The sports’ news has focused on the antics of Antonio Brown. Those of us who were watching the Eagles Game this past Sunday saw the television coverage interrupted to watch Brown stripped to his waist and running in the end zone as play was still going on. He left the Tampa Bay team before his game was over and headed to the locker room. It was another chapter in the bizarre antics of this very talented football player who would make any team better if he could only get his mental health issues resolved. His coach, Bruce Arians, proclaimed that he is no longer on his team. However, as of today, Antonio Brown’s future is up in the air. In the past he has been arrested for transgressions and the NFL league office knows that he is “high maintenance.”
But there is another story that should not be overlooked. Tom Brady was interviewed after the game and asked that the response to Brown should be one of compassion. Evidently his teammates felt the same way even though it appears that he is off that team.
This is a good example of a gender issue in the support spoken by Brady as a leader of the team.
We will also be able to see why the Republican Party, with too few exceptions, has not spoken up against the insurrection and voting rights issues.
Too many males, when in conversation with one another or in other exchanges, focus on status or one upping the other person with whom they are talking. This is a generalization except for the many examples that support this view. It has to do with competition between males which is a cultural issue and not one based in our biology.
Note that Brady has been called the GOAT, meaning the greatest of all time. He is super competitive. He wouldn’t get that title if he wasn’t. So why wouldn’t he and his teammates fall into this status relating style with one another? Two things are usually chosen by males (and females with this trait) that transcends status and end up in a compassionate relationship.
One is a shared purpose that occurs in groups such as teams. That is what is common to sports teams and also those who serve in the military not to mention other organizations. Brown was a comrade in arms so to speak. Equally important is thing number two that a team member senses that all teammates are on one another’s side. Everybody wants to win. Their self-esteem and sense of belonging are like food for a hungry man (or woman).
That exchange in the world of sports can tell us a lot about the upcoming anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. We will call it the “Brown Factor.”
Keep that in mind as Trump and the Republicans who supported the Big Lie are no different than Brown and his teammates. Trump is the GOAT when it comes to lying and being the source of the greatest threat to our democracy. His party (for it is not the Republican Party any more) is not conducting business in the way that John McCain and Bob Dole did. Note as well that those two were military heroes did not share the same shared purpose as that of the present-day Party of Lincoln.
But being on the same side is something that Trumps (wrote it on purpose) the way that we view the world and the large number of Republicans who have been playing the role of political Antonio Browns. They are the embodiment of “united we stand” but no one can truly understand their actions. How could they possibly change their tune as January 6 approaches? They must stick to their same song of irresponsibility and lack of real patriotism.
The answer rests in the Brown Factor and Brady’s comments. Three things are needed to view what occurred on January 6. One is compassion. The second is accountability, and the third is understanding why we find ourselves in this spot. To many of their actions seem crazy and just as crazy as Brown’s erratic behavior. It is mystifying.
A football game can tell us a lot as we look at the anniversary of the insurrection. What about the fact that a high percentage of Republicans across our nation believe everything that the Republicans in Congress and the Right have to say?
Let’s view the Republicans and those on the right as fans. Fans defended Ray Rice when he beat his wife. Washington fans defended the team’s offensive name. Fans mirror the feelings and self-esteem of their teams. So do political parties. There is a classic psychology experiment done in 1951 that has stood the test of time and attempts to explain this crazy bias.
Dartmouth and Princeton played in a rough football game in 1951. It was so rough that star players on both teams had to leave the game. They interviewed fans from both schools after the game. There was no agreement on what happened even though they were watching the same game. The researchers, Albert Hastorf and Hadley Cantril even showed a film of the game after emotions settled sometime later. (Think the video of January 6), and they still could not agree on what occurred in the game after time had passed. Henri Tajfel, a British psychologist, referred to this phenomenon as “monotonous similarity” of discrimination.
When we understand something, we can tolerate it and work through it. It doesn’t mean that we agree with it or like it. This is what needs to be understood as we reflect on January 6 this coming Thursday. We need to begin with understanding and compassion. Accountability must be present. Antonio Brown is no longer on the Bucs team. In my opinion, if it is politics as usual without a shared purpose and we are in this together attitude, we will continue to move along the road paved with misunderstood bias and gridlock! Maybe we can learn a lot from the crazy, misunderstood, in need of help antics of Antonio Brown, the Brown Factor. There is a lesson here when he ran off the field with everyone wondering what went wrong. It is a lesson not to be missed!
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