When will some enterprising journalist publish an article about the fact that this country was founded on dissent? Language in the the constitution guarantees the right to orderly dissent. Isn’t that exactly what this is? I disagree strenuously with this decision. This is a great country exactly because players and citizens I like can agree to disagree.
2
Seems to me kneeling is More respectful.
I Watch games less mostly because of the babbling, illiterate sportscasters. And the games take longer and they don’t even show the halftime show, just four or five babbling.
What next? Will they have to pray aloud to the same deity as trump?
Thank you those in the NFL that are standing up for the First Amendment (and your own rights). Didn't a federal judge just tell the Liar in Chief aka LIC) that the LIC (soft "c")was violtating the First Amendment by block those who criticize him on his Twitter account. Those owners should grow a spine.
The NFL has the right to tell the players to stand, but what about the fans? I can’t afford the pricey tickets, nor do I support management decisions of my home team, but if I went to a game, during the anthem I would place my hand on my heart and sing loudly and reverently—all while sitting. Would I be assaulted?
1
Best solution; stop playing football at all. Let the owners stew.
2
LOL and SMH. It’s hysterical to read these comments. All the people who seem to think taking a knee during the national anthem is acceptable appear to be the same ones calling this policy by the NFL a “law” or racist. This is a very simple issue. These players have chosen to sign multimillion dollar contracts with a private enterprise. If they are unhappy about standing for their flag all they have to do is walk away from the contract, meaning no more luxurious lifestyles - these players are the biggest hypocrites alive.
1
If my employer told me that I had to stand at my desk every morning while the national anthem was played and I would be fined or fired if I didnt, I would be filing a first amendment lawsuit the next day.
2
The best way to fight this: Boycott every company that advertises on the NFL.
NFL = The New Plantation
3
The NFL has now become the National Race-baiting League. Disgusting!
He says, maybe the players who don't stand shouldn't be in this country?? Maybe he who says that shouldn't be president of this country.
What are our teachers teaching our school children about what's going on?
Here’s the satire we need from The New Yorker’s Borowitz Report.
"N.F.L. Adds First Amendment to List of Banned Substances"
By Andy Borowitz
"The N.F.L. has expanded its list of banned substances to include the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the league confirmed on Wednesday.
Although the N.F.L. has long banned substances such as anabolic steroids and growth hormones, the First Amendment is believed to be the only right guaranteed by the Constitution to be included on the list.
Roger Goodell, the commissioner, said that, by adding the First Amendment to the list of banned substances, the N.F.L was establishing a “policy of zero tolerance on tolerance.”
In order to enforce the ban, Goodell said that players would be tested periodically to determine whether they had used words, gestures, or facial expressions that are strictly prohibited under the new rule.
Speaking at the White House, Donald Trump applauded the league for banning the approximately 1700 N.F.L. players from exercising freedom of speech, and expressed hope that the ban could eventually be expanded to include the other 325 million Americans.”
Yes, new norms are being set. Accept or Resist?
3
The NFL kneeling issue will soon become moot, as the NFL collapses, ceases to be a viable business. Most folks no longer relate to or identify with the primitive, often violent NFL circus primates. Half full stadiums, low TV viewership cannot be reversed. Already, desperate NFL owners are quietly, desperately positioning themselves for ownership exit. Government boondoggle financed empty stadiums will soon be the norm. The bonds issued are already de facto worthless. As usual, the hapless taxpayer will take the financial hit. It's over for the NFL. This is a good thing..
I say hit where it hurts boycott them and their sponsors; (or as they did to Kaepernick
1
This would be nothing but a Trump, Pence, et al distraction from their nefarious shenanigans, except that free expression is essential to democracy.
Are we heading towards the kind of great patriotic demonstration we've seen throughout history in the worst of dictatorships? Maybe the crowds should be required to salute photos of our great leaders.
3
“Players had previously been required to be on the field for the anthem. Commissioner Roger Goodell said that owners voted unanimously to rescind that rule and to fine teams if their players are on the field or sidelines but do not ‘show respect for the flag and the anthem.’”
Worldwide kneeling is a show of respect.
Well, and then there’s that whole problem with the “national anthem’s” second verse (almost never performed) encouraging violence against slaves who had revolted in DC when the British attacked it during the War of 1812.
So frankly, the “national anthem” really needs to go as some official song of the USA. It’s only been such for about 85 years anyhow.
2
"Trump Supports N.F.L.'s New National Anthem Policy." President Trump is the sole reason for the N.F.L.'s new National Anthem Policy, going as far as saying today that if the players are unwilling to stand, they maybe "shouldn't be in the country."
I really think Mr. Trump's re-enactment of the Red Queen saying "Off with Their Heads" for perceived affronts to his country is frightening. His behavior runs counter to how I think the country should be run. The President's brand of patriotism deserves a country of his own. Far, far away.
3
just stop playing the national anthem at sports; what does it have to do with football? Save it for military funerals and Olympics
2
Stop going. Stop watching. Kill this organization, if not for these anti-American antics then for the literal brain damage it encourages in its players and our children.
2
I wonder what the NFL owners will do if ratings drop because those Americans who value the constitutional right to free speech stop watching.
I for one wish entire teams would stay in their locker room for the entire game. I do not support the NFL's bad decision in any way, shape or form.
Who knew playing football is like a plantation where "slaves" have no rights or voice.
4
Why is the Pledge of Allegiance a requirement at a football game? Are sports fans more patriotic than other Americans? It's a toss-up as to whether this decision is more in line with schoolroom punishment for misbehaving, corporate bullying, or yet another Trump-era step toward fascism.
How is kneeling disrespectful anyway?
1
"If a player is not standing for the national anthem, Mr. Trump said, “Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”
The president’s comments, recorded Wednesday, were aired Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends.”
Vice President Mike Pence reacted Wednesday with a one-word tweet, “#Winning,” which included a picture of a CNN article about the news."
These guys never miss an opportunity to foment divisiveness, do they.
4
If you were not born before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War, you learned about them from a text book or a movie instead of reading about them in the newspaper and watching it in a black and white newsreel in a theater. The military who fought in combat and died there or returned home in a much different physical/psychological state did so in order for me to have the constitutional right to stand, or sit, or kneel during our national anthem. Trump asked himself, "What would Putin do?" and then dictated his challenge to the owners of NFL teams; they cowered to him as quickly and as easily as the members of our present congress. Why have so many Americans forgotten why our grandfathers, fathers, brothers and sisters, and now grandchildren made the ultimate sacrifice for us to express our First Amendment Right?
1
I have idea: how about we stop playing the national anthem at football games! What is the world does it have to do with football, or any sports for that matter.
Perhaps the national anthem could have a place at the opening of a session of a legislative body or the the supreme court session, where policies were to be discussed and debated. But a football game, which is pure entertainment? Boggles the mind...
1
From a business perspective the issue hurt the NFL. Banning it would probably be better for business- which has nothing to do with my personal opinion on the matter.
1
Fine. Now what are they going to do about the fans? Will people who don't stand in respectful silence get a warning, will they be told to leave, will they be fined, will they have to wait outside for the game to start? NFL is now officially Trump country. I'm not going there.
2
It wasn't until after 9/11 that the anthem became all about our troops and honoring the military. I detest the militarization of sporting and other public events...and I support our military, it just does not need to be inserted into our entertainment events.
1
I wasn’t aware that the NFL players were “forced” to play professional football..... How hypocritical is it that the players are now knowingly and willingly getting paid paid large sums of money to play a childhood sport with the near certainty that they’ll have CTE in their mid to late thirties yet complain when they are required to stand for the anthem or wait in the locker room.
The NFL players can have their cake and eat it too by quitting the NFL and kneeling as much as they like with the added bonus of avoiding CTE. If it bothers the players that much to stand for the anthem then they can put their money where their mouths are and quit in the name of social justice.... I won’t hold my breathe waiting for that to happen.
2
Disappointed that this has become such a big deal, especially with everything else going on! I'm not sure what is being protested - police violence or police statistics RE African Americans? Or slavery? This NFL is a private 'corporation' and therefore can make rules during the work day, which is certainly time on the field. But, it's receiving way to much attention and because of that, it's become quite divisive. Just wondering what the end game is - what do the protesters want? In my day, we protested an injustice with a solution to that injustice. Once addressed, the protests stopped. What is the solution the players are seeking?
The police not shooting and killing black men during traffic stops or while standing in parks or while being in their own backyards?
1
Where is the objection and opposition to a sitting President actively decrying and interfering in behavior protected by the First Amendment, and that done in the context of a private business?
Why are those who object to the behavior of the NFL owners not also objecting to the inherent racism of Trump's loud and ugly campaign against those who take a knee?
Why are we not calling out Trump for choosing this situation to cause further divisiveness in the nation?
The current occupant of the White House is no respecter of tradition or decorum: what should we think when he chooses respect for a piece of cloth and an anthem composed by a slave owner over respect for black Americans who make peaceful protests over their unequal treatment and, in particular, the disrespect and violence they experience daily at the hands of law enforcement?
What should we say? I say we call him out on his racism, and his inability to act and speak as President of ALL the people.
1
This one-sided decision,whatever its under
pinnings is another example of how a daily, toxic, WE-THEY culture,which violates by word and/or deed,selected “the other,” is created.Sustained. Even expanded!Team ownership of athletes, as a profit-making-commodity, neither endows the owners’ right to determine a players’ state (self-identity, role-identity,gender identity, religiosity, ethnic identity , etc.) nor a range of daily behaviors.When not in practice/actually performing what they are paid to do.In various contexts, situtations and environments!This includes all types,levels and qualities of awareness.Perceptions.Cognitions.Experiencing and expressing a range of human emotions or not.Judging,making decisions,implementing them,or not.Learning from outcomes or not.The athlete,as both an Identity and sets of personal behaviors,post-Civil War, is free.To do.Not to do! While hopefully, if sufficiently personally mature, being capable of being accountable for both what they say and do, which shouldn’t be voiced and done, and what they didn’t state and do,which should have been reasonably expressed.The owners don’t OWN the commodified players. Neither do the fans. Consider:neither group has taken responsibility for players’ brain concussions
resulting from a traditionalized-institutionalized
norm of violating bodies.Psyches.Even family lives of players.Standing or kneeling!NFL owners demonstrate violating “the other” is alive and well in the American tradition.Patriotism?
This decision by patriotic NFL team owners,designed to foster patriotism for ALL-Americans,now and Inbal the future, whatever their status and state of BEING, during these decisive times, have raised some questions for me.I hope that reporters, and other NYTs readers,could educate me about:Who, and how many, of the team-owner, athlete-commodifiers, served in any of the American armed forces as part of their patriotic opportunity?How many put their bodies,psyches and souls into painful actions to defend national security?Actual names of owners and their teams?Should a person who hasn’t served, for whatever reason(s),and then did not volunteer,seated-kneeling- standing,ETC., in a range of creating and sustaining community-well-being activities, be allowed to actually buy, own and profit from a diverse commodified population of performing professional athletes?Is it OK, in American traditions, not to “put your money where your mouth is?” A MAGA-mantra? All of which raises a much more complex issue and concern about helpful, viable, patriotic-anchoring- criteria for screening for any type of policy maker.Should a person have a constitutionally-anchored right to be a candidate, and if elected actually become that “office, ” if s/he never-EVER served in the American armed services? Or in an approved of Community-Well-Being (CWB) volunteer role and service? This would include in the myriad-of-virtual-militias which underpin the right to bear arms. Hidden and otherwise.POTUS?
Why play the national anthem at all at sports events? Seriously, what's the purpose behind this?
1
On Patriotism
That’s what he said
Unbending, dogmatic, immovable
No one could be more patriotic than him.
Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria
However, his priority focus must be the NFL.
The football players should show respect
for the flag;
The football players should be patriotic
and stand for the national anthem.
“It is disgraceful. If they don’t comply,
they should be fired.”
However, shall we respect the flag
But not the people?
Is it all right to call them names?
Crooked, lying, little, low energy
Shall we esteem the anthem
But lie and cheat?
What is the message the football players want to give?
The unarmed who have been killed by the police;
Our prisons, are they worthy of flag and anthem?
What about our criminal justice system?
So many stories—
“I can’t breathe.”
It is not that the football players are unpatriotic
or have no love of country.
With empathy their hearts hurt for the suffering of their brothers and sisters.
What would be the value in forcing someone to stand
Who felt he must kneel?
In reverence they kneel,
In mourning and sadness
For actions not worthy of flag or anthem.
Is it all right if I act anyway I want to
Treating people with disrespect and heartlessness.
But then when the national anthem is played
I am sure to stand.
I proudly stand with my hand over my heart.
I am a proud American!
Am I?
Is patriotism more than standing for the national anthem?
2
Goodell and the NFL team owners really stayed up late at night to come up with the "solution" to the knee problem. What a joke. The correct penalty is: Players should be fined $500,000, suspended for 5 games, and the proceeds donated to a local charity that promotes say-no-to-drugs for kids living in drug ridden communities.
Well, fans, it's up to you: when the National Anthem begins at the NFL game, kneel.
2
Patriotism is a disease.
1
Ali, Smith, and Carlos are heroes for protesting. We have the gift of hindsight to know how wrong the criticism of them was 50 years ago. So how can people be so dumb that they would do the exact same wrong thing again?
2
The policy is an attempt to find a middle ground on a divisive issue that has shaken the country’s most successful sport for nearly two years, beginning when the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem to protest police violence against minorities and economic inequality.
___
BUT, if he gets signed by another team AND is 1st string QB hasn't he stated he would stop kneeling?
Here we go. Trump has just told us where he is headed: threats of detention or deportation, in our future, for black men who don't stand and perform on the field for him. This is where things are headed. "Perhaps you don't belong in our country," he says. America is headed down a very dark alley. Dear God I hope people wake up. This story is part of a larger and grisly picture that profiles a dictator in the making.
1
Indeed, forcing patriotism or patriotic behavior (despite remaining in the locker room as an option) is definitely among the first steps down a slippery slope.
1
Why does the national anthem have anything to do with playing a game for money ? Don't we have more reverence for our flag than that ? My protest shall continue to be to tune in only after the anthem is played.
The NFL is a damaged brand and this does nothing to help it. Phony politics and pandering of the nth degree for an over-priced and over-hyped product.
I think that the NFL players could demonstrate patriotism and the freedom of expression inherent in it in the following way. Before next fall’s opening games, each team should find several military veterans to join them on the sideline at their opening games. Both teams’ players could lock arms with each other and the veterans and all could join in visibly singing the anthem. This would demonstrate in a unified commitment to the fundamental ideals of our country a willingness to work together despite personal differences. Forgive me if someone else has already made this suggestion, and if my naïve idealism is showing beneath my cynical armor.
If kneeling during the national anthem offends your patriotic sensibilities, you are entitled to that position. But I find other affronts to be more offensive to the military. What about the commander in chief getting deferments for bone spurs and not remembering which foot had the bone spurs. Nor can he remember the doctor who diagnosed the condition and wrote the note. I find the denigration of an actual war hero such as Senator John McCain--"I like people who weren't captured."--to be extremely unpatriotic. I also find public criticism of the Khan family, who's son gave the ultimate sacrifice at 27, to be below patriotic. But far too many have a problem with men who kneel to bring attention to the senseless killing of too many men in America to be "un-patriotic."
If God forbid we find our nation in a military conflict the requires reinstituting the draft, and Trump's military age relatives are called to serve...how many do you think will seek deferments. Will that be un-patriotic?
9
A technical point - the first amendment protection of free speech is a protection against government restriction of speech, not private individuals or companies. They can impose such rules on the teams as they wish. Having said that, I think it is a nice tradition to play the national anthem during sporting events to show respect for our country and disrespectful if you don't. It is a very visible display of disrespect when players on the field do it as contrasted with individuals among the hundreds in the stands who slip out to buy a beer during the playing of the anthem. My only wish is that we change the anthem from a 18th Century drinking song to "America The Beautiful".
Forcing people to undergo a patriotic ritual before each game is an affront to their rights.
