Hip-hop culture hurting NFL

Hurting the NFL? How about hurting the USA?! We can argue all day about the music, and the rhymes, 'flow', 'beats', lyrics, etc., but to claim that hip-hop culture is anything but a cancer on our society is wilfull blindness.

I don't buy into his whole racial spin on it -- the owners should just dump their troublemakers. The resulting demographics will be whatever they'll be. No, some people won't like it. That's life. It's FOOTBALL, after all.

what is this "hip-hop culture" that you are so adamantly against?

Maybe gangsta? You know, hip-hop, gangsta, same thing.

A white person probably couldn't write that article without catching major heat. I think it's an interesting argument. I also happen to disagree with most of what was written.

I think that when teams are winning problems are kept in check or swept under the rug. Who knows when a Randy incident is going to occur. I don't buy the fact he changed -- he's been a problem for too long. All it takes is for Brady to go down with an injury, his backup to come in and struggle and Moss starts mouthing off to the media.

It also could be leadership. Obviously Belichick and Dungy run a tight ship. What about placing the blame at the top for not creating an environment where authority is respected, rather than placating the offender ( i.e. Lewis & C. Johnson).

I also don't buy hip-hop culture argument. I believe there are players who are white that don't participate in hip hop culture that can be problems as well. What about Jeremy Shockey? Bill Romanowski?

Also what about baseball. I don't know enough about baseball to cite specific incidents or players (especially NL), but surely there are lots of baseball players that are huge assholes and create locker room distractions.

It is a cop-out to blame an entire "culture" rather than put blame where it belongs, on the grown men acting like children.

I understand the merengue culture used to be a real problem in Chicago.

For starters: thugz, ho's, bitches, gunz, niggaz, etc. Violence & misogyny. Ridiculous clothes & macho posturing. Butchering the English language. Bling....the list goes on for awhile.

Isn't 'gangsta' a subgenre of hip-hop?

The guys don't get dumped because they are good at what they do. Until someone else who can do the job as well, without the headaches comes along, the Pacman Joneses and Tank Johnsons will stay gainfully employed by the NFL -- and some owner will always talk him self into why he should gamble on a questionable person. The attitude Whitlock ascribes to hip-hop culture is pervasive and speaks to socio-cultural issues that hip-hop identifies, and youth idolize. Money, respect, not respecting authority, just let me do my thing, my way. Since the music is so tied to the black community, and blacks make up so many of the football players, it's an issue. But the attitude problem is society wide. For example, while you can't blame goth and heavy rock music on the events that happened at Columbine, you can recognize the music speaks to whatever alienation and frustration those suburban kids were feeling. The lyrics, while intended for entertainment, become anthemic and marching orders for some kids. They offer a view of how to deal the world that's romantic and rebellious. The music doesn't hold all white kids the same way, but the number of that resort to the extreme reaction toward society is becoming more common. Simply put, kids need role models to become responsible adults. Parents, teachers, community leaders can't compete with Michael Vick, but it seems too many don't even try.

Hip hop is a reflection of the ongoing, unacknowledged problems in American inner cities. As far as butchering the English language goes, I don't really understand that argument because the evolution of language is a perpetual process of "butchering." The French "butchered" Latin, and in turn they brought that language to England and "butchered" Anglo-Saxon, giving us English.

Also, who gives a shit what kind of personal lives professional athletes lead? These are people who get paid millions of dollars for kicking a piece of inflated leather around a patch of grass. If people consider them role models the problem is with those people, not the athletes themselves.

You're money, dude!

Where's the violence?

Holy fuck. I've never seen a more generalized stereotypical view of hip hop. You're speaking of MAINSTREAM hip hop you dunce. Please don't slander the rest of the movement/culture that have talent.

The violence was to the environment. IIRC, the characters drove separately to the party in the Hollywood Hills.