The Press: Signals Off

When Pravda, the loud-yapping signal-caller of Communist journalism, recently blasted U.S. college football as the brutal product of predatory capitalists, i.e., college trustees, Sportwriter Nat Low of Los Angeles’ Communist People’s World took the handoff and scampered down the field with the ball.

Wrote Low: “Under the pressure of the big-time operators, football [is] becoming more savage, vicious and dangerous each season . . . leading to a brutalization of players and spectators alike.” As a prime example of capitalist brutality at work, Low recalled the cheer of his own Brooklyn high school (Brooklyn Technical): “Ram ’em, bam ’em, rock ’em, sock ’em, hit ’em hard, hit ’em low, c’mon Tech, let’s go!”

Last week Nat Low collided with a member of his own backfield. In a letter to Peoples World, Sports Editor Lester Rodney of Manhattan’s Communist Daily Worker wrote: “. . . My friend Nat Low has in a sectarian moment gone hogwild on football … By and large . . . it’s still a fine game . . . Nat is actually exceedingly silly when he takes the high-school chants about rocking ’em and socking ’em and reads a process of blood-seeking brutalization into it . . .”