I doubt that most fans like it so much that they would miss it if it were eliminated.
I despise the very essence of trump. Every nano, micro liter iota of the nucleus of his atoms. He's the one that doesn't seem to respect the values of this country. I wish it would be he that leaves. Go live in one of your Middle Eastern gaudy towers. He will definitely have his place in history. Just not the illustrious one he craves. He is the worst thing that could happen to the whole world. He is the poster boy for what not to be.
2
Of course Trump supports the craven NFL capitulation to his demagoguery. It further weakens the First Amendment Trum would happily destroy in order to mandate obedience to the state....he being the state, of course.
There was less patriotism and more worry about ticket sales on the part of the NFL once Trumps authoritarian loving base threatened a boycott.
1
Nothing says racism is alive and well in the US
like making a law that targets Black men peacefully
protesting the murder of their fellow men.
4
Yes, I am a liberal, but I completely disagree with most of the ignorant comments on this topic. First, N.F.L. Football is a professional sport, and as such it has a fan base that also disagrees with most of you, hence “ratings being down significantly.” Secondly, players are “EMPLOYEES,” and as such have a responsibility to act in a professional manner. It is just the same as if I were to walk out of my job once every week to protest something. If I did that I would be fired, nevertheless fined. I watch football and I certainly don’t want to see these idiots kneeling during the National Anthem for any reason. I get the reason for the protests, and I think police officers shooting an unarmed person should be held accountable much more than they are. It is sickening to watch a cop murder a man in cold blood by shooting him in the back and he just gets away with it. Although, I disagree with all of the racist people caring only about blacks being shot, but save that stuff for Monday and do it on your own time. Too many people commenting here just don’t get it and they complain just to complain.
2
this is not democratic, america has become a dictatorship with trump
3
BOYCOT modern day masters and start taxing these horrible organizations already! Churches too!
3
Any decent patriotic American needs to boycott the NFL starting today.
2
Will someone teach trump to place his hand over his heart (should there be one there) during the playing of the national anthem and also teach him the words? What a shining example!
2
This has nothing to do with patriotism or supporting the military. This is bone spurs, draft dogging Don the Con, creating hysteria and chaos and pitting people against each other. Where else can you divide people trump ? Your base is base as you.
2
I have given up football. The racial makeup of the league does not match the US as a whole. Clear discrimination. I will not participate in this travesty of having over 50% of the players being African american.
Why play the National Anthem at all?
4
We’re a democracy born of protest, right? I stand with the kneelers. The NFL owners will have to get by without my dollars until they acknowledge that all [persons] are created equal.
2
If they punishing the N.F. L. players for kneeling, the sexualy misconduct by USA president what is the punishment? It's not a freedom of speech. All these rules because of black American .this is insulting the players .
1
How about we eliminate jingoistic displays and just play.
1
We live in a society which finds a peaceful protest during the national anthem so disturbing that it must be suppressed. And yet we are not bothered by organized and systemic violence against people of color on the streets of their own towns. That tells me more about what kind of country the US actually is than seeing everyone mindlessly standing for some stupid song.
1
Don't really need another reason not to pay attention to the NFL, but this policy seals the deal.
1
Football is entertainment and as such should provide entertainment to its customers. I find the "disruptions" (as accurately portrayed by he ACLU) offensive and unpatriotic. They appear to be intended to be disrespectful of our military, our veterans, our flag and our country. These are are the views I formed as I watched this unfold. These are the reasons I no longer enjoy the NFL and certainly no longer watch. Clear and simple, my opinion and my choice.
1
I strongly protest the owners' decision. I am also painfully aware of the longterm effect of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which in and of itself has already diminished my watching of NFL games by 10 to 20 percent. My slow withdrawal from this Sunday ritual hasn't been easy, but, now, with this latest decision, it once again becomes clear to me that I need to persist. Farewell, NFL players: I wish you well.
1
Well I watched the Super Bowl last year for the first time ever. Now I believe I'll boycott--something beyond disinterested.
We need to take away the N.F.L.'s non-profit status once and for all. Whether Or Not They Somehow. Reverse Course. And Get. This. Right.
2
Is there any difference in showing a knee during the playing of the national anthem than hundreds or maybe thousands of the fans showing no homage at all. The NFL could care less, as evident by their recent ruling that a player could be fined, as if that is punishment. It is an insult to the nation. So, no longer play our national anthem at the beginning of a game, that will solve the problem. And if it is still important we must pay tribute then do it at the end of the game. Wonder how many people will stick around for that event, or if the TV station would be there to broadcast the event.
2
Actually, unless there is some special person singing, the TV stations usually cut away for commercials during the national anthem.
I pledge my allegiance to the Constitution of the Untied States of America,
And to the Republic which it defines,
One Nation, with freedom of speech and religion,
With liberty and justice for all.
The Constitution is the operating instructions for our Republic. That is what soldiers and government employees swear to protect and uphold.
Those that use the flag and the Anthem to distract from, and twist, the spirit and text of Constitution are the ones showing disrespect to the Anthem, the Flag, the troops, and the Constitution. And they are doing it to protect institutional, top down racism in police departments that use unofficial policy to encourage abuse of minorities and promote (instead of firing) the bad apples.
The Mayor of Chicago had a secret torture facility. Baltimore police regularly drove recklessly with handcuffed but un-seatbelted prisoners in the back of vans to punish them. The City Manager, Chief of Police, and Judge in Ferguson exchanged emails conspiring to use bogus tickets to raise revenue from minorities and the poor. And the places with the most abusive police departments have the worst crime, because if law enforcement is not based in truth and justice, then it is impossible to be on the right side of the law, unless you are in a favored group.
Despite abuses, that need to be stopped, government is not the enemy. It is how democracy gets things done.
Oppose those that turn the Constitution and patriotism upside down.
1
The NFL is a business. The vast majority of the customers of the NFL business do not want players doing a kneeling protest during the anthem. Therefore, the NFL business makes changes to its business to please its customers.
If the protests are intended to stop police brutality, at what exact point will the kneeling no longer be needed? Who determines when we have crossed that finish line? Wouldn’t it be more effective for players to hold protest rallies at specific police precincts where they feel brutality prevails instead of an “in general” display hundreds of miles away at a game, directed at “all” police precincts?
As a lifelong (and mostly suffering) Jets fan, I will boycott the NFL until it changes this anti democratic policy. The players' union should file a grievance as the NFL has established a past practice by allowing players to kneel previously.
2
So, along with the promotion of mindless warrior culture, neurological impairment, broken bodies, and antiquated sexism, we can add this to the long list of reasons to avoid watching the NFL. If "owners" had not been clearly defined before, it certainly is now.
2
And all along I have been thinking that football is a sport. Now I find it is an exercise meant to highlight and decorate a loyalty pledge. Forgive me for such long term naivety!
1
Soon we will all have to wear caps that we can remove when ordered. Will we have to genuflect?
Respect is one thing coercion is another.
1
I’m a veteran and believe that if someone wants to kneel during thee anthem that’s their right. Gladiator games executives come off looking unreasonable and more worried about the bottom line than the issues at hand. So, not all veterans are against players’ rights to FREE SPEECH. Now watch as entire teams stay in the locker room. Not sure the NFL executives have really thought this through. For players also making millions let’s see you put your money where your mouth as well. Dollars drive behavior but conviction and ideas make the world turn.
2
Is the US becoming a totalitarian country?
Firstly, to kneel is to me a stronger token of respect for your country than standing with a hand over your heart.
Secondly, is it illegal to not stand with your hand over your heart?
Thirdly, is it hard to understand that kneeling instead of standing is not disrespectful of your country but of certain aspects of the way of running it.
...And if you are going to punish people for making a statement in such a gentle manner, then you seem to have forgotten both bible and constitution.
2
Clearly a violation of the First Amendment.
2
This is easy - the whole team and others who wish to take a knee or whatever during the national anthem should just remain in the locker rooms until it's over. Seems simple enough to me.
You cannot and should not require anyone to be patriotic or to show allegiance to a flag. This is political correctness gone amok. Just let everyone do what they wish as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. I never repeat the Pledge of Allegiance. I do not believe what it says. I do not sing the anthem. It is just a song that means little to me. I do not overtly pat respect to those in power. They have to earn my respect through their actions, not their position. Let's worry about more important issues.
2
Who is going to fine the NFL disrespecting the flag every time it’s carried onto the field horizontally?
I suggest the spectators kneel down. In fact, thinking about it, kneeling down on behalf of the players would be one reason for me to go to a game... :-)
2
Many good citizens of this country do not suffer from the illusion that the country is perfect. Demonstrating against the imperfections in the hope that improvements will follow is healthy. Barring the demonstrations is not.
3
I do not understand the outrage in these comments. No one in this world has a right to use their employer's business as a vehicle for advertising personal political views. NFL employees who want to protest still have every right to do so. But they are now required to do so on their own personal time, not during their employer's time.
But I also think the national anthem should not be played during football games, or at any other games for that matter. These are games, not civic events.
No employer has the right to force its workers to observe a patriotic ritual, akin to a loyalty oath, at the beginning of each business day.
Yet another First Amendment issue that will have to be resolved in the courts. I hope and expect the players to sue.
5
Ain't gonna work. Not even sure it's legal if really tested. I suspect more players will stay in the locker room. The issue will grow.
3
Football acts like the anthem goes back a hundred years. Teams on the field for it goes all the way back to 2009. It's a sport that would loose half it's audience if it wasn't for gambling.
How about don't play the anthem before games? How about keeping the military out of the stadium, don't fly Jets overhead as if we were in Red Square? If we didn't have a conservative activist Supreme Court, this issue of free speech would justly be settled and we could play ball.
2
The shock is that an all-American sports franchise such as the NFL is - took this long to lay down the law. Unbelievable that the requirement to stand during the American National Anthem was ever questioned at all, ever.
I hope the city councils of municipally-owned stadiums address this as an egregious violation and change ordinances accordingly.
Kneeling respectfully is a sign of respectful disagreement. Staying in the locker room plays out as sulking. The NFL owners have stacked the deck against peaceful, thoughtful civil protest. I stopped watching football years ago when the brain damage the game causes became clear (I also gave up watching hockey and rugby). Now I sort of wish I were still a fan, so that I could give it up as a protest against the NFL owners' action.
2
The NFL really should be addressing the poor treatment of cheerleaders rather than this distraction. Ironic that this decision comes at the same time that the First Amendment was upheld in another news story.
The NFL is a business and the games are a workplace. As an employer, the NFL can set workplace policies for its employees.
No employer has the right to force workers to observe patriotic rituals.
What other workplace requires its employee to stand for the national athem every morning?!?! Would you do it?!
I’ll not be watching any NFL football while this policy stands.
2
Perhaps the players should protest the loss of their free speech by ALL staying in the dressing room...
1
All should kneel and I mean all on the field and in the stands. If I went to NFL games I'd do it. I grew up Catholic and we know how to kneel!
2
So much for free speech in the “land of the free”. I stopped sitting for the National anthem 20 years ago when I first read the people’s history of the US. I haven’t been proud to be American since then and every day it gets worse. And before you tell me if I don’t like it here I should leave, I’m not going to make it that easy for you. This country has the capability to be awesome and I am going to keep fighting for it every day. That doesn’t mean I have to be forced into participating in patriotism to our current imperialist/facist government.
2
And seriously? The NFL is now a branch of the Trump empire? Is the NFL so dependent upon its alliance with the military that it does whatever the commander in chief wants?
cybear52 is correct in saying that it is hypocritical that only the players that need to attend during the anthem. The beer sales, food sales, bathrooms, all assorted hawking should cease for at least 5 min before and 5 min after to give due respect. Fans should be penalized for talking and not attending.
STRIKE TIME with the increasing role of this barbaric sport, the players hold rhe cards.
But instead of the subservient position of kneeling, go got turning towards the fans or remaining seated instead.
Considering what players are paid to turn their brains to scrambled eggs and provide bread and circus to the wealthy few who can afford tickets or buy advertising for the folks at home - which could die with a short tripod and telephoto lens - with games streamed onto the web, this is more a contractual than a First Amendment issue.
If players can still be ordered around anywhere near as much as their cheerleaders (thanks for a great series), this could really put the owners t the players’ mercy.
But a sport as foul as this, one step in violence above boxing, I wouldn’t mind the whole system collapsing.
Early brain damage is not worth a good pay day, and this brutality is pathetic and worthless except to low-lives willing to watch people risk their lives fie a good block or a KO.
3
I would expect that every person who agrees with these players take a knee themselves every day before starting their jobs. And please make it clear to your employers, your fellow employees and any members of the general public why you are doing this.
I would hope that each of you then make public exactly what you are going to do that day to end "injustice" in America.
If you choose not to do this, you are exhibiting an empty half-hardhearted "feeling good about yourself" charade.
1
Perhaps all the players should also sign a loyalty oath and praise him when they show the players on the field... those little heads where they go, "The Ohio State". Now they'll say, "MAGA TRUMP!"
1
I'm heartened to see that many comments identify the hypocrisy of a corporation and an administration that peddle patriotic hegemony for cultural profit.
Chris Long's message has the goods here...don't let the NFL owners cartel fool you...they love to wrap themselves in the flag with homages that cost nothing...but do the concession and merch sales stop during the anthem? Do the bathrooms stop flushing? Does TV forego the most lucrative ad time to regularly televise it (beyond such "controversy")?
I wish all professional media would do more to unearth some of the many veterans who recognize that their service is ultimately to defend this exercise of protest -- something that our state enemies and combatants would try to demean and destroy...just like the current President.
If such protest is muted, and not valorized and championed -- what honor is there in the national symbols or songs?
3
I've never seen so much unpatriotic sentiment! Why, is it, so bad to stand and salute the flag? If anything, they should be appreciative that they can live in a country that allows them them to make millions of dollars a year playing football. People serving in military don't make that much, and we are proud (I'm prior service) to salute the flag. I think the vast majority of Americans agree with me, and are proud of their country. The comments section in the NYTimes does not reflect America. And the people claiming they were veterans and support Kaepernick are disgusting, or liars.
1
No one is stopping you from saluting the flag.
If other people do not want to be forced to do so, that is their right, whether you or the majority you claim to speak for like it or not.
And BTW, they don't salute the flag at games. They are just forced to listen to a nauseating tune.
We were 17, completely young and stupid. We were on the verge of getting our draft cards in 1970. We painted a 1962 Chevy Impala in stars and stripes. Police pulled us over, sent us to court for flag desecration. The judge, after seeing photos, dismissed the charge, only saying "Nice paint job."
2
When protesting the Vietnam War in Indianapolis in 1970, I never disrespected the flag. Old adage: Hate your government; love your country (flag and anthem). Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Barabara,
Older adage: You get to chose whom and what you love.
A flag is just a piece of cloth. I don't worship symbols.
The 'solution' to this problem is to stop playing the anthem at sporting events, NOT ban protest. Football is entertainment, not some kind of 30's Nuremberg rally.
I am a veteran. I'm not in any conceivable way 'offended' by 'anthem-kneeling'. Actually, quite to the contrary. Blacks have been getting a raw deal through the entire history of this country. Still happens.
Cadet Bone Spurs needs to stifle himself, stop whining. Again, as a veteran, I am completely disgusted and offended by the fake patriotism of this fake patriot.
Have any of the NFL owners served in the military?
2
I will no longer watching or otherwise supporting the NFL!!!
2
I don't know ... aren't we supposed to have free speech? It can only be curtailed if there is danger ... like crying "fire"in a theater with no fire or pornography where there are pictures/film of children? I admire the players who have kneeled at games. Kneeling is also a sign of respect ... kneeling in church for example. And agent orange getting involved in this? Jeez ...protesting the killing of racial minorities is bad? Unbelievable. And SAD. Veterans groups not happy with the protesting players? I thought our soldiers fight for our values ... like free speech. Apparently only speech they approve of. That is really really SAD.
1
So football players will get fined for "disrespecting" the flag, but President Trump gets a pass for EVERY DAY disrespecting the Constitution ??!!
