Was This NFL Player Being Antisemitic? | Episode 112

Tu mereces fruitartos favoritos por menos. Ja sel na Big Mac, McNuggets, or a sausage, egg and cheese, McCriddles, pidetuan to hocomo un meo ya hora.
Oof, nava comodarto un gustaso por tam poco.

Los extra value meals están del regreso. Gana por la mañana con el extra value meal, sausage, mc, muffin with egg, hash browns, yun cafe agiente pequeño por solos seizolaris.
Bara ba ba ba.

Preses y participación pueden varía. Los prees de la promosión pueden serminos que los de las comidas.
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So, in a sports league full of domestic violence and drugs and dog fighting rings, the thing that really set executives off this week was a potentially anti-Semitic dance in the end zone.

Great job, NFL. You really knocked it out of the park.

So, what was supposed to be an innocent appearance on Aiden Ross's live stream has turned into an absolute crap show for the NFL and for the Rams wide receiver Puka Natua.

Now, there are two parts of this controversy. We're going to cover both of them.

One involves Puka's comments about NFL refs, and the second, and more importantly, involved an offensive dance that Aiden Ross wanted Puka to do in the end zone. Let's watch this clip.

It's like a bow. Yes, just like this.

Flex.

Do that! Hit the camera. Hit the camera.

We got you do it. Yeah.

That's easy.

So that was it. The clip that I just played you was 18 seconds long.
It's Aiden Ross saying, hey, we're going to make you a new end zone celebration. This is what I want you to do.

And he does all three of those moves together. And you're probably sitting there and you're watching this 18-second clip and you're like, I'm so confused.

Okay, well, let me explain to you why this dance is apparently so controversial. Better yet, let me allow Representative Eric Swalwell to explain it.

Before we dive into that, I do want to say this is our last episode of the year. It is very bittersweet.

You know, I should say, even though I'm saying that this is like the last episode of the year, there's probably going to be some insane thing. And I'm going to be making an episode anyway.

So I might see you before January 3rd. But I want to thank you guys for the most amazing first year of the Red Cooper Show.
I have had so much fun doing this for you guys. Thank you.

Let's do it again next year. All right, let's dive into this story.
This seems like a great one to end the year on.

So after that seemingly innocent clip from Aiden's live stream started circulating, Representative Eric Swallow, who remember is running for governor in California to fight Trump.

That's his number one priority for the citizens of California. He decided that he needed to speak out because this was such an atrocity.
This is what he wrote.

The Los Angeles Jewish community is on edge after the Bondi Beach massacre. And what does this asshole Puka do? He promises an anti-Semitic touchdown dance for his Thursday night game.

He should apologize or be dropped. He should apologize or be dropped for an anti-Semitic touchdown dance.
It's anti-Semitic, of course. Welcome to 2025.

So because Puka did a dance on a live stream, he is apparently an asshole and he should lose his career. God, thank you, Eric Swabel, for telling us where your priorities lie.

In the grand scheme of things that are offensive and racist, maybe this is crazy to say, but I genuinely think that Puka doing a dance on a live stream for 18 seconds, really like three seconds, is pretty low on the totem pole here, especially when I don't think he even knew what he was doing.

Like I do not think Puka was like, ooh, Aiden, let's go make fun of Jewish people.

Obviously not. And I also don't think most of the people who stumbled on the script initially understood why it was suddenly so controversial.

But just so we are all on the same page, we have the same context, this is the meme that that dance or gesture is referring to. So it is apparently from the happy merchant meme.

You can see it's listed right there on the ADL's website. Now, somebody responded to Suawell's post and said, Hukunakua thought that he was learning a fun dance.

A popular Jewish streamer taught it to him and encouraged him. He promised the Jewish streamer that he would do the dance if he scored a touchdown.
Everyone was all smiles.

There was no anti-Semitic comments or bigotry intended in this video. I think that this is taken way out of context.
Intentions matter. This does not strike me as a man who hates these people.

Yes, intentions do matter in this situation. And also, Aiden does this move all the time.
Here's a photo right here. It's a famous gif that now goes around.
It's like under all of his posts.

So whether doing this gesture, doing this dance is right or wrong, whether you are offended or not, Uka probably did not think anything of it. He was not being intentionally malicious.

Like, I'm sorry, but not everyone is going to be scrolling through the ADL's list of offensive memes, gestures, people, organizations every day to make sure that they stay up to date.

Like, that is just completely ridiculous. This was blown utterly out of proportion.

Another person commented and said, so Aiden, who is Jewish, tells Puka to do a gesture for his Dutch Down celebration. Puka, who isn't in on Aiden's joke, does it and they want Puka's head.

I'm 100% sure that Aiden didn't mean for it to get like this, but people are so ready these days, it sucks for Puka.

And I don't know whether Aiden knew that this was going to get Puka in trouble or whether he intended that. He has come out to say that if Puka, you know, gets fined, he will pay all of it.

You know, he is in support of him. But...
It does suck for Puka because now he's in the news for something that he did not intend to be controversial or even know was controversial.

And something that should have been a nothing burger has now been turned into a major story.

