Anthem protocol still divides NFL owners
Word is that NFL owners, unable to come to an agreement on a league policy for the national anthem, are considering letting each team create its own rules.
According to The Washington Post, the idea would take the thorny issue out of the league’s hands and allow each owner to decide what is proper protocol during the anthem. Why stop there, though? Since owners such as Jerry Jones and Bob McNair are determined to make a show of who’s for ’Merica and who’s not, the NFL ought to realign the league so there can be no confusion about anyone’s position.
Instead of the NFC and the AFC, let’s call the NFL’s new conferences the CSC and the KNC.
The CSC would be the Constitution Supporters Conference, made up of teams whose owners recognize that the protests during the anthem are neither anti-police nor anti-military but meant to draw attention to police brutality in communities of color and economic inequality. These owners know the right to free speech that’s protected by the First Amendment refers to censorship by the government, not employers, but they’re also smart enough to know that stifling political dissent in a country founded on protest is the very definition of unAmerican.
The San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs would all go in this division. Maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks, too.
The KNC would be the Know Nothing Conference. For those who’ve forgotten what they learned in eighth-grade social studies — and it’s clear there are plenty in this country who could use a refresher course — the Know Nothings were a political party in the mid-1800s that cloaked discrimination in the defense of traditional religious and political values. These ideologues wanted to preserve what they saw as their rightful place in the social, economic and political hierarchies and were horrified that some people were actually taking that “all men being created equal” idea seriously.
McNair’s Houston Texans and Jones’ Dallas Cowboys would be the charter teams in the KNC, of course, and the Carolina Panthers are with them at least until they’re sold. The Cincinnati Bengals deserve a spot in the KNC, too, after Mike Brown reportedly asked free agent Eric Reid if his protests would continue this season, signaling that a contract of- fer was more dependent on the safety’s answer than his actual skills.
If you don’t like those ideas for conferences, then I’d suggest the Hypocrites and the Non-Hypocrites.
Remember what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last fall, as he tried to calm the furor ignited by President Trump calling protesting players “SOBs” and saying they should be fired?
“What we are trying to stay out of is politics,” Goodell said in October.
Did you see an asterisk by that “we,” meant to clarify Goodell was only referring to the players? Neither did I.
And yet Edward Glazer of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosted a Trump fundraiser in March that cost attendees between $35,000 and $250,000. Robert Kraft donated the New England Patriots’ team plane so Parkland survivors and their families could attend the “March for Our Lives” rally.
So it’s actually not politics or political statements NFL owners want to avoid, just those with which they don’t agree.
It’s admirable that NFL owners want to identify those who wish to undermine our most cherished ideals, whose actions are an affront to our democracy. But it doesn’t take a change in the league’s anthem protocol.
A look in the mirror will do.