BOBBEE BEE: FAITH, FOOTBALL & RELIGION

By Eric Graham

Updated: October 7, 2015

NORTH CAROLINA (BASN)-–What’s the No. 1 Religion in America? I know most of you will probably say Christianity?

We are a Christian Nation, right? Wrong.

No, America the No. 1 Religion is not Christianity, Islam, or Judaism?

Sorry Abraham. It’s Football!! Football!!! Yeah, football?

I know you are saying to yourself, that’s sacrilegious. You idiot. You’re going to hell with a Detroit Lions jersey on. I know you think, I’m the Anti-Christ now or maybe HBO’s Bill Maher.

But Football is America’s favorite religion; It’s worshipped on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday (if you graduated from High School) and Saturday if you went to community college.

Football, in fact, is worshiped by all people regardless of race, color, class or creed. It is discussed in the morning over coffee, debated in the lunchroom at work, talked about at the dinner table at home, and even secretly whispered about during the Sunday sermon at church.

We all have to secretly admit, we do worship athletes like Gods expecting them to give meaning to our “meaningless” lives, expecting them to perform miracles each Sunday and curse them out when they turn-out to be mere mortals like ourselves.

And just like other organized religions that appear on television, we blindly give these players large sums of money in order for them to live like kings in houses larger than castles, drive in Rolls Royces, and wear 8-button suits that make them look like pimps.

But that really doesn’t bother us, because we love them and some of us even adorn our bodies with their names on our backs by purchasing their expensive jerseys and pretend to walk in their shoes (oops).

I’m sorry, we do walk-in their shoes. Hopefully, we are not walking around in O.J.’s shoes. I guess, that’s why they call it FOOT LOCKER (I’m kidding, just keep reading)

Some of us even go so far as to tattoo our favorite athlete’s number on our body, and name our children after them (Chad Ocho Cinco Johnson). Now that’s crazy.

I am sorry to inform you but they are religious extremists in all faiths. Football, as a religion, is no exception so don’t blame the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

Some football fanatics show their devotion to their faith in football by standing shirtless in sub-below zero temperatures with cheese on the top of their heads, yelling hysterically in a wild religious frenzy, while beating their chest, until they pass out in a drunken stupor.

Others, however, hang their favorite athlete’s pictures on their walls and build small alters and shrines to honor them in their homes.

Most of the statues of our athletes turned gods are made of bronze and are placed in the Hall of Fame so future generations can remember them.

Along with these bronze bust dedicated to our beloved ballers, we also find ourselves debating and arguing over past and present players stats like two Southern Baptist preachers debating scripture.

This confusion and conflict over stats usually ends in a fight at the barber shop which is equivalent to the war in the Middle East.

Remember this, before you try to convert somebody, the Washington Redskins will always HATE the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboys will always HATE the Washington Redskins.

It is sorta like the Muslims and Christians. Protestant against Catholics.

Sorry Jesus, but they will never be peace in the NFC East!!

Despite the end of the world peaking through the clouds, like all other major religions, there has to be a holy book to inform the people and keep them on the right track. In the faith of football, Sports Illustrated is equivalent to the King James Version of the Bible.

For that reason, most people honestly believe it to be the word of God and the gospel of truth.

But most scholars and skeptics, question its authenticity.

As a result, some scholars agree to disagree that the book is a poor interpretation of sports history, filled with half-truths, myths, misinformation and cleverly written stories by a council of Caucasians writers, who tried to white wash and wipe us out of the lineup. And just like all westernized religions, they made the savior of the sport of football, white aka Brett Favre.

But don’t let that little setback destroy your FAITH in football; we know the truth, because football flows through your blood. Football is in your heart. Besides, your heart does not pump kool-aid.

Don’t deny the feeling. Let the spirit of victory take over your body.

Don’t let them tell you miracles aren’t real. Just ask Super Bowl heroes Santonio Holmes of the Pittsburgh Steelers and David Tyree of the New York Giants!!

Don’t let them tell you NOT to BELIEVE in HAIL MARYS. Just ask Roger Staubach or Doug Flutie.

So don’t lose faith my brothers and sisters, don’t start playing soccer. It’s a false religion just like Arena Football, because a half-truth is an absolute LIE!!! No lie.

