What would Archie Bunker say about the NFL?

[Correll]

The show was heavy handed by today’s standards. All shows from the 70s and 80s were. It was the era of the “Very Special Episode”. Subtlety wasn’t their strong suit.

Really? I admit I was very young at the time. But the shows today seem more heavy handed, and stupid about it.

 

[22lcidw]

Again, the Bunkers were not WASPs

And Archie was a bigot with a heart of gold. Deep down, he didn’t really hate anyone. “Hate is bad” is the main message I got from the show. Not a bad message.

Plus, Meathead and his pseudo-intellectual smugness got put in his place every bit as often as Archie

Archie was a bigot. He was not a racist in denying others. Only one time I saw that when he had to choose between two people for employment in one position. The message from that program was that all white males were racists and bigots and other names into denying everyone else ways to survive. That was not true. The show was funny though. And it showed the human flaws we have.

 

[rightwinger]

Again, the Bunkers were not WASPs

And Archie was a bigot with a heart of gold. Deep down, he didn’t really hate anyone. “Hate is bad” is the main message I got from the show. Not a bad message.

Plus, Meathead and his pseudo-intellectual smugness got put in his place every bit as often as Archie

Archie mellowed as he got older

He lived with a Puerto Rican after Edith died

 

[braalian]

Really? I admit I was very young at the time. But the shows today seem more heavy handed, and stupid about it.

Sitcoms in the 50s/60s avoided “topical” plots like race or drugs or rape completely.

When such stories became free game in the 70s/80s the writers overcompensated by constantly producing those “Very Special” episodes that addressed one social issue or another. It’s very obvious in retrospect

 

[braalian]

Archie mellowed as he got older

He lived with a Puerto Rican after Edith died

In that spin off where he owned the bar?

 

[braalian]

The message from that program was that all white males were racists and bigots and other names into denying everyone else ways to survive.

That wasn’t the message at all

 

[22lcidw]

That wasn’t the message at all

If you talked to women at that time as we were transitioning form a hetero marriage system with one person employed in a family, they would tell you different. Almost immediately taxes started rising in a huge way.

 

[braalian]

If you talked to women at that time as we were transitioning form a hetero marriage system with one person employed in a family, they would tell you different. Almost immediately taxes started rising in a huge way.

Hetero marriage system?

Are you saying two-income households are homosexual or something?

 

[Woodznutz]

We knew it was a formula. But we still liked Archie because he was just a guy trying to understand his world.

And there was no meanness in his character.

 

[Unkotare]

Sitcoms in the 50s/60s avoided “topical” plots like race or drugs or rape completely.
...

All in the Family addressed such topics all the time.

 

[leftwinger]

What would Archie Bunker think of his son-in-law being killed by his own son?

He would say "would you rather they be pushed out a Winder"?

 

[Unkotare]

He would say "would you rather they be pushed out a Winder"?

Defenestration

 

[leftwinger]

Not even close

With NIL and Transfer Portal, the rich get richer and the poor lose all their good players.

Conferences are too big and make no sense anymore

That NIL immediate transfer stuff just started. No one knows how they may clean that up right now of any?

The rules are better in College (clock rules). Most players actually care and play hard.

Please, just SHUP.

 

[Unkotare]

The show was heavy handed by today’s standards. All shows from the 70s and 80s were. It was the era of the “Very Special Episode”. Subtlety wasn’t their strong suit.

I remember an episode of Barney Miller that featured a woman going to the police station seeking to press charges of rape against her husband. It was played as a joke (laugh track and everything). It has not aged well.

 

[braalian]

All in the Family addressed such topics all the time.

Right. That was my point. All in the Family was 70’s…..

 

[Lesh]

Who gives a shit..

Archie was an asshole

 

[candycorn]

IF Archie Bunker wrote a letter-to-the editor about the NFL, it might look like this:

Dear editor:

It is hard for me to enjoy pro football nowadays. I see all these black former slaves wearing helmets mixed with a few Caucasian men, mostly quarterbacks and kickers. I remember all the kneeling that went on just recently to remind us that America is a bad country. Football is a sport that involves planning and strategy. It has a huge audience which is why it was used to change the thought process of viewers from enjoyment to political guilt. Destroying the livers and kidneys of the viewers with beer, processed food, and pharmaceutical medications is also a huge money maker for that sport. Of course, if you are eating the pizza, drinking the beer, swallowing the pills inhaling the nicotine, cheering for a team, and now gambling on the result, you likely see my critiques as weird. That's ok. I, like you, liked the game a lot once.

I am old enough to remember chronic alcoholics like Pat Summerall and later Howard Cosell, who gave the game an added interesting dimension of entertainment. The game in the 1950’s when everyone would come over to watch the New York Giants on black and white TV did not have instant replays. The officials ruled the game but oddly they did not play a huge role in the final score like today. They did have rudimentary slow-motion in those days, but drones and camera technology were absent. The Picayune examination of a dragged foot would have been laughed at by my friends in 1958.

There was very little gyrating victory dancing after good plays by the players. As I recall, there were a lot more Caucasian players dressed for action in those days. I’m not sure how the National Foot League turned into a showcase for slavery reparations, but I watched white folks wearing numbers decline rapidly.

If you want to use huge audience events to change thinking, I guess that is what is going on. The government decided we needed to protect Native Americans from the insult of team names even though no fans with American Indian heritage were complaining. Now the Washington Redskins are the Commanders. Could we not use the same logic here to avoid confusion with European football? Why don’t we kill two birds with one stone and call American football, Blackball? Eventually we could get all the white men out of the sport completely! Now that would be reparations!

And American football is no longer a mancave sport; it is a government-reparation national podium. We can’t leave out the disengaged females of course, so we give them a microphone and let them interview the mostly black players. Now we know those females don’t give a rat’s backend about the game of football. But they get to stand in front of a huge audience and launch a broadcasting career!

If you are going to have a government game, you must do government things!
Well, that is why I no longer enjoy watching football.

Just sayin,
Archie.


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The sad thing is that Archie Bunker was created to be someone we could all point at and laugh for his petty bigotry. The average MAGA dolt had adopted nearly all of his qualities and brandishes them proudly. Hollywood couldn't concoct a stranger thesis for a movie than this reality.

 

[Fang]

Sam Darnold. Once again proving the accurate, game manager pocket passer will always reign supreme.

 

[braalian]

Who gives a shit..

Archie was an asshole

You obviously never watched the show

 

[Lesh]

You obviously never watched the show

O watched almost every episode

Archie was a caricature of a conservative.

His purpose on the show was to show what idiots they were