Only in Miami could one find a rap legend known for explicitly sexual content praising a conservative billionaire for using his brand to support an inner city high school sports team.
First, a bit of backstory. In late June, a fire burned a storage shed on the property of Miami (Fla.) Edison High School. The blaze eliminated thousands of dollars of valuable football training gear, precisely the kind of thing that the strapped Edison budget couldn’t afford to replace.
Luther Campbell, aka rap and booty shakin’ impresario Uncle Luke, serves as an assistant coach at the school. As news of the sudden fire spread, Campbell was contacted by representatives from the Dolphins who said they wanted to help. And they did, taking inventory of all that was damaged and replacing it. Bing, bang, boom.
It was a nice gesture, certainly, and worth noting. But Campbell used his platform as a columnist for the Miami New Times to point to it as proof that the Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is always committed to doing right by the Miami community. For a man who less than two years ago was firmly standing by President Trump’s (toothless) edict that all who kneeled during the national anthem should not play in the NFL, that’s a hard square to circle.
Yet that exact equation speaks to the universality of high school sports. A rap mogul who once forced the Supreme Court to defend free speech on behalf of extremely explicit lyrics and a conservative billionaire owner unified behind a cause? Only high school football, and a program in need, could prove so powerful.
Perhaps that’s the solution for our current state of national political discourse: Let’s send opposing politicians everywhere to go watch a local high school football game together.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
