Double standards

 Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella is who Walt Kowalski from "Gran Torino" would have been if Walt had been a hockey coach. He's grouchy, snarly and get-off-my-lawn-y, and he doesn't give a warm bucket of spit for your opinion about that.

Which is why it's hardly surprising he once said he'd bench any player who knelt quietly with his head bowed for the national anthem. 

But it's also not much more surprising he chose not to bench defenseman Ivan Provorov last night, after Provorov violated his contract by refusing to come out for warmups because the Flyers were wearing LGBTQ+ Pride Night warmup jerseys.

This is because it wasn't really surprising at all, given the disdain a certain species of American still has for gay folk. Frequently they use the Bible as a shield for this disdain. 

That's what Provorov did last night, saying wearing the Pride warmups violated his religious beliefs. And Tortorella backed his play.

Suddenly he was talking about admiring Provorov for being "true to himself and his religion," and how he, Tortorella, admired him for that. Which is fine.

But it does bear asking where this understanding and admiration were for those who were protesting racial injustice.

That, too, was inspired in some cases by religious conviction, as the entire American civil rights movement was energized and morally grounded from the pulpit. Difference is, those who were kneeling partly because of that conviction weren't as vocal about it as those who use it as an excuse to refuse service to gays in local businesses.

Perhaps if they had been, they wouldn't have been booed so loudly by all those brave patriots in the stands.

But, nah. The Blob is not usually so cynical, but it does recognize that double standards are as American as apple pie.

This is why the NBA punished Muslim player Mahmoud Abdul-Rouf (nee Chris Jackson) years ago after Abdul-Rouf  refused to stand at attention for the national anthem, citing his own religious beliefs. No one defended his right to choose, nor talked about how they admired him for being true to himself and his beliefs. 

These days, thankfully, the NBA would likely be far more respectful of Abdul-Rouf's religious conviction, although I doubt the Brave Patriots would be. They'd likely still boo, given the toxicity of our society and the hostility toward Muslims in particular in certain quarters.

(Don't think so? Consider congress critter Lauren Boebert, who once joked at a rally she wasn't afraid of Muslim representative Ilhan Omar because Omar wasn't wearing a backpack -- implying that if she had been, it likely would have contained a bomb, because of course all Muslims are potential terrorists. This was a member of Congress saying this.)

Look. All I know is this: There are religious convictions of all stripes in this nation, because that is one of its founding principles. And so there shouldn't be a difference between how we view one from another.

I know. Dream on, right?