So, despite the constant downfalls, fumbles, interceptions, and disappointments, we continue to place our hopes and dreams in football, because FOOTBALL is the answer.

Just like the Pointer Sisters sung so beautifully with Richard Pryor aka Daddy Rich in the cult classic Car Wash, “If you gotta believe in something, why not believe in me?

As a result, we continue to believe in that 47-year-old kicker with no face mask, two bad knees, four divorces, and a drinking problem, will make that last second field goal from 60 yards away, in the snow, barefoot, with a 50 miles per hour wind blowing in his face, which has frozen his mustache.

We still believe the Cleveland Browns are going to win the Super Bowl.

We still believe that our son with absolutely no athletic ability, who loves watching “High School Musical”, will grow up to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

But remember “anything is possible” in football.

So I suggest you place your unbelieving son in front of the television set and let them watch ESPN or the NFL Network which is equivalent to watching Pat Robeson and the 700 Club until he is programmed and brainwashed into loving football and HATING everything else.

If your son still isn’t convinced that football is the only sport to play, let him watch and listen to sports talk radio and watch an unlimited supply of football movies like Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday, Gridiron Gang, North Dallas Forty, Rudy and We are Marshall until his soul is restored.

But if this does not work, introduce him to the cult ritual of animal sacrifices which usually is in the form of chopped Bar-B-Q during a tailgating party. Sorry Muslims and Jews, it’s a football tradition.

Swine is permitted here.

If he is old enough allow him to sip or guzzle down a cheap beer. Doesn’t the scripture say “EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY?” Lighten up, don’t take life so serious. We are talking about football!!

After all of this, if your son is still rejecting the faith of football, christen him in a baptismal ceremony by bathing him in holy water of green Gatorade after a victory.

After he gets drenched in Gatorade, he will be doing a victory dance like Chad Ocho Cinco and thanking Jesus Christ like the Broncos Tim Tebow.

He’ll also be shouting like T.O., yelling and speaking in tongues like Ray Lewis, crying like Tony Romo, and even confessing his sins like Michael Vick.

And, now without a shadow of a doubt, I have proven that Football is America’s No. 1 religion.

Fortunately, Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones already knew this. That’s why he build a $1 billion stadium with a hole in the roof so God could watch his favorite team play on a BIG SCREEN TELEVISION.

Eric D.Graham,a graduate of Winston-Salem State University, where he received a B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in Radio and Television and a minor in History, with an emphasis in African-American Studies, is currently a Sports Columnist at the Black Athlete Sports Network, where his articles appear daily along with his controversial cartoon character Bobbee Bee “The Hater.” Graham can be reached at lbiass34@yahoo.com

BOBBEE BEE: “I’M NOT BLACK, I'M O.J.”-SNEAKER WARS pt.3

“I’M NOT BLACK, I'M O.J.”-SNEAKER WARS pt.3
by eric d. graham

Remember, the ultimate pitch man for white capitalist was Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson, whose nicknamed was The Juice. Why? Because, he was smart, clean-cut, well-spoken, good-looking, and had the perfect smile. Plus, he didn't identify as "being Black"-"He was OJ." Simpson, somehow, believed that he had somehow transcended race, due to his athletic prowess on the football field.

However, this quote “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.”originated in 2002 and, for over 15 years, has been mis-attributed to O.J.. The words “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.”, in fact, came from sociology professor Dr. Harry Edwards. who said those words in the 2002 HBO documentary film O.J. Simpson: A Study in Black and White.

See, it was Simpson, the USC running back that won the Heisman Trophy in 1968, who changed the way we see the modern day Black athlete. Because, it was the Juice, whose appearance in the (1975) Hertz Corp's rent a car service commercial, earned him a $600,000 endorsement contract that increased the company's net profits 50% to 42.2 million. This endorsement deal made OJ, the first Black athlete, to be considered a celebrity in the new age of television.

OJ, matter of fact, became the perfect role model for the commercialization and the domestication of the Black male athlete. For this reason, Sports journalist Skip Bayless, even, felt Cam Newton had the potential to be the next OJ when he first entered the league. But, Cam's fashion choices and demeanor on the field and during press conferences, destroyed this football fantasy.

