever he wants to focus on and not be disturbed by the ‘noise’ of others around him. He seems well aware that there is no way his induction can be an honor for him. It is just another “it is what it is” thing. He feels they have dishonored themselves. 

And they have done just that. Had they simply elected him first ballot to the Hall of Fame, T.O. would have already been mostly forgotten. But they didn’t. As a result, the insulated Terrell Owens has been inundated with high praise from practically everyone associated with NFL football. Even the fans who the media encouraged to hate Terrell Owens have had to think over what it was he ever said or did, that deserved denying him being rewarded for his play on the field. Most of them ended up saying essentially “I was not a fan of Terrell Owens but he was one hell of a player on the field and yes, I hated him for it and all his bragging. But it is crazy to deny him entrance to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.” It is interesting whenever a star NFL player is interviewed on this issue, they seem to always preface their remarks by  “I don’t know Terrell Owens well at all, he stays to himself”….. and then, after endorsing him as a first time elected Hall of Fame member, end up saying in effect :”This is crazy —Terrell Owens not being elected to the Hall of Fame?  If Terrell Owens does not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, who the hell does?”

These hostile writers got it all mixed up. None of his quarterbacks, coaches, or teammates (outside an isolated few, hard to quantify this as they keep very quiet) hated him at all. Almost everyone would say they did not understand him, that he was aloof, focused on his own performance, but they almost all admired what was amazing about Terrell Owens—his focus, his will power, his knowledge of the game, his year round daily conditioning, his ability to be a game changer. They understood that these characteristics were exactly what made him a great player and they did not see it as being selfish at all. Rather they understood that he was an example of someone who was insanely focused on his football goals to such an extent that he actually managed to develop his innate limited athletic potential into enough ability to reach the top of the pile. 

Terrell knows he got to the top and he genuinely now (thanks to some obscure pencil pushers) is receiving the praise and warmth he so desperately appreciates at this point in his life. If he is not the original “I did it my way” guy, he certainly came the longest distance against the longest odds of most anyone who got there “my way”. His focus and willpower enabled him to get over, run through, or run around every hurdle in his way en route. It is rare for anyone, with that strategy, to succeed, especially if everyone else is seen as enemy who may be trying to trip him up.

I doubt Terrell Owens really cares anymore about when, if ever, he gets into the Hall of Fame. He has gotten the praise he needs from all those in his career from whom praise means something to him. He will never be Mr. Lovable, some big cuddly warm and charming best friend in any social sense. Getting respect for what he accomplished is all he needs and his achievements in football was all he was ever able to give us in return. His total focus and willpower directed toward a single goal in life took it’s toll on other aspects of his life—financially, romantically, socially, and so on. He seems to know this and can live contented without great wealth or sociableness . He seems comfortable with himself and that is something everyone tries to achieve. 

The Terrell Owens story is simply intriguing.                              

Mystery of Just How the Green Bay Franchise is run as a Publicly Owned Franchise

Mystery of Just How the Green Bay Franchise is run as a Publicly Owned Franchise

The Shareholders have no power other than to elect a 43 person Board of Directors who serve a three year term in staggered elections. The Board of Directors  then elects a 7 person executive committee. The executive committee then elects a CEO who must be one of the members of the executive committee. The CEO then appoints the GM who then appoints the Coach who then appoints the assistant coaches. In practice no one really has total power to do much of anything. The coach must appoint assistant coaches which meet the approval of the GM who functions under the approval of the CEO who reports to the Executive Committee which serves at the pleasure of the Board of Directors. 

It doesn’t seem to be a ‘good ole boys club’ in the sense that a few guys control everything and protect each other. But this system does explain why it is difficult for anyone outside the 43 persons who run the show to get hired to be a CEO or GM. These people know each other, and each one of them would like to move up into an important administrative position. After all, this is how it has worked since first formed back in the 1920’s. It is sort of a ‘State pride’ thing in that ‘we here in Wisconsin will run the show, we don’t need a lot of people from out of state running the show. There have been exceptions. Vince Lombardi was an outsider and put the team on the map. What really saved the Packers, and I mean really saved it was Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers. Bart Star grew up in Alabama, Brett Favre grew up in Mississippi and Aaron Rodgers grew up in California. So home grown players were not the source of Green Bay Success. The last great coach Green Bay  had was probably Vince Lombardi. Bart Star was no Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers but Bart Star was a very good quarterback with a very good coach who fielded a team that was good in all aspects of the game. With Lombardi and Star they won 5 league championships and 2 Super Bowls in 6 years. After Lombardi Green Bay never again brought in a proven NFL championship calibre coach. After mediocre coaches, including Bart Star himself, the Packers began to have trouble interesting players to come to Green Bay because of the cold weather and isolated location. They were saved by Brett Favre and Reggie White. While having one of the best quarterbacks in the league enables a team to do well win/loss wise, it seldom can, by itself, bring any Super Bowls to the team. This is clear enough since during the span of Favre and Rodgers, a span of 16 years, they have only won the Super Bowl twice, once with Favre and once with Rodgers. Luckily, both Favre and Rodgers are exciting quarterbacks capable of winning the game at the last minute so watching either one is always exciting—period.  

