NFL fumbles policy on kneeling during anthem
The National Football League owners’ new policy on the national anthem doesn’t solve a thing, and we doubt it will win back disgusted fans who’ve turned their backs on the game.
What owners don’t understand is that you can’t compromise on the national anthem or the American flag. You either honor what they stand for or you don’t. NFL owners are trying to cut the anthem down the middle — appeasing patriotic fans and protesting players alike.
It’s a fumble, right on the goal line.
Owners would have been better off showing the courage to either ban the playing of the national anthem altogether, or play it and let the hired talent do what they want — stand, sit, kneel, stay in the locker room, stay home, etc.
Under the new policy, players will be given the choice to hide out in the locker room during the national anthem, but their teams — not individual players — will be fined by the league if they go onto the field and kneel.
Team owners unanimously adopted the policy Wednesday, which is truly a cop-out to the players union. If a player can’t be fined for disrespecting the flag, what use is there for having a policy? It either ends with them entirely or it continues indefinitely. Period.
Owners who feel rich in picking up the fines for chipon-their-shoulder players should be prepared to see these protests — and issues — expand. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling for the anthem in the 2016 season to protest racism and police brutality. Watch — better still, don’t watch — for players to kneel because they hold a grudge against U.S. attacks against the Taliban, Trump immigrant policies, statues to Confederate leaders, climate change deniers — or any trending cause celebre.
Here’s a prediction: The owners’ new policy will be violated in the first week of nationally televised football games in September. The very fact that the policy was enacted without input from the players union — and contract negotiations — most likely dooms it.
According to sources, players wanted to talk to owners about Kaepernick’s situation — he still doesn’t have a pro job — yet owners insisted on ignoring the issue to focus on an anthem policy. Owners felt pressured to do something after the disastrous 9 percent decline in television viewership during the 2017-2018 NFL season.
It’s doubtful the new policy will change things. NFL owners have chosen to camouflage the issue rather than fight for the flag — a losing proposition if there ever was one.