Like, I was talking to my manager before I sat down to film this episode, and I was like, explaining the story to her. And she was like, Really, Brett? You want to like end the year on this story?

Like, is this even a story? Like, why, why is a story? And I'm like, that is exactly the point. It's absurd.

This was made into a story by people like Eric Swawell and reporters and sports media personalities who are talking about this like it is the end of the world. Take this clip, for example.

Puka, do not do that touchdown celebration that these guys were telling you about spinning a dreidel

and making this hand motion. This hand motion I'm making on the screen right now is an anti-Semitic trope.

It is awful.

To me, it's beyond offensive.

It's not funny. It's not fun.
It's beyond offensive, even though most people online didn't even know what it meant or that it was anything of any kind of significance.

Like, I'm sorry, that is not something that people are walking around thinking about on a day-to-day basis.

Also, that clip just cracked me up because he's literally doing the motion and being like, don't do it. I'm doing this thing.
It's really bad. Don't do it.
Like, are we, you just can't win right now.

And I mean, I also thought that we were over this whole like hall monitor shtick, these politically incorrect offenses that people have to apologize for.

Otherwise, you know, people will have their head. And yet here we are in 2025 still doing the same thing.
Somebody commented and said, Streisan effect, this is a proper way to spread social contagion.

Yes, like had this story not been amplified by people like Swawell and the media, I literally think that it would have gone nowhere.

Like I really do not believe that NFL fans are locked in on Aiden Ross's dreams, every intricate thing that he's doing. I doubt they have the ADL no-no list memorized.

Like I do not think that people would have cared. I do not think it would have gotten any traction.

But because of the media and because of the outrage, the whole thing got so big that an apology tour started. Of course, the NFL even made a statement.

They said, the NFL strongly condemns all form of discrimination and derogatory behavior directed towards any group or individual.

The continuing rise of anti-Semitism must be addressed across the world, and the NFL will continue to stand with our partners in this fight. Hatred has no place in our sport or our society.

They're gonna like print that on their helmets next season.

The Rams, just Puka's team, they also put out a statement and they said there is no place in this world for anti-Semitism, as well as other forms of prejudice or hostility towards the Jewish people and people of any religion, ethnicity, or race.

And like, obviously, these statements are not malicious, but again, it has been blown so out of proportion. They're making these grandiose statements about equity and non-discrimination about a dance.

A player, possibly with CTE, didn't even know what he was doing. And we're making all these statements.

Anyway, Van Puka, he had to make his apology, which he collaborated on with the Stop Jewish Hate Organization. So this is what he posted on his social media.

When I appeared the other day on a social media live stream, it was suggested to me to perform a specific movement as part of my next touchdown celebration.

At the time, I had no idea that this was anti-Semitic in nature and perpetrated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people.

I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry, or hate of another group of people. Again, he did not know what he was doing.

It was an innocent mistake and now he is making sponsored apologies on his Instagram and the NFL is all whipped into a dizzy over this thing.

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All right, now back to the story.

Thanks to these apologies, this whole apology tour, you have officially turned a nothing burger, a joke on a dumb live stream, an innocent mistake, into a league-wide controversy that the entire sports world and political world is now catching on to.

Jason Woodlock made a great point, and he said, 96 to 99% of people would have no idea that there was any significance to the dance. This controversy is going to trigger the wrong kind of backlash.

But you know, I was like thinking about this, and all of this attention was probably the point.

It seems like everybody wanted to make an example of Puka, which is, you know, not surprising considering that the NFL is always chomping at the bit to be at the forefront of every single social justice warrior fight.

And on top of that, we have organizations like Stop Anti-Semitism who have made it clear that someone's anti-Semitism, whatever they deem is anti-Semitism, will follow them for the rest of their lives.

And I'm not making that up. This is actually something that was said.
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I mean, is this not the kind of tarring and feathering the cancel culture that we all stood up to like five years ago? Like, I'm asking that genuinely.

No malicious intent, just like genuinely asking because it does seem hypocritical.

Now, I do not think that Puka is up there on any list yet, but I would argue that it's this type of rhetoric and these types of threats that led people like Swawell to say that Puka should be dropped, that his career should be over because he accidentally did a dance that offended some people.

The same type of rhetoric that drove the NFL and drove the the Rams to frantically make statements against him all over a dance on a live stream.

Like, I'm sorry, but there are genuine atrocities happening across the world. Shouldn't we reserve this kind of horror and outrage for the real and vile displays of racism and bitterness?

Or are we now just like slinging these words around like they are nothing? And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because this is not a new thing.

Like we saw this happen with the word racism in 2020 and how white people were then forced to apologize.

apologize for microaggressions when they didn't even know that they were allegedly being racist. We saw it happen with the word feminism and how now feminism doesn't really have a definition.

It's just been turned into man hatred.

We saw it happen with the Me Too movement where people were slinging accusations around left and right, which took away from the real instances of rape and sexual assault that did happen within Hollywood.

Like these are all examples of a very slippery slope and the outrage is simply exhausting. We have seen this story before and it does not have a good ending.
Words have weight.

