Defiant 49ers in Trump’s backyard
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 49ers are in the belly of the beast.
Smack in the world of spin and obstruction, of base-pandering and attention-deflecting.
Washington politics came to the 49ers last Sunday, with the vice president of the United States using their game in Indianapolis as a vehicle to further the divisive issue of players, largely African American, kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.
This Sunday, the 49ers are in the nation’s capital to play a football game. They won’t get a White House invite. But even without one, the organization is in an ongoing, direct exchange with the president of the United States.
President Trump wants to fire any “son of a bitch” who chooses to protest injustice and police brutality during the pregame anthem. That is a specific directive toward the 49ers, with whom the protests began with Colin Kaepernick in August 2016 and have continued, with the team among the league’s most visible in its demonstrations.
And it’s not just the 49ers players who are in the president’s sights. Owner Jed York steadfastly has supported his players’ rights, starting with Kaepernick last year. This past week, safety Eric Reid said that York had assured him that the owner would continue to support them and would not “force” his players to do anything. York was perhaps the NFL owner most critical of
Trump, calling his “son of a bitch” remark “callous and offensive.”
York, who has made plenty of mistakes in his ownership tenure, should be applauded for taking a stand and not bowing to the intense political pressure around this issue. It is probably easier for York than some other owners because, though the protests during the anthem enrage some of the team’s fans, he knows there is also a significant percentage of 49ers fans who would be offended by a mandatory show of patriotism.
All of this is expected to come to a head this week at the owners’ meetings. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to owners last week, saying he believes “that everyone should stand for the national anthem,” an indication that there might be an attempt to change the rules surrounding the anthem. He was accused of “trying to play both sides of the fence” by Green Bay tight end Martellus Bennett and others.
Goodell, indeed, walked back the statement after Trump tweeted praise for “demanding all players stand.” Goodell told NFL Network there was no policy change.
After another week of hyperbole and finger-pointing, what will Sunday bring in the NFL? Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the man who keeps the other owners on a choke chain, said he wouldn’t allow any of his players who kneel to play (though his team has a bye this week, so it won’t be testing the waters).
On Friday, Chargers lineman Russell Okung wrote an open letter in the Players’ Tribune urging players to collaborate and unify.
“As (Kaepernick’s) message has now been distorted, coopted and used to further divide us along the very racial lines he was highlighting, we as players have a responsibility to come together and respond collectively,” Okung wrote.
Several players representing the NFL Players Association are expected to attend the owners’ meeting. They are not planning to be there as window dressing, but to be heard. We’ll see whether that happens.
Though the owners’ meeting will be held in New York, the influence of this city, the nation’s capital, will be felt. Trump has remained relentless in his attack on NFL players, targeting an issue that inflames and energizes his base and distracts from other issues. There are no shinier objects in our culture to draw attention than the flag and the NFL.
Goodell is well schooled in D.C. politics. In 1968, Goodell’s father, Charles, was appointed to the Senate to take the seat of assassinated New York Sen. Robert Kennedy. Expected to be a mainstream Republican, Charles Goodell surprisingly became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.
In 1969, Goodell voiced support for a massive antiwar protest that he said would be conducted in a “peaceful, orderly and dignified fashion.” He marched, arm in arm with Coretta Scott King, the widow of the man who wielded nonviolent protest as a powerful tool for change in American society.
Because of his beliefs, Roger Goodell’s father was viciously attacked by the powerful in Washington. Vice President Spiro Agnew called him a “radical liberal” who encouraged “dissident elements.”
Charles Goodell responded, likening Agnew to Joseph McCarthy, the disgraced senator who demanded a litmus test for patriotism and conducted “un-American” witch hunts for communists during the 1950s.
“He wants to intimidate,” Charles Goodell said of Agnew. “When you promote disrespect for differences of opinion, you’re attacking the very foundations of our system.
“He leaves the distinct impression that he prefers his easy rhetoric to a difficult discussion of the central problems facing our nation today.”
How will his son, the shield for 32 NFL team owners, handle this difficult problem?
You know the adage about history: Repeat, repeat, repeat.