The NFL Protests

The combined team walked in, and everyone except Pence suddenly stood and cheered.

I think the national anthem angle is a red herring. It’s not clear whether an anthem was played at all (the combined team has its own flag after all), if so it was probably inaudible and anyway I doubt Pence could distinguish the Southern and Northern anthems.

Moving this here rather than the general NFL thread

From what I have heard on radio there are comments by Trump supporters who in this meeting disagree with things Trump has said and done regarding the national anthem controversy. I wonder when the Trump tweets will start.

In the above article…

“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said Kraft, who is a longtime supporter of Mr. Trump’s. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”

Except I’m pretty sure Kraft is referring to kneeling as the thing that is “divisive and horrible”.

Pegula complained that the league was “under assault.”

As compared to the african americans who are being shot by police for the crime of being black. I think they are the ones really “under assault”.

Not to mention that all the rich, white owners are using Trump and the protest controversy as a crutch to explain why their ratings are down 10%+ in 2017. Of course it’s not even close to that simple. But anything to avoid having to explain to your shareholders why your product isn’t as popular as it used to be.

Here’s some thinking about that:

It is hard to tell from that excerpt. It was reported though, by several on ESPN, that Kraft wasn’t very happy with Trump’s statements and actions. Trump’s actions were certainly as divisive as Kaepernick’s.

And in a way, isn’t an action like what kaepernick took designed to be “divisive”. Isn’t it supposed to make you take a stand, one way or the other. Sure he would want your support, but that is the gamble he took, and others took who followed.

I guess it was too much to hope that the owners attitude would have been “We are glad racists not longer want to watch the NFL. We don’t want them as customers.”

I am sure every NFL fan who was upset with them kneeling during the national anthem was a racist. None of them made the mistake of thinking it was anti-american or something about the flag.

But I know, doesn’t fit the racist narrative.

I guess? I just find the notion groups of people stopped watching the NFL because they just heard or saw black people kneeling during the anthem then didn’t pick up their phones to google “why”? They just decided it was all a coincidence the players happened to be mainly black and stopped watching.

And if they did see why, then it seems to me the only reason they would object is because they think standing for the national anthem at a game is more important than fellow americans being murdered by the people who are supposed to protect them.

I dunno man, I get where you are coming from but it seems pretty racist to me.

This isn’t what happened. The NFL was already having problems. It’s just easier to blame Kappernick than it is to figure out how to solve your actual problem.

Fair enough. But the owners at least seemed keen to make the link in that private meeting. Given they assumed the meeting was private then I think they are sincere in their (perhaps mistaken) belief that the NFL is losing viewers due to the protests.

But yes my understanding is the NFL has been on a decline for a while now before the protests. I could be wrong about that, I dont really follow it any more.

In my experience it’s almost always racist. Once you explain it to them they tend to start saying racist shit.
There are naturally exceptions, but not many.

There are a few vets that I’ve seen that don’t like it, but… they’re also kind of racist so…
And I know plenty of vets that supported him completely.

Nice job of stereotyping everyone and basically convicting everyone. Bravo.

And so when people react the same way to rioters and marchers why should we be surprised.

Because liberals are good people and conservatives aren’t, duh.

Obviously.

I have Liberal Economic Anxiety about viewers protesting the NFL due to player protesting on the fields.

The NFL has decided to allow players to stay in the locker room until the game starts.

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of college football teams don’t even take the field until after the anthem.

“Stay quiet. Do what you’re told.”