A TALE OF 3 ATHLETES

 A TALE OF 3 ATHLETES It’s a shame Kyrie Irving, a Black man who shared the link to a video, has received more consequences, condemnation and news coverage, than 2 white men combined: Brett Favre stole $5M from poor Black children in MS Dana White pimp slapped his wife in public

First evil Dana White

As we've always known the white media ignores and categorically refuses to run negative stories about people based on race. And now a reporter has admitted that at least over at ESPN that the reason they since the Dana White domestic abuse scandal broke, they've been told not to write anything "inflammatory" about Dana White.

ESPN has no problem reporting on UFC fighters when they make the news. Jon Jones comes to mind. Everything he was accused of was reported 24/7. This is protection by complexion.

If #ChrisBrown, #BobbyBrown or #AntoinioBrown did what #DanaWhite did, the media wouldn’t stop talking about it!! What can Brown do for you?………Be White!! #TeamDl

Well group there the old American double standard. Of those who know me know that  I've  been throwing rocks the American double standard for a long time. And will continue to do so.

My own personal reply:  If anyone tells me White Privilege doesn't exist after witnessing how @stephenasmith and First Take is treating Dana White giving him a pass, an embarrassment to humanity... not after how @espn  went after Kyire, ime udoka, Ray Rice, and others. That would be magical thinking on my part

Second is Brett Favre. The headline from the "National Urban League" The Urban league did such good job I'll quote their article.

Tepid Public Reaction to Brett Favre's Plundering of Welfare Funds Reveals Racial Double Standard For Athletes' Behavior

Scandal Shines a Harsh Light on Mississippi’s Mistreatment of its Poorest Families

‘’Apparently the nations’ love affair with a White celebrity like Favre is enough to ignore an ugly scandal where money was stolen to build a volleyball stadium. When people try to tell me that race does not play a big role in America, I can now include this scandal from my home state to prove them wrong. Perhaps if Favre is actually charged this may receive more attention. The fact that the known information up to now has not been enough to get the talking heads at ESPN, the National Football League offices, and the NFL Hall of Fame to muster a statement about Favre says a lot.’’ – Milwaukee Independent Columnist Reggie Jackson

Last year, when Brett Favre partially repaid the state of Mississippi for $1.1 million in welfare funds he was paid for appearances and speeches at events he did not attend, he posted on Facebook, “I would never knowingly take funds meant to help our neighbors in need.”

Text messages filed in court documents revealed Favre was concerned the public would learn the source of the funds. “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” 

Brett Favre sought Gov. Tate Reeves’ help to get state funds to pay for volleyball facilities that the former NFL star had vowed to personally fund at his alma mater, according to text messages the Mississippi Free Press obtained through a public-records request to the governor’s office.

In 2017, before Reeves was governor, the Mississippi Department of Human Services directed $5 million in Temporary Assistance For Needy Families welfare funds to build a volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, Favre’s alma mater. His daughter, Breleigh Favre, was starting a volleyball career at USM that year. But even after getting help from MDHS officials, the celebrity athlete still owed the university at least $1.6 million for the project upon its completion in January 2020.

On Jan. 26, 2020, Favre sent a text to former Gov. Phil Bryant, who had just left the job weeks earlier, asking if he could “think of anyone or any other way of getting funding for the remainder of Vball.” Bryant revealed those text messages in September court filings as part of a civil case over misspent TANF funds.

In the messages, Bryant told Favre that the state auditor was still conducting an investigation “into spending at the Department of Human Services” and that he may need to “visit” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Reeves, then the new governor, to seek funding from the Legislature.

“I just sent Tate a message,” Favre told him.

The text messages that Gov. Reeves’ office sent in response to this publication’s public-records request for texts between him and Favre, however, do not include any texts on Jan. 26, 2020; the first one in the batch of documents is dated Jan. 27, 2020, at 11:49 a.m. The Mississippi Free Press asked the governor’s office about the discrepancy on Wednesday, but has not received a response.

