Between tackles, NFL wants us to 'Choose Love.' Here are some messages that weren't considered.

By Gary Abernathy

Sports leagues injecting themselves into the ‘social justice' movement only consider one end of the political spectrum

I was watching an NFL playoff game last weekend when I noticed something written on the back of a player’s helmet. “Choose Love,” it said.

What? Was this some random player making a personal statement?

Then I noticed the same thing on the backs of all the helmets of players from both teams. Then I Googled it. Yep, there was an AP story explaining it:

The NFL will honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by displaying “Choose Love” in the end zones and on helmet decals for all divisional round playoff games this weekend. “Choose Love” and “It Takes All of Us” will appear on opposite end zones at the Super Bowl next month. Host teams will select the end zone stencils for the conference championship games.

Martin Luther King Jr. was, in my opinion, a great man. One of the greatest Americans ever. He should probably be added to Mount Rushmore. His devotion to peaceful protest was admirable. The definition of “peaceful protest” in his day, by the way, was quite different from today, when media outlets describe violent riots as “mostly peaceful.”

More from AP:

The NFL has used on-field social justice messaging for the past six seasons. Teams featured an end zone message of their choice at each home game throughout the season, selecting from four options: "End Racism," "Stop Hate," "Choose Love" or "Inspire Change." "It Takes All of Us" was stenciled in the opposite end zone for all games.

Ok. Guess I was too focused on football to notice.

As I wrote once in a Washington Post column — commenting on some athletes’ vocal opposition to President Trump and the trend of kneeling during the National Anthem — sports are supposed to be an escape for all Americans, free from politics and social messages.

What makes sports so popular in our culture? The answer is simple: It’s a couple of hours of escape from the real world during which people from all walks of life can forget about their troubles and cheer for a competition that, at the end of the day, is relatively meaningless. …

Athletes, black or white, have every right to participate in politics and work for causes important to them on their own time. … When athletes contaminate sporting events with politics, they extinguish the only thing that makes sports matter: their very irrelevancy. The real world hits us in the face every day. Sports are our escape… .”

You might say, hey, “Choose Love” is about as non-controversial as you can get. Who can argue with choosing love? No one. In fact, it’s one of those notions that shouldn’t need to be stated. But these days, the NFL and other leagues feel pressured into making some kind of statement, no matter how meaningless and bland.

It’s really jarring to see it on NFL helmets. “Choose Love.” Sure. Just after a defensive end violently throws a running back to the ground, we see a close-up of his helmet saying, “Choose Love.” Right. Just after a quarterback is sacked by two 300-pound linebackers, the camera zooms in on “Choose Love.”

It’s a blatant cave-in to the far-left politically correct brigade. “Choose Love” — as though plastering that slogan on a helmet or in an end zone is going to have the slightest impact on the state of the world.

Football is a violent game. That’s part of its appeal. It involves some huge behemoths trying to knock the heck out of anyone on the opposing team. But between tackles, don’t forget, “Choose Love.”

If you think it’s a great idea, more power to you. The rest of us yearn for the days when sports came without messages outside of “Go Bears!” or “Beat Those Browns!”

Of course, all the “acceptable” slogans teams are permitted to choose from are suggested by the “social justice” left. “End Racism.” “Stop Hate.” “Choose Love.” “Inspire Change.” “It Takes All of Us.”

“It Takes All of Us” to do what? “Inspire Change?” Changing to what? The answers aren’t provided.

In a hazy, non-specific way, those are all fine ideas, as far as they go. But there could be others. Believe it or not, the concept of “social justice” exists from a more conservative perspective, too.

If we’re going to put non-sports-related phrases on helmets, uniforms or end zones, how ‘bout choosing from some with a little more right-leaning messaging?

• “Peace Through Strength.”

• “America First.”

• “Secure the Border.”

• “Back the Blue.”

• “Faith, Family, Freedom.”

• “Guns Don’t Kill People, Criminals Do.”

• “Drill, Baby, Drill.”

• “Make America Great Again.”

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the vague clichés stenciled onto the backs of football helmets really will make the world a better place. And maybe your phone battery will last all day. Who knows? Keep hope alive.

Keep hope alive? Hey, NFL, there’s another helmet sticker!