3
Disgusting! Shame on the NFL owners.
3
SHAME on NFL
2
Give the black power salute instead. Problem solved.
1
If the Nation Anthem is "standard protocol" for all sporting events, shouldn't it be the same for ALL public events? Play it a the Garden before a Lady Gaga concert? Before Phish invades for ten nights? The Metropolitan Opera? The Village Vanguard?
The NFL's punishment is just another bow to Trump and the sickness that he spreads. People can choose whether or not to stand for the anthem - there are much bigger problems in this country that need to be addressed (racial injustice, for one!). Silent protest is the least of our problems.
1
Something is wrong.
One third of pro football players develop severe brain injury and all people are concerned about is whether players stand for the anthem.
1
Come on, guys. Please be simple as that. Why are Americans making a fuss about standing up for the playing of the national anthem? Is that so difficult? If that is so, what else can you do? In fact, this shouldn't have been a problem at all. Come on, guess you have better things to do.
NFL owners-See you in court.
13
Clearly the owners have no right to express themselves. The 1st Amenment should not apply to them. Every business should be required to take courses in the evils of capitalism. That is justice and freedom.
Forcing players to observe a patriotic ritual is not the owners simply "expressing themselves."
Dictating what other people must do has nothing to do with the First Amendment.
I'm waiting for the NFL to mandate that team owners show their patriotism, by refraining from corrupting our democracy by giving money to politicians in exchange for undue influence.
24
Then sit down, lie down, turn your back, raise a fist, raise both fists, cover your eyes, etc., to mock the owners.
10
what more could anyone expect from a sport who's owners make millions upon millions of dollars off steroid and concussion addled players whilst extorting additional millions upon millions from local municipalities that pony up tax breaks and millions of their constituent's tax dollars to build massive stadiums that are good for a few years.
only in a banana republic like Trumperland are citizens required to stand and pay homage to our dear leader who might tweet you into oblivion if you do not do his adolescent bidding. let the games begin!
28
i hope the players association does one of two things: sues the owners for a violation of their right to protest peacefully or they strike until they are allowed to express their constitutional freedom of speech. i will go to games to kneel in the stands.
17
Why should the players sue? They will not be fined for kneeling. The team will be.
They will sue because the League's effect on the team may impel the owner to suspend the players.
This is a not blatant violation of freedom of expression. Throughout history government and their flags didn’t always represent righteousness. Anyone should have the right to protest. Sanctioning such expressions is a violation of the constitution. This new NFL ruling needs to be brought up to the Supreme Court.
10
As I recall, baseball owners began playing the national anthem in 1917 when America declared war on Germany. The idea, pushed by Woodrow Wilson was to drum up support for a war that he originally ran against and that most Americans opposed.
But Wall Street was looking at the prospect of losing billions in loans to Britain and France if they lost. So rather than make the world safe for democracy, we sacrificed life and limb to make money for the wealthy.
After the war, the idea of pushing a false patriotism continued. We played the anthem while denying blacks the right to play the games or in many cases even to attend them.
Today's use of the anthem is no better. We are supposed to stand, beer in hand and listen to the anthem while flags are improperly displayed and our tax dollars are wasted on jet fly-overs while reservists perform flag ceremonies.
We are told to honor our troops. But we aren't told why they are still occupying other countries after 16 years. In some cases we don't even know where they are, much less why. Why not honor them by bringing them home?
The player protest was always about the lack of equal protection under law that continues to be denied to so many African Americans. While the anthem says nothing about equality, the pledge of allegiance does and usually goes hand in hand with the anthem.
I hope that whole teams stay in the locker rooms. Then maybe we will have an adult conversation about when and where civic rituals like the anthem belong.
45
If taking a knee or raising a fist during playing of the national anthem at a sports event is disrespectful, so is whistling, shouting, shuffling around, eating, talking and otherwise ignoring the 2-minute so-called display of patriotism...by the fans, TV crew, off-screen network staff, and fat-cats hiding in the window boxes. Make EVERYONE stand at attention, quietly (no singing off-key). Even those who are unable to stand, or have no hand(s) to cover their heart or salute. And no t-shirts, caps, socks, underwear, head kerchiefs, etc made from US flags. The point is, of course, that disrepect of symbols of democracy is always subjective, and is too easily used as excuses to divide and ultimately destroy the democracy itself. In fact, such rules (enforced or not) makes us no different than the dictatorships and extremists we pray to eliminate.
165
" is disrespectful, so is whistling, shouting, shuffling around, eating, talking and otherwise ignoring the 2-minute so-called display of patriotism...by the fans, TV crew, off-screen network staff, and fat-cats hiding in the window boxes. "
CyBear 100% agree with you.That is equally disrespectful and unacceptable My kids shrink, as I have been known to tell strangers to be quiet, take their hat off. No matter where I am in the stadium, I stop and stand still. I feel like getting in a fight some days when I see people shuffling around. The Anthem is a moment to pay respect to this country that has given us our freedom, and the privileges we all enjoy. 2 minutes of our time is a pittance to give.
I'm not sure CyBear meant this as literally as you took it. It was more about the hypocrisy of it all.
How about in our living rooms, when the anthem is played? You think the president gets off the couch and faces the screen with his hand on his heart? I'd say likely not. He should probably leave the country.
You should stand and show respect if you want to. But why tell others what they should do?
That so-called disrespect of symbols that's bugging some nationalists gets to heart of this county's greatness. That freedom of expression is what the founders contemplated, 60s hippies tested and I was taught in high-school civic. My teachers said that, if you so elect, the anthem is just a song, the flag just a fabric swatch and our leaders just fools at times, as fallible and fumbling as every other human.
Trump's love-it-or-leave-it attitude is just reheated hyper-patriotism that is as intolerant as in the most anti-democratic nations. The president wants to kick out citizen-football players for kneeling down rather than standing up? That's the kind of thought-control that compelled nearly all our immigrants to flock here, including the forebearers of every person now claiming the right to limit the rights guaranteed us all. When you've got the leader of a country dictating values to others on penalty of expulsion, it's known as a dictatorship.
Donald Trump is born of immigrants. So is Colin Kaepernick. The two Americans could hardly be more different. But Trump has no more right to dictate to the football player than Kaepernick to the president. If Trump does it, so can Kaepernick.
I might like to see a real switch. Let's make loudmouth Donald play quarterback for a few Sundays, and Colin can run the country. The latter might fumble on policy, but the country can finally sleep well after 16 months, knowing our individual rights are again safe.
5
The question is not whether taking a knee is disrespectful or unpatriotic. In this context, it constitutes protest. The owners don't want their employees to protest on their nickel. An employer could conceivably feel that way even if they think the cause is worthwhile. I think Kaepernick et al. are using their employers as means to an end.
2
How about fans create a protest position (seating, kneeling, eyes closed, hands in the air) during the anthem in support of the players who can't?
9
I fully support taking the knee, but it's time for all of us who fear Trump's insidious erosion of our treasured, hard earned democracy to "Take the T." Here's how it goes: Stand erect, feet together, arms extended out straight out to each side with your hands giving the thumbs down sign. And to complete the symbolism, bow your head down in utter disgust and sorrow at what Trump is visiting upon our great country
12
Is there some rule that demands the National Anthem be played for sporting events? Don't play it--problem solved.
12
Sadly, the owners are doing this because a large part of the fan base have chosen to be offended by the kneelers rather than be open to what they are kneeling about.
16
Silence the critics. How dare anyone complain or express an opinion. After all ! this is America where free speech is law according to our Constitution. It seems in this era that is not really true...
5
The government can’t suppress speech. A corporation can insist on its representatives (in this case, the players) adhere to a certain standard.
I’m with the players on this, but it bothers me every time I see someone trot out the Constitution incorrectly.
2
I don't see too many comments about the fans who don't stand for the playing of the National Anthem. I suppose that getting a beer or four and some variation of a hot dog takes precedence over what passes for patriotism in the minds of many. Some commentators don't think anyone should be forced to stand for the Anthem. They are at least consistent.
I may be mistaken, but the hand over the heart is a recent requirement for respecting the National Anthem. It was the proper stance for the Pledge of Allegiance. When did that become part of the National Anthem observance? Maybe the (often) sunshine patriots (the men who enlisted in the National Guard to evade the Viet Nam battlefield or who had "other priorities" or "bone spurs," et.al.) got confused.
I'd prefer that sports be freed of all this phony political showmanship, including those expensive flyovers by fighter jets, which must cost the taxpayers a bundle. It's all too reminiscent of what the Soviets and other international menaces have practiced.
142
People outside the seating bowl are not expected to stand.
1
Harvey, I agree, with you, I don't need the anthem played before every game. Not sure what does it have to do with football or baseball etc. And if I am paying for the flyover, then no thanks. I do really like them, the give me a rush, but if my tax payer dollars are paying for that (I thought the home team that orders it pays for it?) then no thanks. as much as I enjoy them personally, I'd rather my tax dollars go elsewhere
FYI - I have seen beer and hot dog vendors stop what they are doing and put their hands over their heart respectfully and not sell food and drink while the anthem is played. and that usually gets everyone in line to do the same
First player to kneel in the face of these owners gets the Rosa Parks Spirit Award.
This only demonstrates how, when you get a rich and powerful enough cabal together, they can rig the rules to circumvent even the Constitution. Besides, America hasn't engaged in a justifiable war since WWII. Nobody's threatening our shores and actually never have since colonists first set foot on Plymouth Rock. I actually saw the videos.
3
I will not watch another NFL game until this policy is rescinded.
11
Why not address the police brutality issue and get rid of those who can't control themselves?
This is what Trump wants to cover up, by lying that the lowering of their heads and kneeling, is disrespecting the flag.
No, it is a sign of sorrow for what is allowed to go on in America.
Their speech is so truthful. It is 100% American.
But, like sunlight to a blood sucking vampire, Trump can't stand it.
Fire them, stifle them, lie about them, silence them.
This is Trump's sinister way.
Remember,.. "We The People" did not elect him.
There is still hope.
103
Yes kneeling has always been a sign of respect. Trump and his followers made up the idea that kneeling is disrespectful out of thin air.
Soon Trump will want all to kneel to him.
10
Isn’t kneeling another form of free speech?
12
If we want to get really American about this, we'll fine only the black players who kneel.
7
The NFL is run by a bunch of cowards
14
The simplest solution is to stop making the national anthem a part of ANY sporting event. If the players can't kneel, they should adopt another simple gesture that symbolizes the same problem. I think people who have a platform and an audience SHOULD make statements about our society's problems. Most of these players know a thing or two about oppression since they grew up Black in America. I've noticed a number of vets commenting here, that this isn't what they went to war for. I urge the players to continue using your platform to help America and the rest of us need to express our concerns for this through boycotts of NFL
78
SLD, I 100% respect our anthem just as I respect all the other countries in the world's anthems. I would never disrespect any anthem of any country I was in, or if it was played here (the Olympics, NHL when Canadian teams play) and our anthem deserves the same respect. Our anthem doesn't deserve any less respect regardless of what social issues are happening. Our country has problems but so does China. I will still stand quietly if their anthem is being played despite their human right violations. Police brutality is not a good enough reason or excuse to kneel.
That being said, long before this whole thing came about I was in favor of removing the anthem, because of the lack of respect shown. Long before Kapernick, I saw people eating, drinking, not taking their hats off, walking about, and it has always upset me. I have never seen the tie in with our anthem and a football game. So I'm with you, let's just drop it.
The NFL is now TrumpCountry and I'm not going there. I can read about SeaHawks in the paper. Boycott the NFL until they figure out how to be a rational business.
2
Personally, and as a veteran, I will boycott the NFL and it's advertisers.
16
OUTRAGEOUS! Take away the NFL's tax exempt status...
13
We rent a “microphone” to entertainers to entertain us. We are not interested in being lectured to by multi-millionaire actors, athletes, etc.
A poll last year showed 80% of viewers didn’t want politics to enter their viewing of athletic events, and NFL viewership has declined over the last 2 years. Hence, the owners changed this rule about kneeling for a political point. I wonder how many hysterical liberals who have posted here about what a travesty this decision is actually even watch football on TV.
The GOP now leads the Dems in the latest generic congressional poll-which means we voters are tiring of liberals becoming hysterical over EVERY decision that comes down they don’t agree with. That sound you hear is the blue wave disappearing...
1
@DanielMarcMD
Who is the "we" of whom you speak?
Who are "we voters"?
What poll do you refer to last year about 80% of viewers not wanting politics to enter their viewing of athletic events?
Have you not noticed that in the debased land of Trump and his supporters, everything is political? Everything centers around the narrow, ignorant view of what politics, government, and law is supposed to be in the world of Trump?
I am a voter, along with the 65,844,954 others (48.2% of total popular vote) who did NOT vote for Trump in 2016, when he received 62,979,879, or 46.1% of popular vote. WE are still here, still not sharing his -- or your -- attitudes, and we are still involved.
This would not be an issue of the NFL players were mostly white.
1
Time to take away their ‘non-profit’ status.
6
The article frequently mentions veterans who think kneeling is disrespectful, but not those who support the athletes' right to protest. Has the Times forgotten that it was a US Navy Seal who suggested Kaepernick protest by taking a knee in the first place? Veterans like me stopped watching the NFL because of its asinine response to players exercising their Constitutional rights, not because of anything the players have done.They talk about disrespecting our country, but ignore the fact that our country has disrespected people of color every day of their lives. It's things like this that make me embarrassed to be white. #veteranswithkaepernick
132
the soldiers fought for democracy, so the people have the right to protest and speak their mind,
you might like what people say, but you fought to give them that freedom
4
Thank you, Chris. I have seen several online comments through this whole charade of patriotism from vets who say they served to preserve Constitutional rights. You are not alone.
7
I too am a veteran married to a veteran. I continue to watch football as I like the game. No "favorite" team. The "problem" to me is that prior to the military using this as a recruitment tool, the players remained in the locker room until the dog and pony show was over, then they ran out onto the field.
"Army Special Forces veteran Nate Boyer has said that his conversations with Kaepernick influenced the former NFL player to kneel, rather than sit, during the anthem." I did not know this, but am glad he did.
As for fellow veterans that are upset/offended by this, it is your right. We all served to protect all the rights we all enjoy.
8
When will the NFL owners start fining the players that are abusing their partners? Or isn't that hitting their pocketbooks?
1
Billionaires Republican owners blatantly trying to kill First Amendment rights.
Republicans are the enemy of football. Who would’ve thought!
7
Well, well, another step on the road to total authoritarianism, or should I just call it Fascism. The entire team should kneel. Shouldn't that be considered one (mass) incident, one fine?
Actually, why is the National Anthem even played before a game? It's not a patriotic occasion. It is a commercial event where spectators drink beer and cheer for a bunch of highly paid gladiators to beat each other's brains out for their entertainment.
I worked for a university for many years and, along with others, did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance at the annual convocation because that event was also not a patriotic event and I felt unfairly trapped by the presumption that I had to stand and pretend to participate.
Players who feel entrapped by the owners using them in this way should be able to opt out of participation with no penalty.
81
Your comment is refreshing. You said what I have thought but could not put into words.
4
Margaret,
As of today, players can now opt out. As of the new rule, they can stay in the locker room, which is IMO a perfectly acceptable choice. I have no issue with that.
Why not just call it the result of stupid voters?
1
When I first saw a few players kneel and bow their heads, I honestly had no clue that that was considered disrespect toward the flag. I sometimes kneel and bow my head when I pray to God.
Also, when Trump said that John McCain is no hero and that he likes the ones who didn’t get captured, I immediately thought that was deep disrespect toward our POW’s . That also makes me wonder how Trump truly feels about our military who were killed or wounded in the line of battle.
79
Right on. Trump, who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War when the common man had to serve or go to jail, is the disgrace. And how many on those average young men who served their country patriotically where black citizens? How many African Americans served in WWII and came home to racism? Trump gets away with making these hurtful comments without repercussions. Trump's McCain comment just defies logic, common decency, and sense patriotism.
