The NFL Protests

I understand this point, I really do. However, the NFL has sold itself out to many causes (ex. breast cancer awareness,) so when one comes up that a lot of players want to represent, if it goes heavy handed here against the players, that makes for a bad optic. Or, maybe it doesn’t and this will all calm down and blow over. I just don’t see that being the case. If what Misguided says comes about, I would be pretty shocked.

As noted elsewhere:

African-American males are only six percent of the United States population, but comprise nearly 70 percent of the players in the National Football League.

Next step, Trump tried to coerce NFL to formulate Whites Only policy.

That website is aptly named, because that’s a ridiculous spin if I ever heard one.

An ESPN employee tells the general public to boycott the advertisers? Is she trying to sabotage her employer? Where does she think ESPN gets their revenue from? She stepped way, way over the line with that call to action. This is an interesting issue and should be discussed, but it is NOT the place of the employee of a sports networks to call people to boycott the advertisers on that network.

I think she should be fired, and then she can concentrate full time on her Twitter or blog or whatever else she wants. She can go to rallies, write a book, lead the charge against whatever she wants. But the reason she is in front of so many people who can hear her thoughts is because she is employed by ESPN. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Not a smart move, lady.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/story/746694001/

For those that don’t know the USFL/Trump story and how that likely ties into this current mess.

Note the letter at the bottom of the story. That’s the President of the United States of America.

Stop the planet. I want off.

Or just stop playing the anthem routinely.

It should be played once per season…before the start of whatever championship series/game for each sport and that’s it. This need for useless displays of patriotism at the start of every game for a whole season is fucking gross.

Eh - it’s been played before each FB game at different levels for ages. While I don’t disagree with the sentiment,I think that’s a larger change that’s not likely to occur.

Here in Canada if it wasn’t for sporting events I can’t think of any other time during the year (Canada Day excluded) I would hear the anthem. In the old days when a TV station signed off they would play it but other than that. How much is the anthem played in the USA for non sporting events?

Very rarely

That I can think of? Fireworks events on July 4th each year. I’m drawing a blank after that.

I could actually see a strike if something heavy handed comes down, at the very least it would turn the players against the league hard.

The hammer is getting ready to fall. Goodell’s comments are the beginnings of protecting The Shield.

My hopefully-cynical projections:

  • New rule forcing players to stand, with their hands over their hearts. No raised fists of any of that subversive stuff. They will find some conduct ruling to hit them with a 4-game suspension. The suspension will be dropped to 2 games after appeal.
  • They will give the players a voice for their concerns. This will be equivalent of a town zoning hearing held on a local cable channel at 3am.

It’s be amazing to see the majority of players kneel in response to whatever BS rule they implement.

“It is an important moment in our game. We want to honor our flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us. We also care deeply about our players and respect their opinions and concerns about critical social issues. The controversy over the anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues. We need to move past this controversy, and we want to do that together with our players.”

Why is it an important moment in the game? It has nothing to do with the game.

So the lesson, again, that America can take away, is don’t protest against anything that the President thinks is okay.

I do have a tendency to forget sometimes that it always comes back to money. If the owners feel they are losing ticket sales because of the controversy, any response is possible.


Mike Ditka: The Klan never existed.

What a fucking idiot.