“Hey bud we set to talk today at 2 Todd said,” Favre wrote to Reeves in the first Jan. 27 text. (It is not clear who “Todd” is). Reeves replied with a thumbs-up emoji. At 2:01 p.m., Favre asked Reeves if he was free to talk. “Yes sir,” Reeves replied.

Another text from Favre to Reeves later that afternoon makes it clear that the two discussed the volleyball facility during their phone call.

Favre texted to Nancy New, executive director of a nonprofit established to distribute millions of dollars from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families meant to assist the state’s poorest residents.

Favre first met in July of 2017 with New and Mississippi Department of Human Services director John Davis to request funds for a volleyball facility at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, where his daughter played volleyball. In addition to the $1.1 million paid to Favre, New’s nonprofit sent a total of $5 million directly to the university. Favre also worked to secure $2.1 million through the nonprofit for a biotech start-up in which he is an investor.

It’s difficult not to compare the public’s reaction to Favre’s misdeeds with the media backlash against Black athletes and coaches – not only Colin Kaepernick, who lost his career for kneeling during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, -- but also Michael Vick, who served federal prison time for his involvement in a dog fighting ring, Deshaun Watson, who was suspended for 11 games and fined $5 million for accusations of sexual misconduct, and Celtics coach Ime Udoka, who has been suspended for the entire 2022–23 season for an improper relationship with a Celtics staff member.

The comparisons are imperfect. As sportswriter Jemele Hill points out, Favre has been retired for a dozen years while Vick, Watson, and Udoka were all active when their scandals occurred.

But Favre was an active player in 2008, when he harassed a Jets sideline reporter with lewd text messages, including a photo of his genitalia, and voicemails.  Favre was fined $50,000 for not cooperating with the NFL’s investigation and didn’t miss a single game.

The Confrontation

The confrontation with the Inquisitor.

---

The victory was ash in Kaelen's mouth. The distant, groaning collapse of the refinery was not a sound of liberation, but the ringing of a dinner bell.

The shuttle descended through the smog, its landing struts deploying with a hydraulic hiss that cut through the acid rain. It was an Imperial $\Lambda$-class, but its polished black hull and aggressive, angular lines spoke of something more than a standard transport. It reeked of the Dark Side.

"Vexa," Kaelen said, her voice lethally calm. "Take the children and your people. Go to the deepest tunnels. The ones that lead to the old city. Seal the way behind you."

"I'm not leaving you!" Vexa snapped, raising her blaster. "We fight with you!"

"You can't." Kaelen turned, her ebony face streaked with rain and grime. Her eyes, however, were burning. "This isn't a trooper. This isn't an overseer. This is... an echo. A part of the past I failed to bury. It's here for me."

The shuttle's ramp lowered.

A figure emerged, tall and impossibly thin, encased in glossy black armor that seemed to drink the meager light of Xylos. Rain sizzled and evaporated on contact with the superheated metal. He moved with a predatory grace, his boots making no sound on the wet ferrocrete. He stopped, a hundred feet from the cistern entrance, a black void against the grey world.

Kaelen stepped out of the shadow to meet him, her hand resting on the hilt of her saber.

The figure tilted its head, a gesture of cold curiosity. A mechanical respirator kicked in with a low, rhythmic sh-koff.

"The scent of you has been faint for so long, Padawan," a voice echoed, metallic and synthesized, yet laced with a mocking, cultured accent. "A ghost in the slums. We were beginning to think you had died with your Master."

The figure raised his hand, and a cylindrical hilt flew into his grasp from his belt.

"He knows who I am," Kaelen whispered, a cold knot forming in her stomach. "Vexa, go. Now."

Vexa saw the finality in the Jedi's eyes. This was a fight she could not join. She nodded, her multifaceted eyes filled with a new, cold fear, and vanished into the darkness of the sewer.

The Inquisitor ignited his blade. A crimson, double-bladed disc whirred to life, spinning with a sound like a predator's scream.

Snap-hiss. Kaelen’s amber blade was a defiant, steady light in the gloom.

"An unusual color," the Inquisitor noted, taking a slow, measured step forward. "The crystal of a failed Jedi, cracked by its new, broken master. It suits you."