I too do not see kneeling as a disrespectful behavior. To the contrary, I see it as expressing sorrow. My hope is that we Americans will emerge from Trump's America a more thoughtful, less gullible, and more appreciative of former leaders. While I was not a supporter of G.W. Bush's policies, I truly respected him as a good husband, father, and citizen. Sadly, not so with our current president. Trump's daily behavior is detestable and worthy of criticism and yet his supporters keep cheering him on.
2
I like the ones that don’t have bone spurs.
3
Everyone wants to make this about the players right to protest. This is not the correct approach. Those players, like every American, have the right to protest. Not at work. What if the cashier at McDonalds punched in for work and then proceeded to tell their boss that they are going to take a knee to show their support against police brutality. The cashier would not have their job much longer. The bottom line is that these players are employees and if they do not like the policies of their employer they are free to go work somewhere else. When they are in uniform and on that field they are employees. I support their right to protest on their own time.
3
How many jobs require you to stand at attention while the National Anthem is played other than military service? Football players aren't soldiers. They do not work for the government. If they have to be there, they should be able to react as they wish, as any private citizen can do.
1
I have always found this taking a knee to be respectful. Why all the hate?
19
What a sad day for patriotism, when free speech is constrained, by the interests of big business.
25
One question from an ignorant man: why should an athletic team pay a fine because of how an employee of that team chooses to comport him-or-herself during the playing of a song?
11
because thet chose to impose that on themselves
If only parents would protect their sons from brain damage and influence their choice of sport to play. If they did that, the NFL would disappear by attrition. And the NFL deserves to disappear.
17
What happens if politically conservative players decide to protest the Special Council witch hunt if it starts to truly implicate their dear leader?
I have a partial season ticket package to Yankee games, for 2 years I haven’t been standing for the anthem. With fleet week starting and sailors given free tickets to games , tomorrow night if a military person takes issue with my behavior and my response is I’m protesting the way veterans are being treated, then what? Would that be acceptable to the right wing PC police? Make no mistake it exists and it’s nastier and more rigid than us so called “snowflakes”
5
The First Amendment, it's great until someone you don't like uses it, apparently.
So, professional football is a politics-free fantasy, except when it's draped in the flag, illuminated by red, white, and blue fireworks.
Oh, say can you see the obvious problem here?
12
Individual freedom of speech is a fundamental right. The NFL believes out is secondary to employment contacts. Odd how employment contracts are not in pour Bill of Rights.
4
Goodbye, NFL.
You've become a boring, bloated reality show advertising platform. During the occasional breaks from advertising, there are thrilling guest appearances from the likes of Mike Pence. I guess he's allowed to make his irrelevant personal statements, but black men aren't allowed to make theirs, even if done in a thoughtful and respectful way.
I feel sorry for the athletes, most of whom are probably destined for CTE. I'm sure their owners will take good care of them, with the piles of cash they've made with publicly funded stadiums. Do you ever feel like you've been cheated?
22
It would indeed be an instance of profound poetic justice for these weak kneed, sycophantic owners if, at the start of the 2018 NFL season, the Mueller Investigation coincidently released its report with conclusive findings that Trump and his cohorts did criminally conspire with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and also intentionally attempted to obstruct the investigation into Russian state meddling in those elections. What a sweet moment to behold!
9
Can't believe the NFL owners just couldn't let this go. If they had done nothing, a few players would have continued kneeling, and then fewer, a few might have done it indefinitely, but over time it would have turned into a bit of a who cares. Now, the owners have poured gasoline on a fire that was going out on its own. Fines? These guys are millionaires! So you fine me $10,000 per game? That's OK, that's $160,000 a year--and I'm making $5 million. So you're almost begging me to do it. OK, they say, I'll fine you $20,000 a game, until you learn your lesson!!! Where is this going? And what about the owners who are sympathetic, even if there's only one, who says, "OK the NFL says I must fine you, and so I will--my fine is five bucks." And of course President Trump weighs in, which he couldn't possibly keep from doing--so just more gas on the fire.
11
This is disappointing. The players have a right to protest and this is a very peaceful way to bring attention to a problem.
Turning your back is wrong which is what sometimes the NYPD does to the Mayor. I don't see many people complaining about that.
9
Dissect this situation any way you'd like but it really about this; people of color protested at a sporting event. Our President felt the need to weigh in and stifle that - and I'd venture to say, he's not all that offended by someone kneeling during the national anthem. It isn't about that. This is about some people in this country who are offended by people of color expressing their opinion on a national stage, and the NFL is bowing to those individuals. These same people probably believe we live in a post racist society and don't understand what the fuss is about, and why don't those players just take their checks? This isn't about being patriotic, because a patriotic person would respect an individual's right to hold a peaceful protest. Forcing allegiance isn't American and current events are making a mockery of the values this country was founded upon. Want it to be all about football again, fans? It's not all about football, I'm afraid, and people are dying.
8
This is the president who gleefully disparaged "political correctness" to the roar of his "base" at rallies. Yet he demands politically correct behavior by players (not fans?) during the playing of the national anthem. Question: Whose political correctness are we talking about?
12
So the same organization (the NFL) that makes a profit out of guys competing to sustain traumatic brain injuries now requires the same guys stand during the national anthem?
Stand at attention before you go out and batter your brains out!
9
While the flag code doesn't say you HAVE to stand during the anthem, it says you should. Therefore there is NO disrespect shown by kneeling or sitting. The flag code DOES say the flag SHALL NOT be displayed horizontally. So when 300 people carry a super sized flag onto the field, they are showing disrespect. When are you whiners going to complain about that. You would have a legitimate beef.
8
it alao says the flag should not be worn as a costume or part of clothing. So all those people with flags on their t-shirts are showing disrespect for the flag, not their patriotism. It also says "The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard". So all those businesses that use flags in their advertising during holidays, or all those knicknacks people buy are also disrespectful. Same for the millions of paper plates and napkins sold for the summer holidays.
I will no longer stand for the national anthem because Trump has now made me ashamed of the USA. He does not respect or uphold the Constitution, he disregards federal laws, and he encourages bigotry and hatred. The USA is no longer trusted by other countries, and is no longer a place that others look to as an example of democracy. And yes, I have left the country so no need to tell me to love it or leave it.
10
Forced Patriotism is not Patriotism. It's Communism; see China, North Korea and Russia. The NFL is a united banana republic with 32 autocrats and the fall guy is Roger with $42 million reasons a year to be the "bad" guy.
10
disrespecting the flag in any way is more accurate
1
Kaepernick's message was clear -- it was about racial injustice. And Kaepernick is the real thing -- he works for all kinds of causes to back up his message. Now folks are kneeling or holding hands or interlocking arms for solidarity without any greater cause. I don't care whether they keep doing it or not, but I have lost track of their message. Is it about racial injustice, Trump, the NFL, player solidarity or what? Kaepernick acted in the tradition of Carlos and Smith and sent a message he backed up. James Harrison, the third guy from the right in the Patriots picture , hates Gooddell and thinks that football has become soft, because of the "gays". He has also been arrested for sexual abuse. I wonder what he's protesting.
2
Let the players do what they want, sideline or locker room, owners will do what they will do if it hurts them, cut the players, maybe hurt their teams performance, lose games, it's their team/business. Do you think the cost per :30 second spot has gone down to air commercials in the games, no. Has it affected what the league collects from the networks for fees, no. Trump will be gone sometime in the next two years, the game is stronger then any one player or individual or even racist president.
NFLPA and players will be outfitted with hard helmets and wearable chains while Owners bow to Trump's exercise of authoritarianism.
2
Players, coaches, and staff should all kneel, all game, every game. Don’t play. Show the country how to lead by example.
4
News Flash: All white multimillionaire owners come up with cowardly compromise and pretend that African-Americans will shut up and play the game. Or, just forget and watch anyway. My God, the denial is stunning. I know we've always had this ugly strain of "America: Love It or Leave It", but it seems to have metastasized into a cancer. I truly hope the Player Assoc. fights this, and fights hard. If it comes to it, strike (another beautiful American tradition - wish someone would inform SCOTUS). I love America because no can tell me I HAVE to... And, BTW, players kneel at the suggestion of Nate Boyer, player and veteran.
5
NFL owners to players: You cannot express your First Amendment rights and when your brain and body is broken we will fight you in the courts with our army of corporate lawyers. I am done with this farce of a league. Give me the NBA any day.
8
Shame on the owners for banning non-violent respectful protest with their decision. Keeping protesting players in the locker room literally keeps them off the field and out of sight, cut off from participating in the national anthem. We should honor kneeling players commitment to truly patriotic values of peacefully expressing and "standing up" for justice.
8
Kneeling is a perfectly respectful way to protest. It's not as if the players were making obscene gestures or in any way insulting the anthem. It is the First Amendment right of all of us, all citizens, to express our opinions and beliefs without fear of reprisal. The N.F.L. is wrong.
5
I wonder if any NFL team owner could articulate the issues that the protesting players are trying to raise. I'm doubtful. Were I an NFL player under this new rule, during the anthem I would stand, bow my head, and say a prayer that the country might see beyond the marketing of "patriotism" and begin to address injustice in an honest and substantive way.
2
The players who remain in the locker room during our national anthem should stay there for the entire game. Who needs these players anyway. The players will soon learn that the teams can get along very well without them and soon they will be a distant memory.
If the players miss a certain amount of games by staying in the locker room, they should be dismissed and be replaced by players who respect the game. This new ruling could be put into their contracts so there would be no misunderstanding regarding the new rules. We would soon see a change in their behavior and they would be back on the field pronto ready to play. Money talks and they would not be willing to forfeit the millions in compensation that they are so used to receiving. They are not children and should not be treated as such. If they cannot act like grownups, they have no right playing this game.
What took so long to do the right thing??? I still won't watch!
1
in India you have to stand during the national anthem before reach movie. you can't even go out, they lock the doors.
to which some critics days: they can do that because we are not citizens, but subjects.
now we are subjects, too, at the football game.
1
How about a dance, a la The YMCA dance? Add some swimming in the swamp moves, and plugging of noses.
Not very reverential, but certainly entertaining.
‘the players demonstrating and taking real action to improve it.”
Is kneeling taking “real action” ? Unless the players are willing to sacrifice a paycheck or miss game through a boycott, the owners will never feel the burn enough to make any real changes.
This decision is cowardice at its highest by the NFL and team owners. For much of last season, President Trump influenced the narrative regarding players kneeling and expressing themselves, turning it into a live and devisive issue.
This decision reinforces that narrative proving that the NFL as an organization and team owners are nothing but spineless, fearful and only worried about the NFL's image and revenue.
I wonder whether on a practical level, this decision could cause resentment and divisions within football teams if some players elect to take to the field whilst others wait in the lockers.
2
Simple reaction for me: I won't be watching the NFL this year or ever.
6
This makes me so sad. I loved having my 9-yr old son see what freedom of speech & social activism looks like, even on the field, instead of hiding it in the locker rooms behind the corporate doors of white wealthy men.
4
What's the point of the National Anthem at a football game (or baseball or hockey or whatever) anyway? It is entertainment and shouldn't require an allegiance test or a celebration of our liberty struggle. Save that for Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, July 4th, etc. where it is relevant.
2
When the barbarians are at the gate, you can either run and hide, or fight. The feckless NFL owners are running and hiding. I won't be watching any NFL games any more.
3
Before too long the NFL will have to scrap the NA since many players will choose to stay in the locker room. But before that happens we have to see how the suit from the Players Union turns out.
1
Kneeling has forever been a gesture of respect. People kneel to pray, kneel to show deference. Fining for kneeling is absurd.
3
I'll go to a game and take a kneel. I totally agree with the players and feel that like many others, this has nothing to do with patriotism at all. Money, fear...
2
Quit playing the National Anthem and football games. Problem solved.
2
The policy decision that the NFL owners compromised on is for the benefit of the league as a whole, not just the management. If the NFL ratings continue their downward trend eventually the advertisers are logically going to insist that they pay lower fees, resulting in a lower bottom line for both the management and the players.
The First Amendment protects free speech but it doesn’t guarantee employment. The players can protest as much as they like but the owners/advertisers don’t have to pay for the valuable airtime to cover it. If the NFL Players Union feels that strongly about police brutality then they can place an advertisement/commercial and pay like everyone else.
If the majority of the players stay in the locker room like the vast number of commenters on this site want then they’re only dooming themselves and the NFL. The owners will be ok and invest their money in other business ventures. What would the players do without the NFL as we know it today?..
2
Free speech, Trump style: you're free to speak as long as you agree with DJT. If not, you get punished.
This is supposed to be making America great again?
5
The players are "required to show respect for the flag and the anthem.." I guess that means the kind of respect I always note at the athletic events--you know, like when the track winner grabs an American flag to wave over his head, then drags it along the ground, then uses it as a towel around his neck--while his supporters in the stands follow suit. This is not about respect. It's about money and power. Take a knee and you'll pay a price, but you'll be a man. Which is more than I can say for the president, vice president, and the NFL owners.
4
Hmm, owners of NFL teams: rich people. Rich people: republican, ultra consrttatives who want to protect their wealth at the cost of freedom of speech (and hence squelch it) and who probably feel the second amendment trumps (pun intended) the first.
I'd put forth a boycott of all NFL games going forward for two reasons. One, the suppression of freedom of speech and two, the ridiculousness of the game, costing lives all all over America for the benefit of the few and wealthy. Just take a look at the statistics on the brain damage done to children, teenagers and of course NFL players playing the game. It's a game that should no longer be played for many reasons. End it now.
4
The NFL is a business and the players through the good fortune of their talents become immensely wealthy. The NFL sees this as not angering their customers who pay high prices to see rich players being political. Fans want to see a game not a political side show. Keep your politics to your off duty time.
1
I'm terribly disappointed with the NFL with regards to this action. Bullying cowards -- just like the White House Occupant. I may tune in, but guys, I'll be taking a knee during the National Anthem, in my living room.
3
I'll take all of this flag business seriously when they quit printing paper plates and napkins with images of the flag.
4
I think it is time for the players union to go on strike until they get a comprehensive deal with ownership that fully take into account their first amendment rights and the fact of the racism most members of color have to deal with even as earners in the top 10% of American working people. Their position as football players gives them the platform they have to use to call attention to that racism and its ill effects on them and all minorities in America.
3
Too bad. Be great if the audience members took their hands off their cold hearts and kneeled. Or better, boycott the games.
2
I'm just a regular guy, and I fully expect that if I stage protests or otherwise promote my personal beliefs while representing my company in public then I will be asked to stop and if I persist, I will be fired. Just what is about being an NFL football player that affords them this liberty that few others have?
2
Dear NFL,
By pandering to the billionaire owners, you just lost the fans who actually support your sport. The vast majority of us support the player protests. You fell for the divisive propaganda of the divider-in-chief. Hope you're ready for the backlash. You picked the morally wrong side and will now pay the economic price.
8
I would very much enjoy seeing all players kneel in defiance of the NFL and the Liar-in-Chief, and their fans kneeling in solidarity with the players.
6
One word: good.
1
Taking a knee in athletics signifies that someone is injured on the field. Taking a knee during the anthem is a public gesture that signifies someone is injured in our country. It's something like flying the flag upside down to signify distress, which in no way disrespects the flag. Roger Goodell said today that the new policy, amounting to corporate speech, is more "balanced." No, it's the final solution to chill free speech. (And let us not pretend that NFL stadiums are not built with taxpayer money.) Staying in the locker room during the anthem does not at all provide balance and taking a knee in the locker room would be absurd. Imagine, if you will, John Carlos and Tommie Smith standing on a bench in the locker room raising their fists--which is where Olympic authorities would have had them. And they are today regarded as civil rights icons. The gesture must be public, which is why Colin Kaepernick does not have a job. So let's hear it for balance and the corporate idea that everything is all right with America.
