Bias

Hello, friends.  Don't often post on Tuesdays, but it's not so that I can keep you guessing!

I had originally conceived a pretty significant rant in the wake of the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night.  It seemed to me and my wife as we watched that game that the television announcers were squarely in favor of the Chiefs winning (by winning they qualified for their third Super Bowl in four years) despite some grudging compliments toward the Bengals, who started the game slowly but gained momentum and looked to be in position to win.

The other group that seemed unfairly favoring the Chiefs were the officiating crew.  Several calls were iffy, to say the least, there was a do-over opportunity given them by the striped shirts, and in the end a penalty against the Bengals sealed the chance to win for Kansas City.

With a little more time having passed since that game ended, I don't really think that the officials were in the tank for the Chiefs, but it would be hard to convince me that the announcers weren't playing favorites.

And that really brings me to my topic today.  The NFL, in particular, assiduously avoided any hint of linkage to gambling for many, many years.  My father used to bring home what were simply known as "football cards" and we'd play them at home, betting on the team we thought would beat the point spread listed.  Worth a mention that these were illegal, so the betting would be amongst ourselves.

That became a weekly thing that we would do, my parents, my older brother and I, putting money into a pot and winning or losing pocket change on the outcome of games.  It was fun but sometimes a player who guessed a lot and guessed right would win money, regardless of what they actually knew about football.  Sort of like going to the racetrack and betting on all of the grey horses.

Anyway, organized legal gambling began to expand geographically, beyond just Las Vegas and Atlantic City, then sports gambling services run from overseas popped up online, and now you have perfectly legal sports books operating in many states where there are professional sports teams.  Some these betting services are "official partners" of one sport or another and may even sponsor venues within stadiums and ballparks.

The Cincinnati Reds opened an onsite bar when their current park, Great American Ball Park, opened.  It was called the Machine Room, named for the great Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s.  Visited there a few times but it never replaced sitting in seats or leaning on rails watching the game on the field.  Now, that bar shares its name with one of the betting services, since Ohio legalized sports betting as of January 1.

So now the NFL and National Hockey League have franchises in Las Vegas, and there may well be a Major League Baseball franchise there in a few years, as the Oakland Athletics have struggled with poor attendance for many years and continue to examine the possibility of moving.

Not allowing teams to located in Nevada has always seemed disingenuous to me, particularly with more open association with perfectly legal gambling operations.  So I guess it's good that time has apparently passed.

The subject of bias often comes up in far more grave situations as well.  The initial reporting of the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis was that he has been beaten severely by Memphis police officers and died as a result.  Then it surfaced that all five of the officers coincidentally were black.  And just in the last couple of days a sixth officer was identified who happens to be white, and a seventh who has not yet been identified.  Additionally there were three emergency medical personnel identified as being involved in the victim's treatment and one of them was white as well.

This was reported in such a way that it appeared that media outlets were concerned that public reaction would differ depending on the race of the accused assailants.  Should it?  The crime committed by the officers and EMTs was equally heinous, regardless of their race.  It also should not matter that the victim was black, but it does.

I don't need to belabor this point but bias is far too prevalent in many important and some less important aspects of life.

And like so many issues, there are no easy answers.