NFL kneels on anthem issue
Oh, and it is about enforcing politically correct behaviour to a largely African-American workforce protesting the treatment of African-Americans, on the same day bodycam footage was released of Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown being wrestled to the ground by a group of police, and hit with a Taser, after parking in a handicapped spot at a convenience store in the middle of the night.
In the NFL, meanwhile, some teams will punish players, and some won’t, which means if the league was trying to punt the decision downwind, they’re still going to have to choose a side. Yes, it’s in line with the NBA policy on standing for the anthem. But the NBA worked in close connection with its players on political and social issues, and worked from a basis of shared trust. The NFL — a league whose billion-dollar class-action concussion mismanagement settlement has already been accused of obstructing and outright bilking retired players — has never done that.
So you have panicky incoherence, served on a bun. Before this edict, the league at least pretended to care about what the players wanted, even as the men who started the protests, San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, were both suing the league for collusion, which is a word that is having a big couple of years in America. But the league was plainly terrified, and looked for some common ground.
This week they gave in to the fear. TV ratings were down last season, and worse, the players kneeling had attracted the attention of the President, unhinged as he might be. At a September rally in Alabama he attacked both NBA and NFL players, called those who kneel “sons of bitches,” and said they should be fired.
At that point, the already anachronistic idea of sticking to sports was more or less demolished. So the NFL chose a side. Vice-President and human Hall of Vice-Presidents animatronic dummy Mike Pence had already made a show of attending an NFL game between Indianapolis and San Francisco so he could storm out in a disapproving huff, and Donald Trump has a base that devours whatever spoiled meat he hurls into the crowd. In less honest circles, kneeling was no longer a principled reaction to injustice in society — it was disrespecting the flag, the anthem, and the troops. The New York Times got an audio recording of a meeting between players and owners back in April. The owners were mostly worried about Trump.
“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 Patriots owner, and Trump supporter, Robert Kraft. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”
“All Donald needs to do is to start to do this again,” said Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula.
“We need some kind of immediate plan because of what’s going on in society. All of us now, we need to put a BandAid on what’s going on in the country.”
“We’ve got to be careful not to be baited by Trump or whomever else,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “We have to find a way to not be divided and not get baited.”
Well, Pence tweeted out the NFL’s decision with the hashtag “Winning”, and Trump retweeted it, so good job, guys. The NFL adopted a bad-faith policy based on bad-faith argu- ments in a country where almost half the nation can’t tell the difference anymore, or chooses not to. After careful deliberation, the NFL joined the bad-faith ranks. This isn’t a compromise. It’s surrender. The league didn’t just bow. It kneeled.