85
You're right about Colin Kaepernick. I've always thought this situation is very basic and easily understandable. In the NFL and virtually every professional sport, it's all about the money. I believe the management of over half the teams in the NFL know the addition of Colin Kaepernick at QB would improve next season's team record. He is better than their number one QB.
The question is, what effect would signing Kaepernick today have on season ticket sales and filling empty seats on gameday? There are always people, (and probably more importantly companies), who are on the fence about whether to spend big dollars on tickets. Sure, some will say, "Colin will make us a winning team and I want to be there to see that." Unfortunately, many will have the attitude of Trump and do something else with these funds.
There is a way for Colin Kaepernick to get on an NFL roster. If the NFL would guarantee to pay the team owner for any losses of income incurred in the upcoming seasons compared to one just completed, he could join a team. This would include ticket sales, concession sales, stadium signage sales, royalties from souvenir sales, and any other income from all profit centers. Basically, the NFL would make up any difference in the coming years bottom line vs this year.
It's all about the $$$.
Shame and cowardice. I hope every player stays in the locker room.
2
The NFL is dead to me.
4
Welcome to the USSR...
3
I'm past the stupidity! I quit watching last year, cancelled my Sunday Ticket, and turned off the NFL channel, ESPN and any other sports channel that carries or mentions NFL Football. I don't ever plan on watching them again. All of this nonsense has come too little too late. They have the ability to express themselves as they care to because as a Vietnam vet I fought for their right to denigrate themselves as they wish. I also have the right to make my decisions and I made them as I said above.
3
So now the NFL is kneeling down to Trump's disrespect for the very thing the flag stands for?
How un-American.
Shame.
4
What an insane decision. RIP NFL
3
All this issue became a problem when the president started tweeting about it. Just heard someqqone saying on tv that Trump is just here to divide us and he is doing a great job. Anything he says becomes a debate and then you have one side attacking the other. It is just sad.. And this decision by the NFL proves it. It became a debate and now a problem. Some people are just great creating division. It is the new norm, just look at that crazy Alex Jones.. Trump is another Alex Jones plain and simple
2
Kneeling in church is considered respectful. So too should kneeling at a football field.
1
Let me get this straight. It's okay to watch these black boys play a contact sport and get concussions and other serious injuries but they better not peacefully protest racial inequality because it makes people uncomfortable? If they want to bring attention to racial inequality, they can do it in the locker room where no one can see them. The NFL is made up of predominantly black players and white team owners and is a perfect example of institutional racism in this country. #America
3
The fact most NFL players are black is not racism but it reflects their superior physical capacity, higher testosterone levels and overall better genetics. White players are on the average not as physically gifted. There is huge overlap with some white standouts but overall there is a difference. Acting on superior athletic ability is not racist. The fact all the owners are old white men suggests generations of tax arvantages, business advantages and legal advantages targeted to the benefit of the largely white 1%. And a lot of that is racist.
If you don't see this as one of the first assaults on the First Amendment by your president and his so-called patriotic cohorts, then guess what, America--you don't deserve your democracy!
3
Count me out as a viewer.
3
shut down the NFL now. boycott sponsors now. shut this down
4
Since when is kneeling a sign of disrespect? Anyone remember the Budweiser clydesdales kneeling before the NY skyline after 9/11. That was regarded as patriotic. Aren't you supposed to kneel before God? Now kneeling is a sign of disrespect? What nonsense.
2
The only sporting events I attend are baseball games. When the anthem is about to be played, I find my way to the concession stand and/or bathroom. Playing the anthem at sporting events is just a very stupid idea and does not lend to the entire experience in any way
1
And may the locker rooms be filled!!
4
One more reason the National Fascist League is fading into irrelevancy.
It's all about ratings and ad revenue. Patriotism isn't in the top ten.
4
The NFL is a racist organization, despite the fat that the vast majority of the players are African American. They are not concerned about equal rights for their players.
An example is Colin Kaepernick sitting idle while Tony Romo was QB for Dallas. Dak Prescott only became QB when Romo was injured. Otherwise, Dallas would have always had a white QB.
2
The solons who run the NFL obviously have never heard of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.
Here is a link:
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/319us624
Can't think of anything more democratic than peacefully protesting violence toward minorities and economic disparity.
Are we now living in a country of forced patriotic gestures?
Can they sit? Stand facing backwards? Lie on their abdomens? Stand on their heads?
I hope entire teams stay in the locker room for the anthem.
3
The craven attitude of the NFL owners to Trump's racism and hatred is reminds one of the prescience of Martin Niemöller's warning about tolerance in the face of evil:
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
If this tolerance and capitulation to bullying, falsehood and venal self-interest continues all that will remain will be the ashes of a once great democracy.
6
Luckily, baseball and basketball are during then, so goodbye NFL.
2
In today's daily dose of authoritarianism....
8
And how about all those so called patriots who finagled medical deferments to avoid the draft?
4
You know you're living in interesting times when you find yourself hoping the motivation is greed and not the owners caving to the hypernationalism being spouted from the bully pulpit.
4
In other words, the mostly white owners are telling the black football players and those who support them to go to the back of the locker room, where we can’t see you and need not pay any attention to you.
A pox on the NFL. I hope the players find a way to continue to express their free speech and we continue to hear them and the important issue they’ve raised.
4
Simple answer, the Star Spangled Banner is musically challenged and should not be the national anthem based upon American history. The song which made America the United States, and represents America and its values and musically puts the Star Spangled Banner to shame, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, should be the national anthem. A side advantage is it destroys the RE Lee hagiography, and puts front and center, America's greatest soldier, William Tecumseh Sherman.
1
The best way to protest this is for the Whole team to stay in locker room
2
This may be as great a manufactured issue as I can remember, and I've been remembering for a long time. TRump moved this issue from a peaceful protest about and understated demand for sensitivity tohe outrageous number of Black males who are unarmed and killed. From there, it morphed to Vito TRump's relentless capacity to guide roughly 30-35% of peep through the looking glass--it's at least psychedelic to a non-pathological spectator.
And probably psycho-pathological. And I hear a national smart person (a likable Republican on MSNBC) call the NFL's new policy a "compromise" to (a) the public and (b) for the players. As to the public, "they," the public, don't want this protesting--a questionable conclusion even in the aggregate. They want the game to begin. I agree, which leads to (b)--the players. They can be denigrated for staying in the locker room. Hmm. I want to see the game too? Either do the national anthem before the players get on the field or, better, just get rid of it: The GAME is I why you got my attention and $$. Deep Six all the politics.
3
We are a nation of protest, founded in on free opinions and ability to speak truth to power. I protest the NFL by no longer watch. I can't stand this covert repression of blacks. Enough racial repression.
3
I so hope this is illegal!
4
Hey, Donald, How’s That TaX ReTuRn coming along? We ALL just want to see it and make sure you’re doing your PATRIOTIC duty and paying your fair share in TAXES to the United States.
5
The No Fun and now No Freedom of Speech League.
1
Here's hoping that all teams choose to stay in the locker room during the playing of the anthem, as it used to be. To leave your teammates behind while you choose to go on the field is the opposite of what a good teammate should be doing.
This movement of the last 2 decades towards making sports a symbol of patriotism has to stop. Its rip roaring nationalism at its worst.
Maybe we should fine all fans that are buying beer or in the bathroom during the anthem. How about those that leave their hats on, or masks, or those that pay no attention and talk? Will the owners shut down concessions and restrooms during the anthem? Doubtful. Such hypocrisy!
2
They just poured gasoline on this. This sort of move tends to embolden people. I’m going to grab the popcorn.
2
Well, if waving the flag before a bunch of non-veterens play sports for extravagent sums of money is what passes for patriotism these days, I'll take a seat.
Patriotism can be misused as a cheap ploy to sell stuff, beyond 'traditional" Memorial Day sales (how crass, when you think about it). Commercials tied to sporting events often work in that veteran angle for warm/fuzzy effects: T-mobile is presently making a big deal about veteran discounts in a commercial aired during baseball games. Given that only 1-2% of Americans have actively served since 9-11 that is pretty clever marketing.
The DOD was paying MLB teams (such as the Atlanta Braves) to honor vets during broadcasts. How sad. Of all the pathetic ways to honor our country, using vets as patriotic props is disgusting.
I'll hang a flag off the porch on Mem Day in honor of those worthy of remembrance, including those who served with the two IRQ/AFG vets in my family.
Maybe I should hang it upside down.
2
The argument that “protests are offensive and pointless, why don’t we tackle meaningful change instead?” is circular. Protests occur because meaningful change hasn’t. By the time a group of people is publicly protesting, it’s because the levers of an unjust society have made it impossible for them to achieve their goals by other means. The “protests are offensive and self-indulgent” argument is an old
right-wing trope designed to deligitimize
people’s struggles.
and by the way— you’re not allowed to be “offended” by Colin Kaepernick unless you’ve NEVER used anthem time to take a leak & check Instagram.
3
How many NFL owners have fought for the US, in combat?
Or our 5 deferment military parade loving President.
We pay taxes to a corrupt, military-above-all-us system.
That's enough.
2
I hope the players start routinely kneeling after every scoring play. Just kneeling. No dancing, saluting, hopping into the stands. Just kneeling.
2
Watch the games. Make a list of advertisers. Write them to tell them you're boycotting their products. Attach a photo of a receipt showing you purchased their competitor's product. Tell them you will continue doing so until this racist and unpatriotic policy is removed. For forward-thinking companies like Nike and Starbucks, stop purchasing advertising time completely. Let your money do the kneeling.
3
I love football but will have nothing to do with the NFL. It's militarism and whitewashing of concussions and other injuries is bad enough but with the blackballing of Kaepernick and Eric Reid and now this idiotic ban on kneeling, it is just too much. The NFL bent over backwards to accommodate rightwing fans who were predictably whipped into a rage by Trump but it may end up losing other folks as well.
4
Maybe we should get politics out of sports altogether. Perhaps we should start each event with a rendition of RESPECT.(R-E-S-P-E-C-T!). Sitting, standing, kneeling or singing along is optional.
9
The NFL's position is political. I wonder how this edict affects the NFL's status as a 501 c 3. What do the attorneys among us think?
8
For me, the NFL team owners displayed cowardess and bigotry. Giving the players the options of standing “respectfully” (whatever that means) on the field or staying in the locker room is another way to repress political dissent. It would be like telling Rosa Parks that if she didn’t like sitting at the back of the bus she should have stayed home or taken a taxi. Or like saying you don’t need to be heterosexual as long as you stay behind the closed doors of your home and don’t come out in public.
While I am proud to be an Amercian, I stand but stopped reciting the National Anthem and putting my hand over my heart when Reagan was president. I felt that pledging allegiance at that time would have been endorsing the bigotry and hypocrisy that the Republican Party now exemplifies. It would have been compromising the respect I have for our country - but not our political leaders who I believed eve have NO respect for the Constitution or their constituents. I think NFL players who kneel express the same sentiment.
8
'...show respect for the flag and the anthem.'
How is this any different than people being forced to put their hand on a bible in court, and 'swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help me god'??
If people don't believe in nationalism, or religion or 'god', they should not be forced to pretend to do so, in order to retain their job, or in order to not be in 'violation of the courts'.
6
I stand with the players on this. The owners should be ashamed of themselves for acting unilaterally on this. It cannot help but cause problems. I hope that most of the players will stay off of the field during the anthem until this is changed. And at the same time will issue press releases in support of whatever issue they truly care about and want to do something about. Then they can stand holding the press release and some other type of symbol in support of their position once they come out after the anthem.
Rob Wheeler
6
Since when is the NFL exempt from the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Or has the self-styled supreme ruler granting such authority?
Or was this deviously designed to fine the teams so the owners will try to enforce the rule?
Reprehensible behavior that I hope will be reversed in the sure-to-be-filed lawsuit.
Who will take the initiative/obligation to grab this guy by the collar, pull him out of the White House, and say, “you’re fired!”?
4
To paraphrase someone more eloquent than me, "Make love a crime and men will lust." The action by the NFL make me wonder...make peaceful protest a crime, and men will ...?
3
I was done with football 2 years ago when this fracas started. Americans. both citizen and immigrant alike, both black, white, hispanic, asian, whatever, have died, DIED defending this nation and doing so under this flag. Not Honoring the flag is dishonoring all those who died for our freedoms.
3
The flag is a rag which means nothing if people are forced to honor it. i get it that you prefer empty displays to authentic freedom. But saying tjs to people died for it, only emphasizes that people can die for just about anything. Being killed by a train doesn’t make the train sacred. Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. Niger. Which freedoms are being protected?
1
Not honoring the freedoms, like the right for peaceful protest, is not honoring the flag.
4
Soldiers have fought and died to defend our freedoms, enshrined in our constitution. One of those freedoms is kneeling during the anthem. You don’t like it? Too bad...Welcome to America.
Before long players and the rest of us will have to stand and salute our dear supreme leader in addition to standing for the anthem.
7
Thank you NFL for giving me back my Thursday evenings, Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings back ... I'm out, consider it an individual boycott.
There is no need to watch a publicly subsidized league that revels in Billionaire owners/masters and their disposable employees. First it was sweeping CTE under the turf, then it was collusion to toss a leader/player that has the temerity to express his freedom of speech and now it is enforcing a league wide "policy" that conflates sports with patriotism because Putin's President calls them out.
I suspect most real patriots, including those that actually fought for the Country fully understand what they were fighting for, freedom. The chicken hawks such as Trump, Bolton and the "Freedom Caucus" know nothing of patriotism or freedom, they are merely opportunistic bloviators looking to flame divisions within the country.
I stand with Kaepernick and his supporters, who are real patriots.
14
Every player should kneel for every game. Free speech is not an assault on patriotism. It is a way for all, especially marginalized groups, to shout at the power managers, call out injustices, and demand change.
9
I love how the owners think the players won’t find other ways to protest. Do they actually think players read this and went “Can’t kneel?! Darn, now what do I do? Guess I’ll give up on this whole protest thing. I’m sure everyone’s got the message.”
How little they must think of their players and their voice.
9
There is no law requiring that the national anthem be sung before football or baseball games. Seems to be more of a tradition. They certainly don’t play the national anthem before movies, concerts or Broadway shows. Why not just stop with the national anthem at football and baseball games? That would solve the problem.
4
So the NFL kneels to a would-be dictator. One more reason to lose interest in football.
9
This decision may get me to finally stop watching football. Shame on the team owners for caving in to Trump.
7
Pay the fines out of the taxpayer $$$ that we had no say in giving them in the first place.
They should lose the tax exemption anyway. Time to move on from church and sports getting tax dollars. We need infrastructure and education addressed with tax money.
6
It's amazing to me how much we care about a song and a piece of cloth while caring so little about our fellow man. Instead of following the ideals of that flag and piece of cloth and banding together to recognize and remedy inequality and injustice we do exactly the opposite and continue in our recent tradition of desecrating the ideals that generation fought a king for.
6
We have been moving down this slippery slope for quite a while with 9/11 being the flash point. We now have naked jingoistic attitudes and expectations of our citizens toward the military, using soldiers as props.
We have even elevated first responders to some special status as there work is more important than everyone else's. it feels as though they are agents of the government now.
And recently a elected official suggested that teachers were part of a well armed militia.
We have always been a imperial power, now we are becoming a authoritarian imperial power.
5
Interestingly, if any of the players kneel, the team will be fined, not the players. Each team should designate one player each week to kneel and then each team can pay the weekly fine. If a team decides to fine the player who kneels, then every player on the team should contribute pro rata (based on their salary) to the fine. Then the league can donate all the collected fines at the end of the season to a charity that promotes freedom of speech and freedom of expression selected by the team with the highest percentage of filled seats at home games during the regular season. Why? Because the Bill of Rights is more important than standing at attention during the national anthem. Every country (including every dictatorship) in the world has a national anthem. Only one country in the world has the Bill of Rights.
Maybe this would raise the stature of the NFL back to where it used to be when it was an inspiration to American youth.
4
it may have been a legal and constitutional nonissue. until the head of the Executive Branch opened his mouth. and the deep involvement of the armed forces with NFL events. I hope the players challenge this beyond their contractual rights. this league-wide backlash in the face of government pressure begs the question of why the First Amendment exists.
