The “Griddy” was yesterday, now the NFL is dancing a new dance: last weekend several players celebrated successful game actions with the well-known floor moves of the new US President Donald Trump. An affront for some, satisfaction for others. Yes, what now?
When Spiegel, Tagesschau and Co. report on an NFL topic, then you know that something really earth-shattering must have happened on the green gridiron. This is what happened last weekend, when professionals at several venues suddenly indulged in a bizarre, seemingly comical dance and celebrated a variety of successful plays. A dance? Yes, a dance, for all of three seconds. It’s precisely those dance moves – slightly stiff hip movements paired with alternately rowing arms forward – that made none other famous than Donald J. Trump, the former and future President of the United States of America.
Donald Trump’s dance is making the rounds in the NFL
This morally questionable but politically highly successful man is now someone whose actions still have a similar effect on some media as Cruiser Number One once did on Scrooge McDuck, not to mention an example from the animal kingdom with a certain concentration of flying insects . In many ways, this attention is of course justified, after all, this is about the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world, who is not exactly what one would generally describe as the supposedly babbling, calming status quo. Quite the opposite.
The events on the NFL fields last weekend prove that he has perhaps become that at least to some extent. There is no other way to explain the openness with which various athletes express their sympathy for the aspiring POTUS. After his first election victory, such behavior would have been impossible, as the zeitgeist was different and players would have found themselves exposed to an eruption of angry headwinds. No matter how you feel about Trump, no matter what you think about his politics, his behavior, his statements, you can’t avoid one fact: Trump, along with all his other activities, has turned into a kind of cultural phenomenon. A phenomenon that it may have already been for many people, but which they are now obviously celebrating.
Football America and other sports stars pay homage to their president
Even if many people don’t like it, the signs ultimately cannot be interpreted any other way. Because it wasn’t just the NFL where you could watch Trump’s dances. UFC legend Jon Jones also got in on his title fight, right in front of Donald, who was sitting in the front row. Christian Pulisic recently celebrated his goal for the US national soccer team with the dance. More will likely follow. Quite a few turn up their noses at this, condemning the display as a pact with evil incarnate and a further step of human civilization towards the all-consuming cliff. There’s no other way to explain why CBS cuts the dance out of a highlight video or the Raiders cancel Brock Bowers’ postgame interview so that you don’t end up on socially critical ice here.
🚨TRENDING: Donald Trump posted today that three #NFL players did his dance as a celebration.
• Brock Bowers
• Calvin Ridley
• #Lions defenseThis has quickly become one of the most popular celebrations in sports.
pic.twitter.com/ZRpTwtd9P8— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) November 18, 2024
Ultimately, this is always a little crumbly and fragile when it comes to the topic of Trump. But the sudden surprise of many at the dance escapades and their frequency is ultimately one of the most important reasons for the former real estate shark’s success, as they testify to a deep-seated delusion. In fact, many political and social forces have never understood what is really driving people into the arms of the man for whom over 76 million Americans recently voted in the last presidential election. It is unctuous and easy for the conscience of one’s opponents to label them as out-of-touch, racist hillbillies with an M60 in their living room cupboard, but – in most cases at least – this has little to do with reality. It also blinds us when we never take a look in the mirror, which shows billions in wasted campaign donations, identity politics that are beyond recognition and a complete ignorance of political and media circles towards the reality of the “every man”. It would probably do a society better to question a development like the one that propelled Donald Trump to the highest political office in the world in a more nuanced way and to be honest about it. But that’s only on the sidelines.
Of course, NFL players also vote for Donald Trump
The NFL, or at least its players, do in some ways. You can bet that the voting decision in the ranks of football players will be balanced or in favor of Trump, perhaps even relatively clearly. And you don’t even have to use platitudes that reduce the staff of the professional league, which is clearly characterized by enormous machismo, to ultimately mostly irrelevant superficialities. No, statistically it would simply be “normal” if just over one in two NFL professionals had voted for the Republicans and for Trump. In this context, it is of course completely normal for those same people to openly display their affection in a changed world. In a more than subtle and ultimately carefree way.
The NFL is said to have already considered banning the dance – recent reports but let it be known that nothing is happening here for now. Classified as a “political statement” it might make sense, there can actually only be Hü or Hott here. But is that really what dance is? Is it really an unfair use of the big sporting stage for one’s own political purposes? Or doesn’t that sound a bit exaggerated? Many people probably don’t even know that anymore. Which doesn’t change the fact that it’s ultimately bizarre and perhaps much more worrying when a few “shimmies” here and there cause a huge ruckus.