While Newton failed to be America's new favorite pitchman, Tiger Woods & Michael Jordan as well as Serena Williams, later in her career, with her interracial marriage, walked in OJ's footsteps by becoming the "colorless, raceless, apolitical" athlete, who played the middle ground by distancing themselves from issues that affected Black America just like OJ did when he removed himself from athletes like Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Lew Alcindor-Kareem Abdul Jabbar during that time of political unrest.

Follow me on this, OJ, as crazy, as it may seem, was the forerunner to Barack Obama, image wise. As I stated before, OJ was the perfect pitch man for corporate America. No different than President Obama,'" he,too,was smart, clean-cut, well-spoken, good-looking, and had the perfect smile.

Plus, he, like OJ, was (selected) to be the perfect pitchman to sell a multi-cultural dream to America-Bill Cosby style, the former Jell-O spokesman, who was slapped Tuesday with three to 10 years in Pennsylvania state prison for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

Yes, OJ, was the ultimate pitchman like Bill Cosby, the proto-type to Tiger Woods, who referred to himself as Calablasian, while denying his Blackness in the process, before falling victim to the Black Mans Kryptonite, which is known as the white woman, which all of these men suffered from.

See, this multi-cultural dream, tried to commercialize off of the (Black-ish) of Colin Kaepernick. a second-round pick in 2011, who led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII by making him the new face and pitchman of their new Nike (Just Do It ) ad, with his Afro, butterscotch leather jacket and Black Panther mannerism.

Believe me, Nike doesn't like Kap. This is business not personal. Because, capitalism is a system of pimps and hoes. The question is-who is getting pimped. (Kap or Nike.) See, I applaud Kaepernick for securing the bag (as the young people say) without coonin or (shuckin and jiving) like OJ did in several of those Naked Gun movies.

But, I have to remind Kaepernick, who like OJ played for the San Francisco 49ers not to get distracted by this Nike Deal and sacrifice his stance against injustice for a pair of shoes. Because, that plantation politics is real crafty. I mean, they are trying to sell us shoes instead of giving us justice. They are really telling us that they could care less about the death of Black people at the hands of the police. It's similar to the 2017 Kendell Jenner Pepsi commercial, which suggested that police brutality could be solved with one Caucasian woman with a Coke and a Smile.

This is the hidden Hollywood formula, were they profit off of Black pain to increase their economic gain. See, that NEW Nike commercial, was no different. Because, it was nothing more than a multi-million dollar Megan Markle moment, which was equivalent to a multi-level marketing scheme in order to sell stuff we don't need to boost the low NFL ratings to start the 2018 NFL season.

So, don't let a little temporary cash flow change the conversation or narrative, which has some of us hustling backward like OJ, who got arrested for stealing his own stuff in Vegas and spent nine years behind bars for kidnapping and armed robbery..

Therefore, remember, its a movement not an achievement. So, Kaepernick, please continue to be unapologetically Black.

And, not like OJ. 

O.K. 

(fouls & fumbles) (bobbeethehater.blogspot.com)

BOBBEE BEE: I STAND WITH KAP

I STAND WITH KAP

My love for my people serves as the fuel that fortifies my mission. And it is the people’s unbroken love for themselves that motivates me, even when faced with the dehumanizing norms of a system that can lead to the loss of one’s life over simply being Black. History has proven that there has never been a period in the history of America where Anti-Blackness has not been an ever-present terror. Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation--the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of Black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of Black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex.

While America bills itself as the land of the free, the receipts show that the U.S. has incarcerated approximately 2.2 million people, the largest prison population in the history of humankind. As police officers continue to terrorize Black and brown communities, abusing their power, and then hiding behind their blue wall of silence, and laws that allow for them to kill us with virtual impunity, I have realized that our love, that sometimes manifests as Black-rage, is a beautiful form of defiance against a system that seeks to suppress our humanity--A system that wants us to hate ourselves. I remind you that love is at the root of our resistance.

It is our love for 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was gunned down by the police in less than two seconds that will not allow us to bury our anger. It is our love for Philando Castille, who was executed in front of his partner and his daughter, that keeps the people fighting back. It is our love for Stephon Clark, who was lynched in his grandma’s backyard that will not allow us to stop until we achieve liberation for our people. Our love is not an individualized love—it is a collective love. A collective love that is constantly combating collective forms of racialized hate.

