Can owners fire protesting players?
FOXBOROUGH, MASS. » Several NFL owners locked arms with their players this weekend instead of taking a challenge from President Donald Trump to fire them for protesting during the national anthem. NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty said he would get rid of anyone on his racing team who didn’t stand.
Neither is surprising. Both are legal.
The First Amendment so often cited as a blanket justification for “free speech” doesn’t protect the employment of football players or racecar drivers when they speak their minds.
As the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “A policeman may have a constitutional right to talk politics, but he has no constitutional right to be a policeman.”
So why did NFL owners — many of them Trump supporters — back their players instead of their president? It’s business.
Here are a few more questions and answers about the potential consequences:: speech, or of the press.” Don’t ignore the first part: It’s the government that can’t restrict speech. In other words, out-ofwork quarterback Colin Kaepernick can’t be thrown in jail for kneeling during the anthem, but the constitution doesn’t guarantee him a spot on an NFL roster. he rules governing NFL player conduct are spelled out in its rulebook , its personal conduct policy, and the collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the league and its union. It does not say players must stand during the national anthem. The CBA has two references to pregame activities and neither involves the anthem or the flag. ope. The NFL’s CBA also a boilerplate contract that requires not only a player’s best efforts on the field but also “loyalty to the Club, and to conduct himself on and off the field with appropriate recognition of the fact that the success of professional football depends largely on public respect for and approval of those associated with the game.” This gives the league wide latitude in punishing players for behavior that might damage the sport’s reputation. Other sports have similar leeway. NASCAR contracts aren’t standardized, but an employee manual for the now-defunct Michael Waltrip Racing reminded workers that they are hired at-will and can be fired “at any time for any reason or for no reason.” So race team includes owner Richard Childress was likely within his rights when he warned employees considering an anthem protest: “It’ll get you a ride on a Greyhound bus.” aepernick, who started the movement, remains without a team. Don’t expect to see other protesters purged, though. For one thing, there are now too many of them. More importantly, the league and its owners decided that standing with the players was good for business — not just keeping the workforce happy, but also trusting that fans and sponsors would stick around. NASCAR bosses came to the opposite conclusion. It’s not surprising. It’s not illegal. It’s business.