NFL protests beg questions: So what? What’s next?
The Dallas Cowboys stunned the sports world by locking arms and taking a knee before the national anthem during their Monday night game against the Arizona Cardinals. Even owner Jerry Jones, a Donald Trump supporter and critic of anthem protests, joined in the demonstration.
Across the field, the Cardinals locked arms in a show of unity and the publicaddress announcer at University of Phoenix Stadium asked fans to do the same.
The actions capped several days of emotional protests and a social-media firestorm that started when the president called on professional sports team owners to respond to kneeling players by getting “that son of a bitch out of here.” It begs two questions: So what? And what’s next?
The first is easy. The social-media reaction from NBA players, led by LeBron James calling Trump a “bum,” and demonstrations from players, which ranged from kneeling to skipping the anthem altogether, showed the power players have to direct a national conversation into a transformative moment.
Not even the nation’s most popular sport could overshadow the protests. It also showed that the “stick to sports” crowd is completely missing the point and ignoring history.
Social and political statements have always been intertwined.
Joe Louis’s win over Max Schmeling for the heavyweight title in 1938 was considered a victory for America over Hitler. The U.S. boycotted the Summer Olympics in 1980 to protest Russian international aggression. And after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the playing of “God Bless America” became a staple in the seventh inning of baseball games. What’s next is trickier. Cardinals defensive lineman Frostee Rucker, the team's NFL Players Association representative, said after his team's 28-17 loss that he's ready to move past the protests and "focus on football," but that he understands the gravity of the moment.
It’s unlikely that the protests will ever have as much momentum as they did over the weekend and into Monday night.
Of course, that depends heavily on the president, who kept up his criticism and unveiled a new hashtag, #StandForAnthem, which was used on photo of Pat Tillman, wearing his Army Ranger uniform.
The Tillman Foundation didn’t immediately respond to my request seeking comment late Monday, but his college roommate Barry Alford told me that his friend would disapprove of the social and political chaos of today and that Tillman would have used his influence to move the nation toward a place of togetherness and productivity.
Ironically, Trump’s barrage, which took attention off the latest Republican effort to dismantle Obamacare and perhaps rallied supporters in Alabama ahead of a U.S. Senate election, seems to have fostered unity.
The protests already have spread to baseball, with Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell, a patriotic rookie who grew up in a military family, taking a knee as a teammate put a hand on his shoulder.
WNBA players joined the protest with L.A. Sparks players leaving the court for the anthem while Minnesota Lynx players locked arms ahead of the first game of the finals.
There’s opportunity to focus directly on improving education, whether in schools or in extracurricular activities through more visible player- and teamled literacy and civics activities.
There’s also more room for players’ unions.
Cyrus Mehri, a labor lawyer pushing for control of the NFLPA, says his platform includes a plan to get in front of social issues, including domestic violence and voter registration.
Current NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith, meanwhile, says his organization will “never back down when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of our players.”
Trump’s call for owners to “fire” protesting players opens the argument that the government is seeking to suppress player’s First Amendment rights.
For me, it all comes back to where we started. Colin Kaepernick was trying to draw attention to problems that include racial profiling by law enforcement and aggressive police tactics in minority communities.
Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.