sports

Bowing to Trump, NFL will require players to stand for anthem

28 Comments
By Daniel Trotta

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28 Comments
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Can’t wait to see the defiant players getting fined, their franchise as well. Hit em’ where it hurts -their wallets.

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

What about freedom of expression ?

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Smells pretty fascist to me.

And a violation of the right to free speech.

Why do the NFL think they have the right to demand their players be patriotic in the first place (Isn't that between a person and their own conscience?)? And why do they think their preferred mode of displaying said patriotism is the only one?

What's wrong with kneeing during the national anthem? Seems just as respectful to me as standing hand-on-heart (which actually I find a bit creepy).

Welcome to Trump's America?

1 ( +6 / -5 )

“Why do the NFL think they have the right to demand their players be patriotic in the first place “

Let them kneel in the locker room. Not on national TV in front of sold out venues. If they have any issues with the NFL’s new policy, they can pound sand & look for another profession. I’m sure there lots of all-American college players who can fill the void.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

I can see points made by people here on both sides.

My issue is with the headline, "Bowing to Trump".....please.....

This protest was highly unpopular with many NFL fans. I have not read anywhere that the NFL or Roger Goodell is "bowing to Trump"....please....

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Forcing people to stand for the national anthem under threat of fine in the workplace? Certainly a discussion on the constitutionality of this is just around the corner. Is being a flag waver a prerequisite for being a professional football player? I fail to see the connection.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

The lack of respect for freedom of conscience ( an idea far more important than getting all emotional about a piece of cloth ), is insidious.

Very disturbing.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

i love how "patriots" always point to the constitution as the supreme authority in 'merica, but when people of color exercise their constitutional right to expression, suddenly they throw the constitution out the door.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Stand up or don’t participate in the ceremony. Quite simple. Your employer is allowed to tell you what is and isn’t acceptable for you to do.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Let them kneel in the locker room. Not on national TV in front of sold out venues

Why?

What has standing/kneeling/sitting/dancing for the anthem/flag have to do with playing football? Are the people at those 'sold out venues' or in front of their TV sets so delicate that they cannot bear to see a quiet, respectful, peaceful expression of a point of view?

klausdorth's link is interesting.

Last fall, Pence walked out of an Indianapolis-San Francisco game after seeing players kneel in protest during the anthem. ...... just so it’s clear: Pence chose to express his point of view about the peaceful protests at a sporting event by … peacefully protesting during a sporting event.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

1943 supreme court ruling on whether children should be compelled to swear the Pledge of Allegiance :

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

too bad, the NFL has spoken. Liberals are going to have to find something else to ruin with their unrelated social justice causes.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Certainly a discussion on the constitutionality of this is just around the corner.

It is unconstitutional in my opinion. Hopefully players challenge it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_State_Board_of_Education_v._Barnette

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The teams will be fined, not the players (although the players can offer to pay the fine for their teams - probably depends how big or small the fine is)

They should've just kept all the players inside the locker room, while the anthem plays................... like it had been before 2009

While the anthem continued to be a game-day fixture, NFL players typically stayed in the locker room for it - it wasn't until 2009 that players were mandated to be on the field for the song!

People don't seem to remember that for the longest time, players were not even on the field during the anthem. Just bring it back to the way it was for decades - nobody had an issue that the players weren't out on the field for all that time

Problem solved

"For advertisers, football's still a great buy, reaching a market - young males mostly. Ratings have dipped a little bit," Dorfman said, adding the NFL was "still one of the strongest live events you can buy in television."

The NBA has been the most proactive about this - remember when 4 of the NBA's biggest stars (Carmelo, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron) opened the nationally televised 2016 ESPY Awards with a Black Lives Matter speech?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/07/13/nba_stars_opened_the_espys_with_a_black_lives_matter_speech.html

And the NBA ratings and revenues are skyrocketing, and the NBA players don't feel a need to kneel since the NBA are proactively letting them do what they gotta do to air their grievances

BTW, y'know which sport had the biggest decline in TV ratings and spectators in 2017? NASCAR - borne out of the Southern of the most Southern states. And there's no kneeling there

https://www.frontstretch.com/2017/12/05/nascar-top-10-storylines-2017-tumbling-nascar-tv-ratings/

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This just in: NY Jets co-owner Chris Johnson --who is the brother of co-owner Woody Johnson, an outspoken Trump supporter who was rewarded by Trump to become US ambassador to the UK--

doesn't have a problem paying the fines any Jets player incurs relating to the anthem rule

http://www.tmz.com/2018/05/23/new-york-jets-ceo-christopher-johnson-objects-to-new-nfl-anthem-policy-to-pay-player-fines/

Jets chairman Christopher Johnson backs players’ right to protest

Christopher Johnson says his Jets players can take a knee or perform another type of protest without fear of repercussion from the team.

Johnson added that while he prefers his players stand, he says it's not his nor the league's place "to put restrictions on the speech of our players."

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers will close the concession stands during the national anthem so that everybody, not just the players, could show respect to the flag

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/23/jed-york-says-san-francisco-49ers-will-halt-conces/

2 ( +2 / -0 )

NFL players: DO NOT BACK DOWN! Anything they try to do to you will be STRUCK DOWN in a court of LAW. You hold the upper hand here. Your protests are BADLY NEEDED!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Never going to watch NFL again.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think the real problem is that the NFL gets paid by the government for the display of nationalism. Players not standing is apparently a breach of contract, so ultimately, this whole thing boils down to money, not patriotism.

I don't agree with or support state-mandated patriotism (and neither does the US Supreme Court), and feel that those that knelt were no less patriotic than those that didn't.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Any of us that have served our country should realize that one of the rights we are fighting for is the right not to stand for the national anthem or the right to protest our government (regardless of who is in power or what party is in power). After 9/11 Americans seem to have forgotten that. History tells that an overly patriotic or nationalistic society is dangerous and tends to lead to an erosion of rights.

This is what has been gradually happening in the U.S. over the past several decades.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Your employer is allowed to tell you what is and isn’t acceptable for you to do.

That's quite a statement. I'm not sure that bondage is a typical feature of modern employment contracts. May even have been what the civil war was fought over.

As far as I'm concerned standing, bowing or avoiding being present for the national anthem are all political acts. One that these employees (the players) are being forced into simply by the teams/league playing the anthem over the stadium speakers as a mandatory feature of the sporting event. I'm not saying anything morally about national anthems or patriotism one way or the other. Just that putting people in the position to be present at the playing of the anthem puts them in a position wherein they are required to express themselves politically so the owners/league/president (should?) have no right to tell them what/how they must express.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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