"I'm not broken," Kaelen said.

"We shall see."

The Inquisitor didn't run. He lunged, crossing the hundred feet in a blur of Force-assisted speed. Kaelen was barely able to bring her saber up to block the two-handed overhead strike.

The impact sent her skidding back, her boots sparking on the ground. The power was immense. This wasn't a clone trooper. This was a trained, relentless, dark-side predator.

The spinning red blades were a wall of death. Kaelen was forced onto the defensive immediately, her amber saber a desperate shield against the onslaught. This was not the elegant fencing of the Temple; this was a brawl for survival. The Inquisitor used his saber like a club, leveraging its weight and spinning momentum to batter her guard.

"Your form is sloppy!" he taunted, his blade locking with hers, their faces inches apart. She could see nothing behind his black, reflective visor. "You fight like a gutter-rat. Where is the precision of Tethis Karr? Did he not teach you Form III before the clones cut him down?"

Kaelen roared, shoving him back with a Force-push. The Inquisitor barely budged, planting his feet and spinning his blade to deflect the telekinetic assault.

"That rage..." he hissed, almost purring. "You use it. Good. It makes you strong. But you are afraid to let it in."

He was right. She was fighting on two fronts: him, and herself.

He pressed the attack, driving her back toward a ruined bulkhead. He was stronger, faster, and utterly ruthless. Kaelen ducked under a spinning decapitation strike and thrust her blade low. The Inquisitor anticipated it, detaching the top half of his saber and blocking her strike with one blade while swinging the other at her side.

Kaelen cried out as the red blade grazed her ribs, flash-boiling her wet tunic and searing her skin.

She stumbled, falling to one knee. The pain was sharp, but the cold of the Dark Side touching her was worse.

The Inquisitor stood over her, his spinning blade held high. "Your rebellion is over. Your life is forfeit. The Emperor has decreed there will be no more Jedi. You are an... anachronism."

Kaelen looked up, not at the saber, but at the crumbling factory wall behind him. She was outmatched in a duel. But she wasn't a duelist. She was a survivor.

"You're right," she panted, clutching her side. "The Jedi are dead."

As the Inquisitor brought the saber down for the killing blow, Kaelen didn't block. She raised her free hand and pulled.

Not at the Inquisitor. Not at his weapon.

She pulled at the acid-eaten, structurally-compromised gantry above his head.

With a sound like a tortured scream, a ten-ton block of rusted durasteel and machinery ripped free from the wall.

The Inquisitor's head snapped up. His smug superiority vanished, replaced by a flash of surprise. He had to abort his attack, leaping backward and raising his spinning saber to shield himself.

The gantry crashed down where he had been standing, throwing up a cloud of pulverized concrete and rust.

It was the opening Kaelen needed.

She didn't press the attack. She ran.

She sprinted for the cistern hatch as alarms blared across the complex. The Inquisitor roared in fury from within the dust cloud. She heard his saber ignite again.

Kaelen leaped, feet-first, into the black, square opening of the sewer, landing in a crouch next to a terrified Vexa.

"Seal it!" Kaelen yelled.

She turned and aimed her lightsaber at the hatch's primary locking mechanism, a thick bar of steel. As Vexa hit the emergency release, Kaelen sliced through the lock.

The heavy plasteel hatch slammed shut with the finality of a tomb.

A half-second later, a molten red blade stabbed through the metal, punching a glowing, smoking hole where Kaelen's head had been. It was followed by another. And another. The Inquisitor was carving his way through.

"He's coming!" Vexa cried.

"Run," Kaelen ordered, deactivating her saber. The amber light vanished, plunging them into the near-total darkness of the tunnels. "He can't cut through it before we're gone."

They fled into the depths, the only sound their pounding footsteps in the sludge and the faint, furious thud of the Inquisitor hammering against the sealed door.

Kaelen clutched her seared side, the pain a sharp reminder. She had survived. But she hadn't won.

"He won't stop," she said to Vexa, her voice echoing in the dark. "The Empire will tear this planet apart to find us. The fight for Xylos... it's over. Now, we have to get everyone out."