While one can argue that coaches like Holgren and McCarthy were instrumental in the Packer’s getting to the playoffs year after year, and that the Packer’s general Manager was picking good players it was rather deceptive. When Holgren decided he wanted more control over who the players were and didn’t get it, he then went to Seattle and then the Browns where he had little success and then nobody would hire him after that. The same thing happened to many wide receivers who left for various reasons and were never great on any other teams. Favre and Rodgers can make good receivers look great. Neither Holgren or McCarthy had any experience as head coach in the NFL. For whatever the reason, the Packer’s never pick an experienced head coach in the NFL for their coach. They always  pick the candidate they like the most in the interview process much like the Dating Game on TV. 

It seems common sense that if you have a quarterback like Rodgers you do everything you can to get a decent defensive unit. A good defense, not a great defense, is all Rodgers needs and he will win most every game. So the Packers hired Don Capers. Now what were his Credentials? He went 2-7 as Coach of Houston then was fired after one year with the the Dolphins, then fired after one year with the Patriots, upon which he was hired by the Packers and has been there for 9 years. His ranking his entire stay with Green Bay in yards per game in the league was: 2nd, 5th, 32nd, 11th, 25th, 15th, 15th, and 22nd in 2016. and it was really even worse because his ranking when the game was on the line in passing yards was out of sight. Other teams dismiss disaster in a  year or two while the Packers let it go on for 9 years. He is being replaced now by Mike Pettine, former Head Coach of the Browns. McCarthy picked Capers and is the one who kept him on for 9 years. Now he, the one supposedly where the buck stops, gets to pick another head defensive coach. This new coach is not hopeless since back in 2009 to 20012 with the jets his defense was  1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th. His one year with the Bills his defenses were ranked 10th. from 2014 to 2016 he was the Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns. So the Packers finally hire a former head coach of an NFL team and they pick the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Could he work out? I suppose he might be a tad better than Capers. But with all the interest in coaches to coach at Green Bay, this is the most successful previous coach they could find? Wow.  

As GM the Packers elevated an in house candidate that has been with the Packers as a scout and then for two years as Director of Player Personnel. If a team is cleaning house because they were weak in almost every category except quarterback why would the team then elevate someone who had been part of the problem for 17 years? It seems likely that the main factor in the decisions is the comfort level—they know the guy very well, like him, and would like to reward him and give him a shot. But haven’t they been giving him a shot for 17 years? It just smells like this is a way to make sure both Thompson and McCarthy have firm control over the show, when the objective should have been to shove them aside—9 years is enough for this dog and pony show.  

All this raises several questions:

Is having the team controlled by a 43 member Board of Directors a good thing?

What is wrong, if anything, with winning most games and making the playoffs most years?

Teams like the Chicago Cubs, the Packers, the Dallas Cowboys, for examples, can draw enthusiastic loyal fans whether they win or lose. The Chicago Cubs never won a World Series for almost a hundred years and packed their ballpark every year. The fans loved them whether they won or not. 

The Packer fans are the same way. The Yankees won a lot, as do the Patriots and yet the Packer, Cub, and Dallas fans seem far more loyal and intense than the Patriot or Yankee fans. Some team fans insist their teams win or else they lose interest. Other team fans will love their team and coaches irregardless if the team wins or loses consistently. 

Packer fans enjoy their football team regardless. Period. It may seem strange but then again it also seems admirable. It is not like if the team loses that it changes any fan lives one way or the other. So these fans stay all worked up year after year whether any Super Bowls are won or not. I used to live in Wisconsin during the days of Lombardi and Star. During the game, the roads were barren of cars. Everybody was either at the game or watching the game on TV. I am told it is still that way. 

The real question is what happens when the Packers no longer have one of the best, if not the best, quarterbacks in the NFL?  When that happens the Packers are going to have a hard time getting players to come and play in Green Bay. Most of these football players are not products of small communities out in the middle of nowhere. Will the Packers end up like Cleveland or like the Cubs? My guess it will be more like the Cubs and the fans will just come anyway. What other social activities are there to replace going out to Lambau Field, or to football TV watching social gatherings? Will the allure of media gadgets as a source for our social life finally doom football as an attraction? It already has a lot of other activities. Will the injury situation, politics, cultural differences between the fans and players, further economic deterioration of the lower middle class and poor who hold less and less percentage of the wealth, more frequent and higher casualties with terrorist acts, and continued loss of community spirit affect football as it has affected many other sports? Hard to say.