Chattel slavery, Jim Crow, New Jim Crow, massive plantations, mass incarcerations, slave patrols, police patrols, we as a collective, since the colonization of the Americas have been combating collective forms of systemic racialized hate and oppression. But I am hopeful. I am inspired. This is why we have to protest.

This is why we are so passionate. We protest because we love ourselves, and our people. It was James Baldwin who said, to be Black in America, “and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” My question is, why aren’t all people?

How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates, “freedom and justice for all,” that is so unjust to so many of the people living there? (bobbeethehater.blogspot.com) (fouls & fumbles with Patrick Williams and Eric D. Graham)

BOBBEE BEE: JUST DONT DO IT-

JUST DONT DO IT-

by eric d.graham

We are in a Sneaker War. Remember that....So, for all you so-called Sneakerheads, who will stand in line for 24 hours in order to purchase a pair of limited edition sneakers for $500 or more...…Understand, buying a pair of Nike sneakers or selling them, for that matter, is not a revolutionary act.

Just ask- the 13 UNC football players, who had to learn this the hard way- when they were suspended for four games for selling school-issued Jordan brand sneakers to local boutiques "for as much as $2,500 in cash."

Seriously, purchasing a pair of Nike sneakers does not defeat White Supremacy. Why? Because, we, again, are in a sneaker war which is build on the struggles of Black poverty and the increase of white wealth, who utilizes our swag, style, good-looks, bodies, and style- for capital gain.

See, in the spirit of OJ Simpson, the ultimate pitchman, endorsement deals and shoe contracts- are designed to infiltrate and commercialize the consciousness of all Black athletes, while stripping them of their Blackness in order to make THEM money and sell THEIR products.

Hence, the recent Just Do It Nike commercial starring Colin Kaepernick, which increased the shoe company's digital sales 36% , while raising its stock 6.25 percent, and adding $6.38 billion to the company's value left us with nothing but another slogan and another feel good moment to be reposted on Facebook.

For, Business is warfare, if you didn't know. Because, Nike could easily have built a shoe factory in any impoverished neighborhood in the states, while paying them livable wages instead of producing these cheap jays overseas and exploiting the people with another overpriced product.

But, they are driven by profit not the people. See, Nike wanted to neutralize Kaepernick by changing his narrative and diversifying his original protest against police brutality.

Honestly, have we already forgotten about the community members, who confronted a circle of police in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood over a "bait truck" filled with Nike shoes, which were allegedly left open by police aiming to lure potential (thieves) in a sting operation designed to arrest Black youth?

Have we forgotten the Adidas JS Roundhouse Mids, which caused an uproar on-line in 2012, because of their plastic “shackles” that many felt resembled those worn by slaves and inmates along with Adidas pitchman Kanye West's recent foolish- Slavery is a choice comment on TMZ.

Yes, we are in a Sneaker War, where LaVar Ball, the Crown Prince of Chino Hills, upset the sneaker world last year when he decided to design his own signature shoe for his son Lonzo under their Big Baller Brand logo. Or, Stephon Marbury, who attempted to build his own Sneaker Empire $30 at a Time to rival the Nike and Reebok shoe monopoly.

The former NBA point guard, in fact, has said and tweeted several times over the past year that Nike and "Michael Jordan have been robbing the hood,” for years while claiming that their pricey $120 basketball shoes are no different than his ($15-$45 )Starbury sneakers that he sells out of China.

Well, recently, we learnt that Marbury was telling the truth like Kat Williams.

Why? Because, according to recent police records, a counterfeit operation, containing a half million pair of generic Nike Air Jordan's, worth $70 million, ran by five individuals:, Miyuki Suen, Jian Min Huang, Songhua Qu, Kin Lui Chen and Fangrang Qu, who were later charged with counterfeit trafficking conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods- took the counterfeit Jordan's from China, and added the Jump Man logo on the merchandise in Brooklyn and Queens, before distributing and selling them.

Each defendant faces a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison

As reported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) last year, international trade of counterfeit goods represented upwards of 2.5 percent of overall world trade, or $461 billion, in 2013, in which Rolex, Ray Ban, Louis Vuitton, and of course, Nike, are brands that "seem to be more intensely targeted by counterfeiters..."

by eric d.graham (fouls & fumbles) (bobbeethehater.blogspot.com)