POLITICS AND SPORTS
NFL players to stand during anthem
The National Football League, with support from Donald Trump, has spit in the face of the First Amendment and the Constitution by “demanding” that players stand during the national anthem. The owners and the players union are complicit by allowing this travesty to happen. What’s next? Will the NFL demand that the players wear Trump Tower armbands? I can see it now: pictures of Trump Tower with the words, “Obey and Live.” Vernon Turner, Denver
As we approach Memorial Day, we remember our fallen airmen, sailors and soldiers. American flags are placed at the headstones of these heroes, flags representing their sacrifices for our freedom. It is not a symbol of oppression for six-figure-salaried athletes to kneel before performing for fans. There is no controversy: You kneel, you are showing disrespect. It is not a protest. I love football but one more show of disrespect means one less fan. The football is in your highly compensated (oppressed?) hands, players; don’t fumble it! Tom Logan, Lt. Col. Retired, USAF, Highlands Ranch
If we don’t want political speech in our professional sports games, then let’s take the politics out of professional sports. And while we are at it, let’s take politics out of high school and college sports, too. Our national anthem became a part of sports 100 years ago, during World War I. In so doing, owners, players and fans made sports a venue for political speech.
Most employers do not require their workers to begin the work day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Therefore, employers do not allow political speech at work. In most American schools, because the pledge is required at the beginning of each school day, students are allowed to sit and not participate as a right of free speech.
The NFL receives financial support from the Pentagon to provide a color guard or maybe even a flyover at the beginning of games. The national anthem, a military color guard, a military flyover? Is this political speech?
My guess is yes. So, NFL players, if I were you, I would come out of the locker room and onto the field to express your First Amendment rights. Owners and fans do so, why can’t you? Carolyn Ayars, Littleton
Re: “NFL anthm crackdown is inconsistent,” sports column, May 24.
Kudos to Mark Kizzla for his examination of NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem. But to me, the real question is why do we even play the national anthem at sporting events? It is very rarely done at European sporting events. Perhaps Europeans have a better handle on where unbridled nationalism can lead.
Sports journalist Peter May examined this issue in a 2016 editorial: “Here’s what’s really ill-advised and what no one is talking about in the wake of (quarterback Colin) Kaepernick’s action (to kneel during the national anthem): Why do we even play the national anthem? Think about it. You only hear it at sporting events and not even all sporting events. That’s it. You don’t hear it at the opera, at the theater, at the concert hall (the late, great Jimi Hendrix excepted on certain occasions, of course). You don’t hear it at the most democratic of all institutions, the town meeting.” Noel Waechter, Littleton