They should have weight. And with stories like this, with outrage like this, you are stripping all of it away.
It does not make sense to me. And unfortunately, Puka is simply facing the consequences.

To round out this story, because there are other layers of it, if you're not, you know, an NFL fan, this was not Puka's only transgression this week that got him into hot water because on that same Aiden stream, he also made some comments about NFL refs that got him into hot water.

Just take a listen. Refs be bullshitting sometimes.
Oh, 100%. I'm like, they had a...

Yes, the refs are the worst because they're just some of the rules aren't. And like,

these guys want to be, these guys are lawyers and like, they want to be on TV too, bro. Like, the game is...

You don't think he's texting his friends in the group chat like, yo, you guys just saw me Sunday night football? Like, that was... No way.
Like, that wasn't PI. Like, but I called it.
I don't know.

Seriously. Did they do that, man? So basically, he's doing what every single sports fan does, which is complain about the refs.

But when you are an actual player, this is something that will get you fined. I'm here, so I won't get fined.
You know, coaches and players get fined for talking about the refs all the time.

And so Puka also had to make an apology for that. And then on top of all of that, again, it's just been a bad week for him.

It came out that Puka's brother was arrested for allegedly stealing a Lakers player car. You can see the headline right here.

So let's just say that Puka's PR team, his just team in general, has been working overtime this week. I saw a tweet on X that was making fun of that and said, Puka's PR team over the last few days.

Literally, I am sure they are exhausted and I am sure that he is putting all of his money from his rookie contract towards Crisis PR this week because it has been a mess.

Now, what made this whole fiasco and outrage cycle and PR crisis even better was that all of this was coming to a head on Thursday when Puka and the Rams had a major game against the Seahawks.

And Puka, because of everything going on, was the talk of the game. All eyes were on him and the potential of his dancing.

Somebody posted and said, how the world will be watching tonight if Puka Dakua finds the end zone.

But listen, all of that aside, all of the outrage, all of the, you know, laser eyes on him, Puka played one of the best games of his entire career.

Obviously, you guys know I am married to a football fan. I am not the biggest football fan, so I have this written down here.

He apparently caught 12 passes, got 225 yards, had two touchdowns, and no, he did not do the dance.

Alex told me that this might have been the best game for any wide receiver this season or came close to it. But anyway, this was an incredible game.

And he did not distract from it by doing the dance, even though it was literally what everybody else was talking about.

And I will say, though, the outrage from the NFL over a potential dance in this end zone is like par for the course for the NFL at this point because they often have their panties in a knot over how their players are celebrating.

Like Josh Allen and Elijah Moore were both fined 13K recently for doing this. Now, watch and see if you can tell what they're getting fined for.

That's Torrance who came over and hit-buttoned him. He helped push him across.
All right, let's just zoom in there because, guys, I'm not kidding. I watched this seven-second clip 15 times.

I was like up close to my screen, being like,

what could they possibly have gotten fined $13,000 for? Apparently, they did some kind of like throat-slit movement.

And, you know, thank God the NFL cracked down on all forms of violence by banning another celebration, which is the nose sniff celebration. Watch this.

In the second, there it was Lamb left alone.

Wow, so dangerous. Apparently, that means you are wiping out the competition.
I I don't even know. Somebody commented, this was really funny, and said, I had two kids making straight A's.

As soon as they saw CD swipe his nose, they immediately dropped out and one is in prison now. Thanks a lot.

Yeah, like the NFL banning any of these celebrations is really going to help people out in the world. Like, I mean, come on.
Some of the celebrations they have banned are just like ridiculous.

Like apparently, like the Travis Kelsey, like...

Arrow thing is also banned, but he's never actually been fined for it because he's Travis Kelsey and he's dating Taylor Swifts and the Chiefs. I don't even know.
The whole thing is just ridiculous.

So maybe if the NFL just paints, you know, one more choose love slogan in the end zone, all of this will be resolved.

And it's just so funny to me because while they're making statements about dances and fining players for wiping their noses, whatever it is, they will often turn a blind eye to the players who actually break the law.

There are countless players who have been arrested for domestic battery, theft, drug possession, you name it.

They are actually put in jail and they get to continue to play with no suspension, no fine, no league discipline.

Or you have players like Rashi Rice from the Chiefs who caused a huge car crash in 2024 because he was street racing.

He did get suspended, but then Chiefs players were coming out in t-shirts, defending him, saying we want him back, that it was like unfair that he was fine, all of this stuff.

So all of this to say, my point in bringing all of this up is that the outrage within the NFL, with the players, with the league, it is often selective and it is often based on the quote-unquote current thing.

And nothing this week needed to be as controversial or newsworthy as it was.

Like in my opinion, Puka's only crime was maybe causing a distraction for his team that, you know, took their heads out of it.

But then again, you could also argue that the distraction wasn't caused by him. It was caused by the media and the outrage.
And, you know, and they still played well, especially him.

So I don't really know at this point. Needless to say, maybe just for the time being, he should avoid live streams in the near future.
Everybody has pea brains.

They will forget about this soon enough because it certainly is ridiculous.

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