“When the world has opened its arms, some people still choose to stay put.
——Why is rugby only the number one sport in North America? "
This is a special report from the "Los Angeles Times", written by intern reporter Jay Fox, but it was published on the headlines of the sports section for the first time, and occupied a position at the bottom of the front page, becoming the most interesting news in this issue of the newspaper. The focus of people's attention, instantly attracting all eyes.
In the report, Jay mentioned the discordant scene that occurred during the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals on the fourteenth day of the regular season. The home fans launched personal attacks on the visiting team and even went further to attack the opponent's starting quarterback. Lu Ke's Asian identity not only caused a large number of discriminatory statements in the stands, but also many spectators imitated the image of monkeys to mock their opponents.
In this regard, Jay said that this is a bad phenomenon that cannot be tolerated.
“We are now in the 21st century, and the world has become a global village. Airplanes connect every corner of the earth, and the Internet connects six billion people face to face.
Learning to accept new things, learning to embrace different cultures, and learning to broaden our horizons is an inevitable trend for progress. Not only racial discrimination, but also discrimination against ethnic minorities and disadvantaged groups has lagged far behind the times. "
In the article, Jay did not elaborate on the problem from a social and political perspective, but returned to competitive sports itself.
“As a wonderful sport, rugby has encountered many difficulties in its promotion, which is certainly affected by multiple factors such as venue, equipment, and technology.
But it is undeniable that this sport has always been entertaining itself, always refusing to integrate into other groups, and even refusing to accept different rugby from Britain, Australia, Canada, etc., firmly confining itself to the local area of the United States. , this is definitely one of the important reasons that cannot be ignored. "
Through the article, Jay makes an interesting point.
When major professional leagues such as football, basketball, baseball, and even ice hockey have enthusiastically opened their arms, Asian players have proven themselves that on these fields, they still have their own talents and advantages, and they have the ability to control the world. The ability to move the game, the so-called racial shackles, are far less serious than people think, and they can also have a place.
Rugby, however, remains stagnant and complacent, refusing to advance with the times and arrogantly believing that it is the world's number one sport. After league chairman Roger Goodell took office, he encountered many doubts and refutations from within the league when he launched the London Bowl, Mexico Bowl and China Bowl plans.
But objective facts show that worldwide, the market share of football and basketball far exceeds that of rugby; although the annual Super Bowl has become a global event, it is more because of the halftime show performance Known as "America's Spring Festival Gala," not because the Super Bowl represents the ultimate showdown between football's two conference champions.
“On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, wearing jersey No. 42, made his debut as the starting first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers, which not only made Major League Baseball history The first black player to debut in the NBA, he also became the first black player to debut in the four major American sports leagues.
After that, history has moved on.
Now, half a century has passed. Different races, different classes, and even different genders have all proven their worth on the court; now, the NBA has become a black world, MLB and NHL are areas dominated by white people, and outside of this, Latinos and Asian and other minority groups have also become the backbone of these two arenas.
And what about the NFL?
According to official statistics, the NFL has the most balanced racial ratio among the four major sports leagues in the United States. Blacks and whites are almost one to one. The addition of Latinos, Europeans, Native Americans, and Native Hawaiians has also further A rich and diverse ethnic mix.
But on this field, excluding mixed-race players, there are only two Asian players: one Wang Kai and one Lu Ke.
Just as all leagues have opened their arms to accept changes from the world; just as the NFL has become the most successful league in racial integration in North America...now, extreme and serious racial discrimination remarks have once again appeared on the court. This is not only Just standing still is an obvious step back.
This also gave rise to a series of questions: Is the NFL really the most successful league in racial integration? Is the NFL really the number one sport in America? Has the NFL really kept up with the times? Also, does the NFL really want to go beyond the North American continent and go global?
Furthermore, does the so-called discrimination only exist among fans? In the rookie training camp, Lu Ke, who performed well, became an undrafted rookie. He didn't even have a spot in the draft for seven rounds. Have NFL coaches and team managers really broken the racial prejudice and shackles? "
Like Lu Ke, Jay did not limit his entire vision to Arizona Cardinals fans, but stood at a higher perspective and level, regarding the rights of every citizen, the changes of the entire era, and the professional league. The current situation was analyzed and elaborated, and the real political demands were expressed.