4
Unfortunately, the football players union is not nearly as together or strong as the unions of baseball and basketball players. Partly that is the result of football not being as much predicated on star power as the others. When football players went on strike, no one noticed. If baseball and basketball players go on strike, the pushback from fans has been and would be huge.
The owners have basically said to the players, "Stay in the locker room." They should do that. Or, perhaps, stand with their helmets on, as that would make an even stronger statement and, it seems, is not prohibited. Hopefully, the players will stick together on this and understand this is no longer simply about free expression and discrimination but is now about their power versus that of the N.F.L. cartel.
2
Well, I'm not boycotting the NFL over the national anthem, which the TV networks skip by showing extra commercials anyway. If I boycott the NFL, it will be for a pure football reason, such as the Packers having had two of the greatest quarterbacks in history in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers and only winning two Super Bowls between them.
When I go to a game, I stand for the anthem regardless of what the players do, since I'm preoccupied with watching the flag, and at home, the TV networks skip the anthem anyway. This bickering is pointless.
Will someone please explain me why there is a need to play the national anthem before sporting events. I must confess, I don’t play it every night before dinner at home, only on Sundays. Am I a bad American?
3
If you do not like what NFL player's are doing don't watch them on tv or at the stadium. Apparently the bottom line was being affected,hence the new policy. When the revenue sharing is diminished even more ,the policy will become stricter.
1
To a classically trained, double-degreed musician, the most disrespectful thing about the performance of our national anthem at a sporting event is someone trying to sing their version of it without actually singing the melody as it is written. My only recourse is to mute the TV until they finish making the exercise all about them and not about the sentiments of the anthem.
2
So, when will it become against NFL policy for owners to deliver bags of money to politicians to get the tax breaks they want? Kaepernick lobbied the public in an open and honest way and did not try to buy influence.
4
Let's remember that the American Revolution began with a series of escalating protests, riots and destruction of property. The British punished protest severely, sometimes with gunfire. Read the Wikipedia entry "American Revolution" for an overview.
The Kaepernicks of that period are now called Patriots in America. The British called them traitors. We know their names: Paul Revere, John Adams, Sam Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many thousands more. They rebelled against a tyrant and gave their lives for their ideals: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....
Dissent is American. Protest is American. The protection of lives is American. Those who silence protest are the traitors.
10
The American flag and the anthem STAND FOR the right to speak one's mind freely. This move by the NFL owners shows they truly do not believe in one of the bedrock principles of the United States. The America I know can take honest criticism... as is being brought by some of the players of the NFL. What is cannot take is not allowing its citizens to freely voice their opinions and beliefs on all manner of issues. Any organization that cannot be self-critical, whether a football team or country, is doomed.
5
No longer can I naively believe that ANY individual on an NFL field during our anthem is there demonstrating free will of any form that I choose to support.
4
Commanding players to offer conventional outward signs of respect for the flag contradicts the very principles the flag stands for: the right to express dissent. There is nothing unpatriotic about it. What is unpatriotic is a president who uses very crude sentiment to stir division and mistrust between fellow Americans; that's disrespect.
4
Time for all the NFL players to be Spartacus. Come on guys, you have each other's back on the field and with the press. What could be more important than free speech, one of the most important parts of our democracy? If money is free speech according The Supremes, how can genuflecting in protest not be?
1
It's none of the NFL's business to pass rules like this. It denies a basic freedom of speech. Trump bullied the league into submission.
4
The NFL should stop using the national anthem and the military as marketing props. It cheapens both and there's very little respect involved.
5
I do not understand why this has become such a big deal. Taking the knee is not disrespectful, in fact, it shows respect for people who are being unfairly treated in our country. No players are accusing their team or their country per se, and certainly there is absolutely no reason to presume it disrespects the military. What taking a knee does is simply to acknowledge that bad things are happening daily all over the US and that we need to be aware of this and prevent these occurrences. What in the world is wrong with that? Does anyone think it is wrong for us to be reminded that many people, including sports figures themselves, are being labeled by their race in our society and take a disproportionate amount of rancor and violence simply because of their skin color. If people were kneeling to commemorate those who were ill or had died from a prevalent disease, no one would say a word against it.
4
Will they be fining the fans who also "disrespect" the whatever by not performing the proper ritual?
And will they then arrest those fans who interrupt the ritual by booing in protest of the protesters?
4
I guess this ruling forces fans who support such protest to kneel in the stands during the national anthem. I wonder what the NFL will do then - or what Trump will then demand.
4
What if zero players are there during the anthem?
4
This brouhaha has been fomented by Trump -- a notorious draft dodger, a man ignorant of Constitutional law, without basic understanding of what makes America great, and a most unpatriotic challenger of First Amendment freedoms,
He points his followers away from the path of a nation striving to be both great and good, towards a hypocritical show of "patriotism" consisting only in wrapping oneself in the flag, promoting the idea that we can ignore the obligation to actually defend our country in every way, during war and peace.
Attacks on news declared "faux" because critical of him, on members of the press, and all media that challenge him, buoyed by a complete disregard for truth; attacks on religious groups neither white or Christian, accompanied by false shows of piety; and disregarding the individual and collective right to peaceful protest, whether by speech, silence, kneeling, or a raised fist -- these are attributes of a man assaulting the very basis of our national greatness, our laws, and our way of life.
The national anthem is the work of a slave-holder; it did not become official until 1931, a century after its writing, and 40 previous failed attempts to gain Congressional approval. There is nothing sacred about it, and no American is obliged to stand for it, sing it, or "respect" it, especially in lieu of greater, deeper obligations to national values.
The flag, too, is only a symbol.
Trump himself symbolically tramples on everything it stands for.
4
If you aren't white in this country, you are treated like a second class citizen. And what better proof do we have other than a the sitting President, Donald Trump, who dodged the Vietnam draft with a little letter from his doctor.
Now, I get choked up when I hear the National Anthem. Maybe it is because a lot Ameican's lost their lives saving this country, and maybe I get choked up because of the pain this country is going through, being destroyed by the likes of Donald Trump. America is great, but not because of him.
I don't think the fans should have to listen to the National Anthem. "Play Ball."
5
Some of the richest people in America, NFL owners made a business decision. This has nothing to do with patriotism. I hope all the players unite and stay in the locker rooms. People despised the great Ali for his stand on Vietnam. He turned out to be a man ahead of his time. The same will be true for Mr Kapernick
202
I agree. The player would do well bu staying the locker room until the military's recruitment commercial/advertisement is over.
And SURPRISE! They’re just about all republican . . .
1
Trying to turn sporting events into some sort of patriotic, quasi-official-government-sponsored activities by playing our national anthem is silly. But, given the NFL's and other teams' actions in doing so, the players possess enhanced first amendment rights during the playing of the anthem. I support their taking a knee, raising a fist, turning their backs . . . .
The NFL's decision to squelch this right is one more reason not to watch football--the other being the NFL's willful blindness to, and complicity in, the severe brain damage players have suffered.
49
And all those supposedly patriotic men who don’t know enough to remove their hats? Will they be fined also?
23
When the US flag was created, my people were being sold, raped, chained, whipped, forced to work for FREE, separated from family, denied formal education, verbally abused, treated like animals, and much more. Today, after years of discrimination, racism, oppression, biased federal economic programs etc... we are STILL being treated as "other". These owners think that they can dictate and rule over the players for political and economic reasons. Well, it is now up to the players union to act as well as the players. #resist
37
Possibly, I'm in the opinion the owners care about $$. If the fans, media and WH didn't care about the kneeling, neither would the owners.
But fans are boycotting and viewership is down. So it's about the money, I think. And not just owners' money, player money too. Everyone would be impacted.
Kneel.
The history of the custom of standing for the "Star Spangled Banner" is brief. We are not talking centuries of tradition.
Historically, to honor someone or some thing, bowing the head while standing or taking to one knee, or both, was the usual posture affected.
The whole argument is ridiculous. As ridiculous as the buffoon in the White House.
31
China recently passed a law that required all fans at soccer games(football to the rest of the world) to stand for the Chinese anthem , and outlined punishments for people who do not “stand with respect” and “maintain a dignified bearing” in response to Hong Kong fans who protested the Chinese anthem.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/world/asia/hong-kong-china-national-a...
This is where were heading - China is setting the example for the US to follow.
There's no doubt the NFL caved to the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in this decision - "“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission"- Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots.
Little by little, day by day, our rights as citizens are being eroded in response to the biggest internal threat to our democracy ever.
30
I don't see how anyone can interpret kneeling as being anything other than supplication which the dictionary defines as "the action of asking or begging for something earnestly and humbly." And that, apparently, offends the NFL for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, but sending 300 pound plus men to ram into each other and pretend nothing will happen, that's A-OK. Sorry, NFL, I will not be paying for Sunday Ticket again this coming season, primarily because the league has not dealt realistically with the concussion issue, but the players who kneel, wherever they kneel, have my full support. Just wanted you to know why you're losing this fan.
18
How insulting. Players knelt to protest unjust beatings of people of color; it was never disrespecting the flag.
This is a racist decision. No other word for it.
It's not enough that Trump helped destroy the USFL. Thanks to his disruptive decisions and injecting himself into this controversy, he's helping dismantle the NFL, too.
I was brought up Catholic. Taking a knee has always been a sign of respect. Only a misguided racist like Donald Trump could turn it into something else altogether.
For me this is another reason NOT to watch the NFL, as the owners insist on turning legitimate peaceful protest into something it never was.
24
Field-sized flags, soldiers & sailors in uniform marching on field, flyovers, it's all because the military PAYS the NFL to showcase this. Yes, that's right. The military pays or it. It pays the NFL to advertise the armed forces, in no uncertain, shameless terms, and YOU and I also pay for it. It is taxpayer dollars that fund the military, and in turn, the money from the military that is paid to the NFL comes from all of us.
This military - business relationship is pure Fascism-Lite. Tastes great. Feels great. Easily accommodated.
More than $10 million went to the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and Major League Soccer. The Georgia Army National Guard paid the Atlanta Falcons $879,000 in fiscal years 2012 to 2015, and the Massachusetts Army National Guard paid the New England Patriots $700,000 in fiscal years 2012 to 2014.
This is nothing but paid patriotism. Like someone commented earlier, when your "patriotism" consists of worshiping a piece of cloth, you can be serious.
17
I'm wondering if those staying in the locker room will be kneeling...or if it's only a "public" opinion.
4
You can take a knee to the anthem, but only where no one will see you. I think the owners have just picked themselves an awful fight. One they'll lose.
11
Now that the NFL is so sanctimonious about the national anthem, show it on the TV broadcast in instead of the commercials that they normally air.
6
Who, for the love of all things decent, is President Donald J. Trump to accuse any American of not being a true patriot?
Here, we have a figure who daily uses the public purse as an ATM, the Executive Office as a portal for serving his family's own parochial business interests, and his campaign as an open gateway for hostile foreign sovereign powers. Here, we have a man who disparages the deep, authentic sacrifice of a true patriot in the time of war while declining, himself, to serve.
He has turned his high public office into a fetid cesspool of corrupt dysfunction. He routinely degrades the nation's constitutional traditions. Yet he has the audacious nerve, without debate or due process, to condemn football players who have the temerity peacefully to kneel in protest about the epidemic of police slaying of African-American citizens who dare to exist while black.
The nerve of this man is beyond any pale of decent comprehension. Who is he, of all people, to cast so much as a shadow of gratuitous spite on the patriotism of any other American?
33
Absolutely astonishing. The first salvo, my fellow Americans...
5
I don't recall the last time that any elitist in this country, whether of the government or from the private sector, did the decent and right thing for this country.
"Stay in the locker room"?
Really?
7
So Trump is Emperor Nero, fiddling with his Twitter account while the NFL burns. The NFL is failing anyway. They ignored CTE for as long as they could. They treat athletes like antebellum slaves forced to fight each other, the money aside, and most NFL players do not make all that much, especially given they last about 3-5 years average and are risking life and limb and brain. The players are infinitely more patriotic than Trump and all the scared little rich people afraid to cross him.
12
All the players should kneel in solidarity to show the dictator who now occupies our White House that this is unacceptable.
Or they could just stop playing the national anthem at games. It isn't even a good song, in my opinion. How about playing, "America the Beautiful" instead, and players can stand on a photo of Scott Pruitt.
15
Appalling that the owners caved to trumpism - that's what this really is. What's next? Saluting and pledging loyalty to trump? Patriotism is not using your bully pulpit at every opportunity to thwart the very rights that these individuals are expressing and that our military has fought and died for. Wake up people! Our rights are being chipped away by king trump. Another nail in the coffin of the constitution and democracy.
13
I've been feeling more and more guilty about watching football given the CTE issues. Now I'm finally motivated enough to walk away.
19
You took the words right out of my mouth.
1
Is meaningful change in the way law enforcement deals with minorities too much to ask?
15
Kneel, stand, sit, take a nap; who cares. My solution is to stop watching football. I watched football for entertainment, not social commentary. I will find something else to entertain myself.
3
Utterly symbolic politics for rich people.
2
They shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the locker room. Protest somewhere else on your own free time. Fine the players as well as the team for kneeling or any other gesture of disrespect to our country and our flag.
5
agree. Many employees aren't allowed to wear political buttons or t-shirts at work. It's disruptive in a place of business. NFL is a place of business.
4
The corner the NFL painted themselves into is that they haven't said "don't be political," as in your example.
In stead, their policy says "be political, say what we are saying" with such threat of force, that any action players and staff take are equally political.
“The problem we have is, we have a president who will use that as fodder to do his mission that I don’t feel is in the best interests of America,” said Robert K. Kraft, the Patriots owner and a longtime supporter of Trump’s. “It’s divisive and it’s horrible.”
This is the perfect example of a moral weakling....sees injustice and accommodates it rather than confronting it.
3
The players who kneel are heroes.
15
Boo. I had plenty of reasons to stop watching football but this one is the reason I’ll actually stop.
10
I just ordered my Jets sweatshirt.
3
There is more than one way to skin a cat. NFL players will find another / creative way to protest police brutality and American injustice. The world is watching and we've got your back.
11
Why should the players care if they're fined? It doesn't seem like they're motivated by money plus they have plenty of money.
If I played for the NFL and they fined me for kneeling I'd be like "Cool Story, bro"
2
Freedom of Speech, People! NFL blew it. I am so over the NFL!
11
Wow. My Eagles finally win the Super Bowl, and now the NFL is giving me a reason to stop being a fan of the league. I was already having misgivings due to the inadequate response of the league to the chronic brain injury problem, and now this absurdity.
I love the USA, because we have freedom. That includes the freedom to kneel.
One good thing might come of this botched-up response by the NFL: the superficial issue won't go away. Greater attention might now be focused on the underlying issue, racism. Perhaps some progress will be made as a result.
Who expresses the greater honor to the anthem of the land of the free: one who stands, coerced, or one who kneels, voluntarily, paying a price? I'm proud of the guys who stand, I'm no less proud of the guys who kneel.
11
So the owners demand fealty along with compelling players to injure sustain brain injuries too. Go soccer!
7
Art Rooney gets to decide what's disrespectful to the flag? I can guarantee that Tommie Smith and John Carlos did more for America than he ever did.
3
I cry for my country almost daily now since it seems more and more that we are living under a white nationalist autocratic regime. I was an 18 year old, white chick in 1968 and thought things were bad then but I am actually much more discouraged now. Those same kids who fought against the war are now old white men (and the women who support them) who are trying to have their last hurrah at the expense of our society.
3
Even in the Vietnam era, there were plenty of young people who thought the Kent State kids deserved to get shot, and who hated civil and women’s rights on principle. *Those* have become the crotchety old conservatives to whom you refer. My dad marched with Martin Luther King Jr and he hasn’t changed his commitments.
I salute him and his kind!
I guess the NFL "Owners" do not believe that the First Amendment applies to them.
