Caving to the cop-haters and race-baiters the National Football League has made the odd decision to double down on political hand grenades and has announced the “My Cause, My Cleats” week. Players will not be penalized for rolling out in cleats which considering the demographic composition of the league is sure to have plenty of overpaid prima donnas using the occasion to stick it to the police, to whitey and most of all to President-elect Donald Trump.

As reported by the Washington Post “This week only, NFL players can say (almost) anything they want with their cleats”:

Yeezy cleats earned a thumbs down. 9/11 tribute cleats got a big thumbs up. Cleats that don’t feature team colors were out, very out. But this week anything goes as far as the NFL is concerned (with advance approval, of course).

After fining players for shoes that don’t comply with the league’s rules about uniforms, Week 13 of the NFL season is here and it’s officially “My Cause, My Cleats” week, one in which players can use their shoes as a blank canvas without being socked with a fine — as long as the NFL approves the cause.

Mike Evans, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver who took a knee to protest the election of Donald Trump as president, will go with a theme about ending racism, as will nine other NFL players. Their golden shoes are part of a “Sideline Racism” initiative by the Ross Initiative in Sports Equality this weekend.

While there will be many who respect the occasion, and display their backing for honorable and legitimate causes, they will be outnumbered by the chuckleheads who will surely find creative ways to express their disdain towards a society that made them wealthy and famous for playing a game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans who only two weeks ago chose to dishonor veterans by not standing for the national anthem on the weekend the NFL chose to honor military members because he was protesting Trump’s election has a special pair of “stop racism” shoes made up.

It would be nice to get young Evans on record whether his political statement also extends to ending black on white racism or black on Asian or Latino racism but somehow I doubt that he’s be asked to address the question. It’s also going to be interesting in seeing what kind of cleats that Kaepernick is going to take the field in – perhaps he will chose to honor his inspirational hero Fidel Castro.

One has to wonder who in the league offices came up with this brainstorm in a season of plunging television ratings largely due to fan anger at “oppressed” anti-American millionaires like Colin Kaepernick. Let’s face it, millions of Americans have tuned into the games to AVOID politics and to get away from the day to day rat race. Now with “My Cleats, My Cause” it’s clear that the rats have indeed triumphed although it’s hard to see it being a winner in terms of ratings, especially given this last Sunday night’s nationally televised contest totally cratering compared last year.

Message to Roger Goodell: when you are in a hole the idea is to stop digging, not ask for a bigger shovel.

Originally published at Downtrend.com