Dave Carney 8/31/2020
It’s easy to be a Green Bay Packers fan. The World championships, the Super Bowls, the long and storied tradition of great players. But when your team, and it’s President, are at the forefront of a fight against racial, and societal inequality, it makes you downright, outright, proud to be a Packers fan.
Mark Murphy became the first of the “de facto” owners of an NFL team, to issue a strong public statement concerning the shooting of Jacob Blake, what he desires to see from a societal standpoint, and what he’s calling on other NFL owners to do. What Mark Murphy said, and his video released Saturday, should speak for a generation of Packers fans.
It’s easy to sit back and wait, to let public sentiment, and public pressure, be the lightning rods for change. It’s another thing to step out in front, take a leadership position, and call for action.
In less than four minutes, Mark Murphy, called out NFL owners, separated the differences of issues of society, and issues of politics, and offered a challenge to Green Bay Packers fans. Mark Murphy reminded the NFL, Packer fans, and the world, what legendary coach Vince Lombardi would never forget. His black players, their lives, mattered. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mark Murphy had his Lombardi moment this weekend.
By actually calling on NFL owners, and issuing a challenge, to white people of this country, to be part of a solution, and not part of a problem, when it comes to racial and social change, Mark Murphy cemented himself firmly in the pantheon of great Packer executives. Perhaps he was destined to be in that category anyways, but after his comments on Black Lives Matters, and what needs to be done in order to have healing, he is in there forevermore.
At times the year that we have witnessed can seem like too much, like insurmountable challenges, seemingly facing us around every corner. But with every new challenge, comes an opportunity. Football is the best example of that. have adversity, overcome it, someone goes down, next man up. It’s the universal language of football, and it’s taking over in the world we live in.
Mark Murphy reminded those that might not care to remember, how important black lives are to the Green Bay Packers, and the United States of America.
Say what you will about Mark Murphy’s ability to put together championship football teams, that’s a discussion for a different day, but you can’t take away anything from his championship spirit.
Mark Murphy stepped up, when many are too afraid to even step in.
Well done sir, it’s a pleasure to be a Packers fan, and I’ve never been more proud to say, “Go Pack Go”!