5
Shame on the NFL for letting Trump bully it into supporting his demagogic position. He's only castigating the players to whip up fury among his base, and the league should have no part in it. If I were in the players' union I would advocate that all players kneel before every game.
I must say, though, that I admire the Jets' stand. They can amplify this message by signing Colin Kapernick--which given their recent record they should probably do anyway.
7
Protesting in the locker room where no one can see it is about as effective as me taking a knee in my living room.
1
I agree that must be that the NFL has in mind, but they have laid out a very clear landscape for political expression in the next season and we all know these rules now.
In the fall, staying in the locker room will deliver quite a message. But staying in the locker room would not be a signal of disappointment in our national social and racial inequities. And it would NOT be a protest against the nation, the troops, or veterans.
It would be an expression of the political will of those very players, on behalf of themselves and others under similar pressure, to be patriotic on their own terms. They have my support.
The NFL is dead wrong on this issue. If you think fining players and teams is somehow going to make this issue go away it's in for a rude awakening.
4
Using content-based restriction of free speech to “defuse the situation” sounds like a program of the government in Fahrenheit 451. Who’s advising these guys??!
3
I guess I'm a Jets fan now.
1
By the way, as we've gotten into the removal of statues of people who don't fit our 20th century values, why are all of us and especially African-Americans still expected to honor a song written by a slaveholder, Francis Scott Key. And the music was borrowed from an English drinking song, hardly an exalted origin.
5
This action seems to be the same as taking a 'loyalty oath' Are we next going to have players sign loyalty oaths? What about the fans that do not stand for the national anthem will they be removed from the stadium or fined. This whole thing smacks of totalitarian countries and is this where the NFL wants to go. Perhaps all the players will stay in the locker rooms or better yet the players will strike for the right to express their opinions by not standing for the Nat'l Anthem, that would be great since this seems like a violation of players constitutional rights. They are not just at the workplace when on the field they are at a public gathering since people pay for tickets and the games get played on TV and radio for free. There is something very wrong with telling people that they have to stand for a song. This seems like another racist ploy on the part of the league.
4
Why is a loyalty oath required to play football. Get rid of the national anthem before games. More indoctrination.
5
In the long term, another nail in the coffin for the NFL Players — keep on kneeling, in droves!
1
This is an easy fix. Stop playing the National Anthem before sporting events. Problem solved. I know what country I'm in when I go to an NFL game.
5
The military pays for various symbol of patriotism by sports team. Likewise, there was an article about how the Pentagon has profound influence on movie and TV production. How prescient Orwell's 1984 was....
3
If the original demonstration had been ignored by the league none of this would be happening. This has thrived on publicity. I personally have no problem with kneeling during the anthem. There is nothing inherently disrespectful about it. (If it's good enough for God...) But someone had to define it as such, and Americans, being easily outraged, made a mountain out of a molehill. Barbara Streisand Syndrome all over again.
1
This is not a free speech issue but it is a serious representation of what we value in this country. We used to value open dialogue, democracy, and we used to value the opinions of intelligent individuals with valuable insight. Now it's "shut up and dribble" or "Stand for the flag or I won't watch football!" Professional athletes are deeply involved in the community, many with their own organization made to educate, feed, shelter, or otherwise support troubled families and individuals. The NFL is sending a loud message that they want you to stop thinking and just buy their product. They won't be getting my dollar.
3
The arena is this arbitrary place where we are asked, for no real reason than 'cause, to stand for the anthem. We don't do it before most other public events, concerts, plays, films, most parades, many non arena sports, etc and etc.. Why? 'Cause we're a democracy. Republicans are always talking about slippery slopes. This might actually be one?
Maybe a simple solution would be for the networks to keep their cameras off the players durning the anthem. Crazy if we have to see people with a difference of opinion on how they show support for our nation and people in it.
I'm also curious if any players planned to kneel this year? Not that they don't still believe in the reasons but because that was last seasons thing. It if not it will look like they're standing because of the ban when that isn't the case.
3
One wonders what these supposed "fans" would think if they were required to stop and wait for the National Anthem before charging into Wal-Mart on Black Friday.
We'd hear a much different story if honoring the veterans meant missing out on an X-Box marked down by fifty percent.
4
Sounds like the NFL owners might be capitalists of the worst sort. Who are they pandering to by even performing the National Anthem at every football game. I must admit that when I hear the national anthem played whenever an American wins a gold medal at the Olympics, my chest swells with pride - even though I did nothing to earn it. But at every sporting event, at which we have thousands, I get no feeling at all but impatience in waiting for the contest to begin.
1
Where I come from, kneeling/genuflecting is considered a more respectful body position than standing. It's sitting that is considered disrespectful.
2
First of all, taking a knee is NOT disrespectful. Those who kneel are using their First Amendment right to point out that we still have a long way to go to fulfill our nation's promise of equality under the law. "Equality under the law" seems to me to be a higher goal than "pledging allegiance" to a flag, which is an expression of one-way loyalty, of the kind expected in authoritarian societies. Second, what is the connection between football and patriotism anyway? Third, why is it that discrimination and police brutality have NOT been addressed in this conversation??? NFL owners seem to like black bodies just fine as long as they can make a lot of money on them, but not when inconvenient truths are brought up.
4
Professional sports is entertainment. Would the national anthem be played before a movie or a play?
Kneeling is an act of humility, a peaceful visual gesture, a show of constitutionally-defined equal rights.
In 1788, "The first and most identifiable image of the 18th century abolitionist movement was a kneeling African man” (PBS) wrapped in chains, and engraved underneath the image are the words: “Am I Not A Man and A Brother?”
Lastly, African-American men are six percent of U.S. population, but 70 percent of NLF players. Without them there would be no NFL.
So instead of these wait-in-the-locker-room humiliation / penalty tactics, ban the national anthem entirely from the event. It was added to the NFL "program" as a recruiting ploy for the U.S. military, so ill-conceived from the start.
2
Beginning with the very first fine against any NFL team based on this new procedure, I will boycott all NFL games until this policy is disavowed by the league.
I hope that enough people have this reaction to bring a rapid end to this anti-American forced demonstration of phony patriotism.
1
The permanent decline of the NFL continues...
4
In regard to the NFL's actions, I'm reminded of Ambrose Bierce's definition of "Patriotism" in "The Devil's Dictionary".: "Samuel Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel. With all due respect to that learned but misguided personage, it is often the first."
I don't know why the National Anthem needs to be played before sporting events in the first place.
1
I can’t think of any situation in history where banning protests solved the problem.
4
Until 2009, the teams weren't even there when the anthem was played (PBS Newshour this evening). This is all "recent tradition".
If I were an NFL player I'd stay in the locker room, as they all did before 2009. But I'd do it as a protest. I hope they all do it, and return to the status quo ante.
As for me, I won't be watching NFL games as long as this policy is in effect.
1
So kneel. And thereby stand tall.
3
It would be incredible if all NFL players were to join in a unanimous knee during the National Anthem as a sign of solidarity against racism. The knee was too narrowly focused on police violence, we need to broaden the meaning and make it inclusive. All players of all races taking a stand like this would be a powerful statement of social transformation. Take a knee against racism!
1
We need new action on this issue, not the hardening of both sides against each other.
Colin Kaepernick had been sitting for weeks until a reporter noticed him sitting during the anthem. Asked about it, Kaepernick only then revealed his previously private reasons. He never intended it to be offensive or disrespectful, and on an individual level it was not. Now replicated over hundreds of participants, it has reached a new level and it is reasonable to see that one side regards it as disrespectful while the other side has a legitimate and serious issue.
Sadly, it's on the brink of becoming a flashpoint between players, owners and fans. For all the ill will that is now being stirred, here's the major flaw: kneeling is pointless. Kelly Clarkson implored us to do more than that "moment of silence" for shooting victims. The same reasoning applies here. Two years into this controversy, we need something bigger than just kneeling. Players, owners and fans should move onto something more tangible to protest police brutality and the treatment of black people than kneeling.
If people want to argue their right to protest vs. those who insist it is disrespectful, the resulting divisiveness will make us all losers in the long run. I say find something new, less controversial but more clearly directed towards the problem. Who could possibly protest wanting to be treated fairly?
46
I live in a NFL city. I understand why the NFL players are kneeling. But the message players & teams are trying to express is being lost in a political firestorm. This is backfiring because the players have chosen the wrong way & forum to register their protest. The fan loyalists have made that clear in everything from informal polls to loud protests & boos when the players kneel. Those loyalists are for the most part blue collar, middle class, football junkies who year in & year out, pack stadiums, plop down tens of millions for tickets, & assorted NFL paraphernalia. The fans call the shots. Their power is absolute. They view kneeling as sign of extreme disrespect. This has nothing to do with Trump. People would be just as upset if HRC was POTUS. The protests really aren't about racial justice anymore. They've become cheesy statements about unity. But keep it up & NFL fans will simply stop watching. When that happens what will have been accomplished? Nothing.
The NFL is a business...a business that offers entertainment. Anything that threatens the bottom line won't be tolerated. If this business were any business other than sports it wouldn't even be a conversation. The league is unequivocally on the side of the fans who are sick of and tired of the anthem protests. The players have lost this debate. They may not realize it yet but it was an epic blunder to alienate the people who pay your multi-million dollar salary. There's no more upside to continuing these protests.
7
I really appreciate your fair mindenness, but there's sadly an answer to the last question. Apparently the NFL owners protest wanting to be treated fairly. One need only to look at the league's treatment of women: pink everywhere for Breast Cancer Awareness, but tolerance of all but the most egregious (and filmed) instances of domestic violence and sexual assault, not to mention the NYTimes coverage of NFL cheerleaders.
7
I don't believe the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America is negotiable, nor can it be subordinated to interests of any sort, and that includes the NFL as a business. Once we start down that road the entire Bill of Rights will vanish! MAGA?
I played high school and college football and have been a coach for 20+ years. I love the game and use the lessons I learned to support and inspire the next generation of young men and women I have coached. Here is the lesson that the NFL is teaching us...Money talks, period. This is a sad day for this country and the game I love. Personal expression is a part of this country, but apparantly, the NFL has found that expression=bad ratings and loss of revenue. I for one am switching to soccer this fall. He shoots, he scores and the country loses!
11
We live in a free country. Denying people freedom of expression in so hopelessly an authoritarian a perspective of patriotism is plainly inane. We have fought wars to remain independent not repeat the rituals founded in societies in which kings and emperors are sovereigns. Protesting injustice during the national anthem is only offensive to those who don’t like the protests under any circumstances.
8
Somewhat sad. A good example of what happens when Truth speaks to Power. When they are players on the field, they are heroes. When they attempt to protest the way they are treated off the field, they are un-American.
Guess they better get use to saying 'Yes sir, Master, sir. I'll be a good boy and do as told sir. ' That should make the fans happy.
5
How many of the people who are so "offended" by this ruling are allowed to use their workplace for political events or actions?
2
But how many people have the national anthem at work, and have to stand for it?
8
Why do sports leagues require the performance of the national anthem before games? A sports event has nothing to do with patriotism. This controversy is much ado about nothing.
2
I went into a local sports bar a few weeks ago because wanted to watch a Cavs-Pacers Playoff game. This sports bar had dozens of screens covering the walls. They must have had on every single sporting event in the world, except one – Cavs and Pacers. But, it was biggest game going on. I kindly asked a waitress if I could watch the game. She said, “Um…hold on.” She walked up to the bartender and started whispering her ear. The bartender started glaring at me. Then, after a few moments, she walked over and put the game on a few screens. But, after that, they never asked me if I wanted something to drink or even if I wanted to sit down. They completely ignored me. I couldn’t understand why they were being so rude. So, I left and went to a different bar. It occurred to me that this bar is in white, rural America. I seriously think they were boycotting the NBA, because of the tensions between the league and Donald Trump. America is divided on everything, including sports. The NBA is for liberals and the NFL is for conservatives. This new rule by the NFL will only deepen that divide.
4
I'll keep kneeling during my kids' spots events. Pretty sure no one can prevent me from doing that. At least, not yet...
4
Since the colonists dumped tea in the harbor, the right to protest, the right to speak our truth, has been in the very fiber of who we are as Americans. Protest and free speech are the dance partners. The founders believed so strongly in our right to protest and the right to free speech they put was in the very first amendment. The only caveat is that it can not do conscious harm. Protest is public. It is done in a manner to draw attention to the cause; it is done to start dialogue. Colin Kaepernick has something to say. For him it is a vital, vibrant issue to which he wants to draw attention. He began by sitting during the national anthem. Then he realized that was disrespectful so he modified his form of protest to kneeling. He did not disrupt the anthem. He did not force people to listen to him. He quietly knelt with his head bowed much the way one might do in prayer. He was not disrespecting the flag. In fact he was doing the opposite: he was modeling our most sacred right. He was peacefuly protesting. He can not protest in the darkness of the dressing room. He must do it in the full light of day, in front of eyes and in the shadow of the symbol of the democracy -- the American flag. Kneel on Mr. Kaepernick. May you be joined by many.
4
Ok, that's the real end for me. A lifelong fan, I began to question the game when the CTE problem was more or less proven to be a result of the hits in the game but the NFL ownership and management did nothing about it. Fining players for exercising their first amendment rights shows the same kind of cold disregard and disrespect. Buh-bye, NFL. You can be replaced.
4
For those who write or say that the NFL is not part of the government can they tell me how else this multi billion dollar business can be ruled a "non-profit" organization ?
2
This is yet again another indication of the extent to which Trump will continue his path to full-on autocracy. To some, this might appear to be just about football. It's not. We'll someday reflect on the ways in which we watched each incident and event stack-up - from policy to popular culture - and perhaps ask a silly question: What happened to our democracy?
Again, this is not just about football.
3
The National Anthem isn't even American- it's a British drinking song that Francis Scott Key overheard during the War of 1812. You know what would be a great alternative protest? Sing the *actual* lyrics to the melody and see how proud people are of that. Maybe the NFL should just give people free beer instead.
1
Wow, I live in New England but may have to become a Jets fan!
I can only hope that the Kraft family follows the leadership shown by the Jets ownership.
3
I've been a Patriots fan for over 50 years and never thought I could ever think of following the Jets, but I have to agree with you whole heartedly.
2
Here is how the NFL players might take a stronger stand for Black lives matter. On each day this summer, NFL players should protest at a location where a black person was shot by a policeman. The players should coordinate their protest with the victim’s faimily, the media, and other interested people.
I believe the daily coverage will demonstrate how pervasive the injustices have been. Trump and his base will not be able to use the flag and patriotism as a distraction. This series of protests could be a game changer.
And, as many of your readers commented, the NFL owners have reduced my interest, even in the Packers.
1
I’m not going be be following any NFL Football this upcoming season. They’ve lost me now.
7
The last game I went to I was in the concession area while the anthem played. I was one of the few that stopped while most fans continued their business transactions, buying and drinking their beers, stuffing sausages into their mouths while simultaneously running to their sections via the concourse. I'm sure most of them are sanctimoniously agreeing with this ruling.
3
i don't know why singing the national anthem is a part of sports events anyway, except in the Olympics where the teams represent their countries. Two American teams playing a game has nothing to do with patriotism in my opinion and, in fact, cheapens patriotism.
1
Free speech bows down once again to the almighty dollar. The NFL doesn't care about patriotism (if they did, they would back their players in exercising their first-amendment rights) but I dare say they care a great deal about box office calculations.
3
The players should take the most cynical road possible: Kneel during the anthem - BUT IN A PRAYERFUL MANNER! Would the NFL possibly say, "there's no place for God in our game" or "Keep your religious beliefs to yourself"?
The NFL truly puts all that's wrong with this country on full display.
3
separate but equal.....sounds too familiar. And sure, this policy has nothing to do with protecting the wallets of the teams‘ owners and other financial concerns. Disappointing that they are bowing to Trump.
1
"All animals are equal but some are more equal than others."-Animal Farm by George Orwell
I hope a lot of the players stay in the locker room, and those who don't aren't cowed by the NFL and our so-called president. I hope they stand up and turn their backs on the flag.
