Trumpy is down in “the great state of Alabama,” as George Wallace used to call it. He is campaigning for one of the tweedle-dum/tweedle-dee misfits running there for the U.S. Senate. Of course, he cannot limit himself to this silliness, but has to air his opinions like so much dirty laundry while he makes his pitch.

He wants the football barons to fire any player who fails to ‘respect the flag.’

I hate this flag cult – it is as morbidly sentimental and mindless as Cohan’s “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” Of course, pseudo-patriots like Trump can’t stop mentioning the flag, and are keen to burn any flag-burners, but they say nothing when the flag is degraded and insulted by its use in commerce, sports, and other unsuitable venues. Some years ago I was out walking near the Univ. of Notre Dame a couple of blocks away from where during the week earlier there had been a big used car sale on the campus. I saw something colorful being blown across the dust of the road, and found that it was one of the small U.S. flags used to decorate the tent at the used-car sale. A silly slice of life, but it made a profound impression on me.

Trumpy also wants to bring good old extreme violence back to football. Well of course! His favorite sport is professional wrestling. Everybody knows that though the wrestlers bash and gash and slam each other, no one is really hurt. Right? And Trumpy assumes that football is just the same. Come on, they’re not really hurt that bad!! I suppose Fox Schmooz does not report the very alarming discoveries of brain damage to football players.

The proven causal connection of football to brain damage is already seen as a potential threat to the multi-billion dollars industry of the NFL. Just wait until it becomes an issue in the colleges and universities that also exploit players and derive so much of their revenue from football. And when it filters down to the high school level, the fat will really be in the fire. We will see outrage, anger, and denial, denial, denial. Parents, grandparents, and whole communities and states find much of their identity in games played by teen-age boys with a football. A criticism of sacred football is, in fact, far worse than any “disrespect for the flag.”