Football is probably, for the most people, the most interesting game to watch. But it is also the most unpredictable in that many uncontrollable factors by the players and coaches can determine the outcome of any particular game. And in football it can’t be a series of best of 7 games. Those who win contests in predicting which team will win the games, win the contest usually with a win percentage in the low 60%. At any point in a football game, most anything can happen and often does. I avoid this by rooting for particular players, not a team. Aaron Rodgers is always interesting to watch. After all, he almost always has to score more than 35 points to win the game. There is consistency to the play of the really good players. But most fans want a team to root for. Majority rules. 

The role of Rodgers in picking who coaches is a mystery. It is possible that it is Rodgers who does not want McCarthy ousted. It is possible, but guesswork, that Rodgers really pretty much runs the offense to his liking and McCarthy is no threat to that. Rodgers may fear a coach who is dead set on a particular complicated system. Rodgers extreme talent is fast precision passing and he relishes where everyone is running all over the place and he simply finds a needle to thread and threads it. He almost wishes for broken plays where chaos rules. Hard to argue with that. 

Why do we even get so excited about who wins a sport contest anyway? The reality is that the result of the game doesn’t change our lives one way or the other. 

For a long time I could not find out what part of the public has any say in running the team.  The corporation currently has 360,760 stockholders, who collectively own 5,011,558 shares of stock. These stockholders vote for the 43 Board of Directors. Therein is the public input. But anyone who owns stock knows that in practice an individual stock owner seldom has any role to play at all unless they own a high percentage of the stocks. You get a ballot, there are names on it and you pick names without any knowledge of what the different people on the ballot wish to have the company do about anything. 

At any rate, the Green Bay Packers are as public as other public companies minus the ability to vote on any Green Bay operational matters. The stock holders can’t force a vote on anything. I don’t believe they can even sell their shares. They are wall ornaments, costing a few hundred dollars. 

So is it better to have a team be publicly owned or owned by a single multimillionaire owner?

The fans can lose big either way. Some owners care a lot about winning and other owners are satisfied with the income or the publicity or the power they have over the players, etc. The original owners probably knew quite a bit about football and were avid fans themselves. But they simply can pass the team on to their offspring and eventually it can end being owned by Virginia Halas McCaskey,(Chicago Bears) whose real knowledge or interest in football is anyone’s guess. My guess is that the Bear fans would probably prefer a publicly owned team. 

My own opinion, for the moment, is that whether publicly owned or not, those who buy a ticket should be allowed a vote for each ticket purchased on a non-binding referendum regarding retention of the General Manager, the Head Coach, the Offensive Co-ordinator, and the Defensive Coordinator. This would put pressure on the owner, whether private or public, to not stick with these team positions ad nausea. In the case of Green Bay it would be a way for the public to tell the 43 member executive committee that the public wants some change. 

But more importantly Congress, who has the ultimate charge with setting guidelines on monopolies such as this, ought to put in meaningful regulations so as to protect the players, the public, and the cities which house the stadiums. There should be limits as to how much profit the owners can make in a year, all owner/player contract negotiations should include the fans and the cities at the bargaining table. Just as there should be limits on how much more a corporate CEO can make compared to his employees, there should be generous but reasonable limits on individual player salaries and once this is established the salaries go up only with the cost of living. For one thing, football is a very rugged, skilled, and dangerous sport for all players with maybe the exception of the kickers, and a star quarterback, for example, should not be able to make 20 or 30 times more money than others on the team. Salary caps, once realistically set, should also only go up with the cost of living. All off the field behaviors should be settled in public courts like any other citizens. The League has no business being the police, the judge, and the jury on player misconduct off the field. Only drugs which enhance player performance could be banned. It is scientifically insane to have the NFL decide which recreational drugs of abuse can be used; for example alcohol or marijuana, or nicotine. Whatever the law is it should not be different from the laws which affect every other citizen and let the regular court system handle it. Contracts should be binding to both parties, not just the athletes. I am less sure as to how best to handle this, but no beginning player should be stuck with a long term contract which relegates a rookie player to minimum wage for years. There is no reason why Congress should allow millionaire owners to run roughshod over players, cities, or fans. Stadiums should have to be built with non public monies and no team allowed to move their franchise elsewhere, as an endless form of blackmail. The idea that the wealthy should be allowed to police themselves regarding employees or the public or the cities where they play is oxymoronic. That is the reason 2-5% of citizens own 90 percent of the wealth in the U.S. 

In the end, justice and fairness is elusive when it comes to who owns national sport teams, and like on so many issues, nothing much is changing. Something will sooner rather than later have to give.