In other words, this is not an entanglement of personal grudges. It is free from conflicts and disputes between players, and it is also free from confrontations and contradictions between individual players and fans. It focuses more on a higher, larger and broader pattern. , forcing the other 31 teams and the league to take a longer-term view——
Don't choose to sacrifice the interests of a player, Lu Ke, just because of the protests and mediation of the Arizona Cardinals team.
"Why is rugby only the number one sport in North America?
It's obviously not because this sport isn't exciting enough. "
At the end of the article, Jay did not give an answer, or even discuss it too much. Instead, he gave a semi-open guidance statement, leaving space for thinking to the readers and senior personnel.
As the most influential newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, the "Los Angeles Times" is almost the only one, and it is also one of the few newspapers in North America that can compete with the "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal" and "Washington Post" First, every one of their reports is highly anticipated, not to mention such a sharp special report?
After the publication of this issue of the newspaper, it caused an uproar throughout North America!
First of all, the "Los Angeles Times" simultaneously uploaded this special report on its official website. In just twelve hours, countless visitors poured in crazily, and the number of views per hour increased from 100,000 to 100,000. The number surged to 300,000; and the click-through rate of this special report exceeded 10 million in one go!
Not only that, the special report was forwarded more than 6,600 times. It spread throughout the entire Internet in almost half a day, at least in North America, and became the number one hot topic.
Secondly, this special report is everywhere on social networks. There are opponents who believe that the "Los Angeles Times" is making a fuss out of a molehill, distorting the facts, and putting a trivial matter online, which infinitely amplifies the problem and has sinister intentions; there are also supporters They all strongly condemned the bad behavior of Cardinals home fans and hoped that such ridiculous and ugly discriminatory remarks could be resolutely put to an end.
On Twitter, just the number of retweets from peer media exceeded a thousand times in twelve hours. This has also made media in many other fields such as entertainment, society, politics, etc. besides sports media. One after another began to focus on this incident.
The characteristics of the Internet age and fast food culture were vividly reflected at this moment. Not to mention Jay, even the "Los Angeles Times" itself did not expect it.
Obviously, after the game, the city of San Francisco turned all eyes and made their displeasure known in a strong voice in support of the Los Angeles Times.
According to official data from Facebook and Twitter, in the first three hours after the Los Angeles Times published its report online, user activity in San Francisco exploded, accounting for almost 70% of the overall data. It spread quickly like a prairie fire and contributed to the ensuing public frenzy.
San Francisco 49ers fans stood shoulder to shoulder behind their starting quarterback and made their stance unwavering. This once again proves that the development of major cities on the coastline is far ahead of inland cities; at the same time, San Francisco, as a city with great cultural integration and one of the cities with the densest Chinese life, has also become Lu Ke’s The perfect stage to enter the league.
Once again, after the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper was officially released, all 1.8 million copies of the newspaper were sold out in just half a day, and demand exceeded supply.
Under the wave of the Internet age, all print media are facing a severe decline in sales. The highest-selling newspaper in North America is now the "Wall Street Journal", and its sales only maintain between 2 million and 2.3 million copies. while the sales volume of "USA Today", "Los Angeles Times" and "New York Times" are almost the same, generally between 1.5 million and 1.8 million.
Sales of print media as a whole have been declining for five consecutive years.
But today, the "Los Angeles Times" actually sold out all its copies. This was absolutely unprecedented, so much so that the newspaper was dumbfounded and could only panic and start reprinting.
Why?
Why can a media special about a Chinese-American quarterback experiencing discriminatory treatment cause such a stir?
It can be said that it is unexpected, but it is reasonable.
At the beginning of the season, Lu Ke was surrounded by controversy from the first day he landed in the league. He broke through the controversy many times, went against the current, conquered the fans with one victory after another, and proved with his excellent performance time and time again. Himself, "Lu Ke Skywalker" has become the hottest topic in the NFL this season, even surpassing Aaron Rodgers, who is in incredible form, and strongly leads the league's hot list.
Now, controversy has come again. After the focus collided, the energy not only doubled, but also exploded ten times or even a hundred times, attracting everyone's attention!
