Message delivered, at least

The first NFL Sunday in the Year of the Bastard Plague went off as scheduled yesterday, and we learned some things we likely already should have  known.

One, the Browns gonna Browns and the Lions gonna Lions.

Two, Philip Rivers is who we thought he was, which is a 38-year-old quarterback with a fondness for the timely miscue.

Three, Tom Brady is still Tom Brady, but living outside the Patriots' biosphere might prove to be a tad problematical when one is 43 years old.

And, of course, four: Some people still don't get it and never will.

Players and coaches knelt or stood and linked arms or didn't come out of the locker room for the National Anthem -- standard practice in the NFL until about a decade ago -- and the usual suspects booed or called them names or vowed never again to watch the NFL, except when their team's on the regional game this week.

They're people who still think this is about the flag or the anthem or The Troops, that kneeling quietly or standing quietly with arms linked is somehow a slur on any and all. And no amount of reason will convince them otherwise.

But God love the Indianapolis Colts and head coach Frank Reich. At least they tried.

The players and coaches stood with arms linked for the anthem, while Reich, a 58-year-old white man, volunteered to be the designated kneeler. The knucklehead brigade of course gave him unshirted hell about it on social media.

This despite Reich telling Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star that America had to do something about systemic racism in order to be "great" again, and gave concrete examples of the problem for those who still think it's some sort of sociological Bigfoot.

And this despite the Colts issuing a statement that read in part: "TO BE CLEAR - we were not protesting the flag, the anthem, or the men and women who wear the uniform. The timing of this action is meant to highlight that the presence, the power, and oppression of racism remains inconsistent with the unity and freedoms of what it means to be an American. Our Black communities feel the weight of this issue and they are hurting."

This is somewhat more eloquent a manifesto than Our Only Available Impeached President spluttering "Get that sonofabitch off the field!" when the players knelt a couple of years ago. But then OOAIP doesn't believe systemic racism in America exists, either, being one of its enablers and not one of his victims.

Hey, it never happened to him. Never happened to any of the knuckleheads, either. So of course it's just Black folk whining and getting all honked off over imaginary slights.

They should just get over it: Isn't that the mantra?

Of course, this is coming from a crowd who, in a lot of cases, still can't get over losing a war 155 years ago. Or can't handle wearing a mask in a pandemic. Or can't abide professional athletes who insist on being fully formed human beings with perspectives and consciences, and who refuse to just be well-paid minstrels whose only purpose in life is to entertain the knuckleheads.

New message to those folks: That stuff won't fly anymore. So just get over it.