Was slavery really like playing in the NFL?

I never thought I could learn something from listening to Jesse Jackson. But I was wrong.

I found out this week that the institution of slavery was like … playing in the NFL.

Just so you don't think I'm putting words in his mouth, this is what he said on Fox Sports' "Undisputed": "To go from picking cotton balls to picking up footballs and basketballs without freedom is not very much progress."

Do I exaggerate?

Have you ever heard anyone in your life diminish, minimize, deprecate or downplay the absolute horror and abomination of slavery to such an extent?

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I haven't. It's truly remarkable.

Notice what the common denominator is between slavery and playing professional football and basketball? There's no freedom there – at least for black athletes.

How and why professional athletes don't have freedom, he didn't say. I'd love to hear it. Actually, I probably wouldn't.

They'll have to rename the Fox Sports show after this – "Undisputed"? Give me a break.

It wasn't the only outrageous, scandalous lie Jackson told on the show.

He also completely misrepresented Muhammad Ali's reason for refusing to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Jackson said: "When he changed his name, took a religious position against the war, they took his title, saying, 'You can have a title but not a championship. I won that.'"

I don't even understand what Jackson was trying to say with the last part of that incoherent statement, but, Ali did not take a religious position for refusing military service in Vietnam. He never cited his religious beliefs – which were Muslim.

He said, and I quote: "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." The Viet Cong were Communist guerrillas terrorizing the people of South Vietnam who wanted to live free.

He also said: "My conscious won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape or kill my mother or father." Just for the record, I doubt very much that anyone ever called Muhammad Ali any names – at least to his face. I doubt very much if anyone ever put dogs on him. I know he wasn't lynched.

This is the trouble with people like Jackson. They lie about everything.

Ali didn't approve of the war in Vietnam. That's fine. He paid a price for his opinions. Good for him. But please don't say he was a conscientious objector, a pacifist, someone who deplored violence for religious reasons. The guy passed a fist for a living. He knocked out people for a living. And he was very good at it.

This is beyond hyperbolic. It's absolute madness. Whether you believe Muhammad Ali was unjustly stripped of his occupation, it certainly had nothing to do with his race. He had committed a felony, and that's why he wasn't permitted to box. The same thing happened to white men who refused to serve when called. Some went to prison. Others fled the country.

What does all this have to do with what's happening in the NFL and NBA today?

No one is forced to play there. They are well-compensated. No one is deprived of his freedom because of his occupation – certainly not highly paid and gifted athletes. They are simply asked to stand in respect when the national anthem is played – in respect for their country and their fans.

But when Jackson equates playing in the NFL with slavery, he is doing a disservice to the tragic history of so many of his fellow African-Americans. It's despicable.