Like no eating, drinking, or chewing gum while moving from point to point. True story, the USCMJ is a strange beast, for sure. Sodomy is also illegal, btw, regardless of acceptance of people who serve. It needs a vigorous true-up with actual civilian laws.
Jemele Hill throws out some tweets suggesting that a boycott of Cowboys advertisers is the best way to effect change. ESPN is not a fan.
QFMFT.
While there are certainly a whole lot of actual racists out there pushing the idea that kneeling during the anthem is disrespectful, they’ve managed to push it successfully enough that there is an even greater number of perfectly normal, non-racist people out there who believe that narrative because they’re simply too stupid to understand what’s going on. Patriotism is a very strong feeling in most people, and appealing to patriotism will blind people to a whole lot of shit when the only thought in their head is “I love America, why can’t you!?!?”.
This is a direct result of the ignorance of America. It got Trump elected, it’s going to undermine the entire discourse on racism in this country, and it’s going to continue unabated because Republicans have gutted education in this country and the Conservative Media has filled the gap with whatever bullshit narrative they want to push that week.
Half of our country is literally brainwashed, and it is scary as hell to behold.
I think I am very safe in saying that there is no chance in hell that players will fined, fired or sat for refusing to stand for the national anthem. In sports talent is always number one.
If the NFL wanted to just put an end to this they would change the pre-game rule back to where the teams didn’t come out on the field until after the anthem, which was the practice not too many years ago.
Ah, but now they can’t. Rolling back now would be seen as cowardly and a compromise with anti-flag communists that hate America.
Exactly. They are discovering, as many politicians have, that pandering to the crowd on basic populist/patriotic issues is great right until it backfires.
They are riding the tiger now and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.
I will go one further. If Jerry Jones actually tried to bench someone for not standing for the Anthem, the NFLPA would have a field day. There are major financial implications if a player isn’t on the field for most players, because of incentives and such in contracts and because of it impacting their performance numbers (which would impact their next contract potentially). So, if someone does get benched for this, I think it only happens once, and they are in court with an injunction before it can happen again.
Given no Cowboy’s players have kneeled so far, I don’t think this has any chance of happening.
The NFLPA I don’t think has much power, anyway. Players can be inactive for any reason.
Inactives would already have been declared before then. And the players union has plenty of power. Not sure where you get that from. They have a collective bargaining agreement. If a player is disciplined by the team outside of what is provided for in the CBA (and admittedly, I’m making the assumption that would be the case here) there will be a major stink.
In sports, owners are always number one.
In sports, viewership is always number one.
Wes Welker was benched for the first part of a playoff game for making reference to Rex Ryan’s foot fetish during an interview.
All the team has to say is 'We went with the personnel that gave us the best chance of winning." Or “The plays we ran require a different personnel grouping.” They don’t have to list why the person is inactive. We all will know why they are inactive, but the team can just come up with a bunch of canned responses for around the football reasons for the move.
Fair enough, but I think there’s been so much attention on this issue they wouldn’t let that go. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think players around the league would raise such a fit over something like that the PA couldn’t ignore it even if they wanted to.
This is the main reason I think the NFLPA is powerless: they are the only sports league where the contracts of the people they represent are not guaranteed. If the union makes a beef, well, the commissioner holds all the power in the league anyway, and whose side you think he will come down on?
I just don’t see what the PA can realistically do but get in a fluff and say things.
Well, the commissioner suspended Elliot for 6 games and guess what, he is still playing because a judge said he could play.
Also, there are teams with a dozen or more guys kneeling, you really think an owner/coach is going to just sit them for a game and bring in scrubs? I think if an owner sat a player or the following week you would see dozens kneel.
Well, I think Jones’s threat is an empty threat anyway. His team isn’t kneeling. I wouldn’t be surprised if the compromise he told the team was “kneel before the anthem, but stand during it.” Probably a few threats about benching tossed in.
You also don’t need to bench the guy the entire game. Part of a quarter or a few series is enough to get your point across.
Let’s see how this goes on appeal. Brady lost his appeal on the grounds of: The CBA said the Commish can do this; so he did.
To be clear, Jerry Jones was cool with signing Greg Hardy after he choked and nearly killed his girlfriend. But you know, THIS IS THE LINE that needs to be drawn. No protesting the murder of blacks at the hands of cops with no repercussions!
We all have hills we are willing to die on. :)
Remember when McConnell declared that preventing Americans from getting healthcare was the hill he and his whole party were willing to die on? Good times, good times.