NFL fans ready ‘to watch the game’
On-field protests still a hot topic, but to a lower degree
She didn’t want to give her name. She didn’t want to talk about anthems or protests or social injustice.
“We came here to watch the game,” this Baltimore Ravens fan said Sunday on the cusp of a sunny football afternoon.
She spoke for many across the land. Some see kneeling during the national anthem as patriotic protest. Some see it as disrespect to flag and country. And some see it as something they don’t want to think about as they settle in to watch the football games they attend to forget the troubles of the world outside the stadium walls.
The national anthem was an NFL flash point for another Sunday, but at what seemed a lower temperature this time. The heat on display as the anthem played last Sunday came just two days after President Trump said NFL owners should fire the “son of a bitch” who fails to stand when it’s playing.
The passage of time probably played a part in Sunday’s apparently lower temps, but perhaps it was also because the president had moved on to other targets, as is his wont, picking improbable Twitter beefs over this weekend with the mayor of suffering San Juan, Puerto Rico, and his own secretary of State.
Trump did tweet this on Saturday: “Very important that NFL players STAND tomorrow, and always, for the playing of our National Anthem. Respect our Flag and our Country!”
The Ravens found a middle ground. They briefly took a knee before the anthem — to loud boo-
ing — and then stood for the Star-Spangled Banner here in the city where Francis Scott Key wrote it in 1814.
All this began a year ago, when Colin Kaepernick — then of the San Francisco 49ers and now a displaced quarterback — protested during the anthem to shine a light on social injustice and police violence. Trump’s fire-them rant at an Alabama rally — ignoring what the protests are about and centering instead on when they take place — reignited the controversy.
Fans on both sides of a national divide attended Sunday’s game at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.
Mitchell Scott, a 20-year Air Force veteran from Waldorf, Md., said he supports the protests wholeheartedly. “As someone who fought to defend the Constitution,” he said, “I’m happy.”
Larry Legg of Henderson, Md., wants protests out of sports. “You play in this country, respect this country,” he said.
But what about the idea that the protests are about social injustice?
“Then make it about the social issues,” he said, “and not about the flag of this country that gives you the opportunity to be here and to be millionaires.”
Scott, the Air Force vet, mentioned the deaths of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
“It’s about so many people who lost their lives unnecessarily,” Scott said. “They’re trying to raise attention to it. So I understand what they’re doing. My thing is, when you take a knee, you’re not disrupting the (anthem), you are taking a knee in silence, in reverence, to the issue.”
In Glendale, Ariz., where San Francisco was playing its first game since Trump’s remarks, roughly 30 players for the 49ers kneeled. The Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins were among other teams who had some players kneel. Some teams stood but linked arms in solidarity. Nine or so Browns raised fists as they stood in Cleveland.
One Browns fan held up a sign that said: “Only here cuz season tickets already paid for! We support those who stand!”
The White House calls all this a black-and-white issue, but some fans see shades of gray.
Broncos fan Morgan Paulk wore an orange Brandon Marshall jersey, No. 54. Paulk bought it before last season and didn’t know what to do when Marshall joined Kaepernick’s protest for a time in 2016. Paulk’s solution: He put American flag patches on the upper left front and center back, above Marshall’s name.
“These are $100, you know,” he said. Since, he wears the jersey to every game: “I had one guy two weeks ago, he said, ‘What’s the deal with the shirt?’ I said, ‘Well, you know what the deal is.’ ”
Zaid Rodriguez wore a red 49ers Kaepernick jersey as he raised money for a sixth-grade youth football team he helps coach. He said some Broncos fans said they’d donate if he took the jersey off; others shook his hand.
Jose Romero, who said he served two tours in Iraq, including during the Gulf War, wore a Broncos Super Bowl 50 shirt.
“As a retired Marine and a Bronco fan, it’s mixed emotions,” he said. “I love my team, but I love my country more.”
Jennifer Newton of Mesa, Ariz., speaking before the Arizona Cardinals played the 49ers, said she is sick of the protests.
“They just need to knock it off,” she said, “and the president needs to stay out of it.”
“I don’t agree with the protests, but I respect the players as people. I know a lot of my friends are people I disagree with, but they’re still my friends.” Broncos fan Morgan Paulk