2
I'll be boycotting the NFL and their sponsors until this action against free speech is rescinded.
4
Not standing *is* respecting the flag. It's one of the freedoms that banner stands for...
2
During the playing of our national anthem is not the venue in which to demonstrate your social grievances, the list of which is no doubt lengthy (if it weren't so-called "police brutality" it would be something else). These protests accomplish exactly nothing except to generate resentment among the viewers.
These stadiums are heavily publicly subsidized. Why aren’t these public forums?
2
These stadiums are paid for with taxpayer dollars. The television and computer networks used to broadcast the games are paid for with taxpayer dollars. Those are US military personnel out there on the field for the national anthem. That is the US flag, being desecrated on the field. The NFL is selling clothing with US flags, as if it were part of the government. Please don't tell me that these events are private.
1
NO ONE has desecrated the flag. That simply is false.
1
§ 8. Respect for flag
(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.
It's not a free speech issue at all, it's a workplace behavior issue. NFL players can say and do whatever they want on their own time, but not when they’re on the clock.
They have an absolute right to get a soapbox and stand on it to put forth their opinions in the town square. But they have no right to use someone else’s - their employer’s - soapbox.
45
if the NFL/OWNERS want to be treated like a private corporation they need to start paying like they are and also NOT accepting public funds to finance their stadiums
55
It's our soap box - our tax dollars build these stadiums. The TV audience never even gets to see the anthem. It would unconstitutional for any employer to request that you stand for the anthem.
51
While I think it shows profound cowardice by the owners and League, I agree with you.
The same can be said of legislators, school teachers and others who cry "religious liberty" when courts tell them they can't teach religion in the schools or erect a 10 Commandments monument on government property. You can do that on your own time, on your own property. Just don't commandeer government to promote your personal religious beliefs.
13
Does anyone remember Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District? High school students were wearing black arm bands to protest the war in Vietnam and, consequentially were suspended from school. The Court ruled that because this act by students did not disrupt the school's functioning and security, it was protected by the First Amendment.
Athletes kneeling in protest do not disrupt the National Anthem nor pose a security threat either. It is actually a very respectful protest. IT IS PROTECTED FREE SPEECH. This needs to go through the courts. How did we come to this place?
9
I never stand for the national anthem when I watch a game on TV at home nor do I put my hand over my heart. Is there something fundamentally different about the national anthem in one’s home that makes it OK to sit on the couch and munch nachos during the NA? And if one truly believes it is an affront to the flag not to stand during the NA, then there should be a lot of people standing in front of their TV’s during the NA. But during my life, I have never seen this happen. What am I missing here?
5
I missed the memo that said the flag represents the armed forces.
The flag represents our freedom. It doesn't belong to the military, politicians, or cops. It belongs to every, regardless of what you do or don't do.
6
Not sure what happened to my original post, so will try again. Fortunately the players have a Union to represent them -- unlike most of the U.S. workers. I don't think Trump should dictate anything, let alone this! Therefore, I am on the side of the players. SOMEBODY needs to stand up to him and apparently the Republicans don't have what it takes.
2
What the protesters don't appreciate is that they are fundamentally in show business, and their actions are hurting the show. I would argue that an NFL game is an entertainment stage, analogous to a movie set or Broadway stage. If a movie actor wants to protest during a scene, must the director be compelled to film it and include it in his production? Is a stage actor allowed to interject his own spoken lines of protest within a scene? Neither of these scenarios would be tolerated.
1
As a legal matter, the NFL undoubtedly has the right to do this.
But as I often say to my clients, just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean it's a good idea.
I applaud the owner of the Jets for standing by his players, whatever they decide. That's leadership.
4
I have often asked myself ... who owns the flag and the national anthem? It belongs to each and every citizen. Every citizen has an equal right to decide how to "address" the flag and national anthem. Although I personally feel it important to stand and respect the flag, I also realize and respect the right of every other citizen to do differently. I see this as a disrespectful imposition of one American's view on another.
2
Looks like I won't be buying anything made and sold by any of the advertisers of the NFL on TV, radio or the World Wide Web. I'm sure I will find enough things to do on Sunday afternoons and evenings not to miss the weekly spectacle, which, in any case, has been growing more objectionable year after year. I'll probably be happier and healthier as a result.
1
Federal laws permit employers to limit or prohibit political expression in the workplace. Many do this do prevent arguments from disrupting production or to avoid alienating customers.
1
I'm curious: what if the team simply refuses to pay the fine? Will someone go to jail? What if the players and owners say "take a hike?" What will the league do?
1
I think it was no accident that the Super Bowl winning team this year had an owner who listened to and supported his players. So my money's on the Jets and Christopher Johnson this season. J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets.
1
Funny,
The owners are trying to curb free speech and expression, what if the teams stay in their lockers - as required by the ‘new rule’ ?
Then it’s up to the fans to stand for the players.
2
This decision was based upon nothing other than the lucrative proceeds from the US Military that the NFL receives from them. The NFL takes in MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars that the military receives in their annual budget, and pays to the NFL in order to advertise the US Military. Everything from mandatory field-sized flags and honor guards at EVERY game, commercials during game time, flyovers, etc. Do you think the NFL allows these spectacles just to be nice, or out of some sort of guilt to civic duty?
There was pressure put directly on the NFL by the military and they were in danger of losing those millions. So, they, as most would, voted for their wallet.
I'm not supporting the decision. Just stating the obvious.
The NFL players are employees of the NFL teams. If their behavior is driving "customers" away then the league or individual teams can discipline or fire them, and while the decline in NFL viewership last season may have been due to several factors, the UBS Securities survey linked it primarily to the protests. It certainly detracted from the games for me, that's the last thing I wanted while trying to watch a sporting event. So I have no problem that Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid are free agents even if it's purely because of their kneeling. As I've heard so many times when conservative speakers are de-platformed - people are free to express themselves and to assume the consequences of their actions.
3
I guess these players cannot kneel because they are owned by the NFL. Sounds familiar.
3
Appears the NFL has made observing the anthem participants bigger then watching players in the game.
Good luck with that!
2
I do not agree nor appreciate anyone who kneels during the playing of the national anthem but I do support someone's right to do so, after all, the last time I checked, this was still the United States of America, land of the free and all that.
But I always wondered why the MEDIA chose to pan and scan the players who knelt during the national anthem. Perhaps if the media and their cameras were focused on the flag and only the flag during the entire anthem, then a basic compromise could be reached - players can kneel in protect and television viewers don't have to witness something he/she disagrees with.
2
When We are demanded to honor the flag, the very reason for doing so is lost and flag no longer represents those values for which we gave our honor and respect so freely. We are then showing loyalty to something else entirely.
2
I applaud this decision. The NFL is broadcast into schools, homes and workplace for entertainment. The field is a workplace for the players, not a location to present their particular viewpoints on political issues or patriotism. NFL owners realize this and players have options - follow the dictum or find another workplace that allows it. Playing in the NFL is not a right, it's a privilege that we the public and their employers grant them by our support or non support.
1
Get Lost, I don't know any schools that have sporting events broadcast in them, at least it never did when I went to school.
2
I don't understand the correlation between police brutality and kneeling during the national anthem. And football for that matter. Do the players participate in, and donate to, organizations that are working to remedy the problem of violence towards our citizens? Are they out in their communities working with activists?
I also feel that the military bent for the past 17 years in football,and the insistence on towing the line is inappropriate. So I don't watch anymore, enjoying Sundays out and about these days.
Can we have a list of the owners votes?
Maybe, just maybe it will reflect locally.
1
The NFL, on every issue that pertains to it - from this issue, to concussions, to cheerleader pay - seems determined to be on the wrong side of history.
Anyway, I tuned out that barbaric, over-produced, over-hyped game years ago and, as a result, I can now engage in positive activities on my Sunday afternoons, and Monday and Thursday evenings.
4
The national anthem has no place at sporting events. Forcing the players not to protest during the playing of the anthem is a violation of free speech. The greatest form of patriotism is the ability to protest when you feel that your country has veered off course. By playing the anthem the owners have politicized sports and that means that they not the players opened the door for the players to use it as an opportunity for political protest. If politics are too be kept out of sports then stop playing the anthem at sporting events.
257
They sing the national anthem before school starts. How do you feel about that?
1
I taught briefly in a Calif. elementary school -- no anthem and as far as I know, there hasn't been in years/decades.
I think Ami has a good idea about taking it out of sporting events. For the NFL, That would solved several issues. Patriotism to me is showing respect because I want to not because I have to (Think North Korea.) Secondly, We still have the 2018 season to work things out, 2019, 2020, ...
1
All fans are expected to remove their caps and stand while the anthem is being played before the game. Why can't we expect the same from the players? The players are paid employees (and paid very well) and should be expected to do their job without bringing their personal views to the game and shoving it down the throats of the fans who, in essence, pay their salaries. The owners have given the players the option of staying in the clubhouse while the anthem is playing. This should be enough for them. Can we not have a couple of hours a week when we don't need to deal with political protest. This is all becoming very tiring!
1
Protesting is an American right. Instead of griping about having see a protest that only lasts as long as the National Anthem... why not give a little thought as to why they are protesting in the first place.
2
There were really only two solutions:
- Ban the national anthem from all NFL games
- Ban the players, coaches, etc. from taking the field until the national anthem's conclusion
The NFL's "solution" will not end the protests.
3
No one prevents athletes from speaking their mind outside of their employment. It’s insane to expect an institution to accommodate dissenting messaging during the delivery of its product. No court would uphold it. If you object then don’t watch football.
If this rule stands then all employees in the stadium should stand at attention including vendors. No sales should take place at concession stands either.
Whenever I find myself in a situation where patriotism is forced upon me, whether it be the National Anthem or the equally odious Pledge of Allegiance I have an urgent need to use the rest room. When they're done, I'm done. That's how I handle that situation of forced patriotism. It has worked for me for years.
2
The NFL should do what it used to do before the Pentagon paid it to have its players on the field during the anthem: Have the players come onto the field after the national anthem is played. The requirement that players stand for the anthem is a reflection of the dramatic militarization of this country that has occurred since 9/11.
1
Unfortunately, the football players union is not nearly as together or strong as the unions of baseball and basketball players. Partly that is the result of football not being as much predicated on star power as the others. When football players went on strike, no one noticed. If baseball and basketball players go on strike, the pushback from fans has been and would be huge.
The owners have basically said to the players, "Stay in the locker room." They should do that. Or, perhaps, stand with their helmets on, as that would make an even stronger statement and, it seems, is not prohibited. Hopefully, the players will stick together on this and understand this is no longer simply about free expression and discrimination but is now about their power versus that of the N.F.L. cartel.
3
Err, what just happened to the first amendment? What happened to consulting the player’s union? Where is the freedom in this? Why play the national anthem in the first place? In domestic games in Europe and the UK the anthem is only played in international fixtures. Forced patriotism is not patriotism at all, it is oppression.
3
It's curious that many comments I've heard about this is that the NFL was worried about financial losses do to declining TV viewers and felt the players' protests may be the cause of this.
So essentially this has little to do with displays of patriotism and more to do with money and this is why they continue to play the national anthem at all.
Who woulda thunk that Colin Kaepernick's barely-noticed gesture starting at a pre-season game in 2016 would ripple through our society the way it has.
Two thoughts:
1) small efforts by an individual can have big effects in/on our society: don't give up, change-seekers.
2) I love this country.
1
It is a textbook first amendment issue.
By requiring players take the field for the national anthem, and by requiring them to stand, the NFL is simultaneously forcing them to take a political position while constraining their right of free expression. The anthem has absolutely nothing to do with their actual jobs - they're football players.
The constitution actually applies to the workplace, contrary to views expressed in this thread.
3
As long as the players get paid in US Dollars they should stand.
1
Like most issues, there are people who think the NFL decision is a good thing and some who think it’s a bad thing. But being a good or bad this isn’t the issue. The issue is whether it’s legal; whether it’s something the NFL can do. If it’s illegal then it’s being a good or bad idea is irrelevant, in the same way that whether, say, robbing a bank will get me more money isn’t a relevant consideration because robbing a bank isn’t a choice available to me simply because it’s illegal.
1
Although this issue has been grossly exaggerated and exploited by shameless politicians, it does seem that an employer, even one engaged in the entertainment business like the NFL, should have a right to demand that its employees engage in overtly political activity away from the workplace.
In that regard, it makes little difference that the players are high profile, highly compensated or that many are public figures in their own right. All of that notwithstanding, the NFL has been ham-fisted with this issue--if the league values and respects the players' legitimate right to comment on matters of racial and significant public interest, nothing stops the NFL from joining the players or giving them a separate public forum for expressing their political views on race or anything else, even if it asks them to do so away from their place of business. But if this is really an issue the players want to go to the mat on, they should simply stay in the locker room and just not take the field or only do so after a lengthy delay -- the players also have a myriad of ways to slow down the game or impair its competitiveness.
Doing something like that will force the issue and make it a collective bargaining issue pretty much immediately. The problem with these steps, as Kap's case shows, is that all players will not be affected equally, highly paid stars can ride out a stoppage or will be easily re-signed if released, that is not necessarily true for everyone on the roster.
1
While I'm sympathetic with Kaepernick's dilemma (if, that is, he's being blackballed from joining another NFL team), but as a lefty-liberal, I've been arguing that people can maintain positions and speak whatever they want — and employers are free not to hire them for it.
Freedom of speech is a two-way street. You can't support one side only; you have to support all sides.
I would expect to see a suit brought against this in the near future . Do NFL players leave their constitutional rights at the door to the stadium when they come to play. Kneeling during the playing of the national anthem is a form of speech and I don't believe that the NFL can abridge that right.
106
Why would players sue? They are not being fined, their team is. The hypocrisy of the rule is that the owners are happy to accept the fine (what's $5,000 to a billionaire) if it diffuses the controversy? It immunizes the players; allows them protest and creates the false impression that somebody is being "punished".
It's a scam.
2
You do not understand the right to free speech. Our government may not restrain it, but an employer can and does. If you don't believe it try offensive speech at work. You won't be there for long.
9
With Gorsuch on the Court, you can bet the players will be sacked for a loss.
3
So funny how our free speech "progressives" are fickle in what free speech they think should be allowed. They were all for the firing of the engineer at Google over his version of free speech, now they believe that football players should be allowed to disrespect the national anthem on the owners dime and on their time. The football player's actions lost tens of millions of $ for their employers. If they don't want to follow rules the employers make let them find other employment.
8
Let’s be clear. Professional athletes are not typical “employees”. They are performers, just like actors or musicians. No one has the right to tell them to raise their arm to the flag. If the team owners want to eat the fine when their players ignore this Orwellian rule, that’s their business. And this is different from using company email to perpetuate noncompliance with the corporate diversity policy.
Speech that is damaging and insulting to other people is not protected by the 1st Amendment. Have you ever heard of libel? "Fighting words?"
The arrogance of conservatives trying to cover up their hateful actions under the color of "free speech" is pretty disgusting.
What does it mean to show respect for the flag and the anthem? Does it mean to honor those ideals for which they are symbols?
5
The owners should be embarrassed that they ever took this issue. The players are not interfering at all with the ka-ching machine that is professional football. The least these men, who enable the incredible profits the owners reap, can expect is for the owners to respect a conscientious, non-violent action. Perhaps having done nothing but sit back and take the money impedes the owners' ability to understand what it means to have a conscience. As parents refuse to provide grist for the mill of a sport that indiscriminately uses up and spits out most of its players, the owners may start to appreciate that the people playing on their teams are the real bottom line.
6
Why play the National anthem before game anyway? it’s been said over and over again why they started doing it(Wikipedia). The TV networks never showed it until the players started kneeling. what about us the viewers am I supposed to get off my couch take off my hat and stand? if I’m sitting on my sofa wearing my hat am I being disrespectful? just play football that’s what without that’s what we want to see, no need for a national anthem before sporting event
11
The NFL owners who voted to fine players who kneel during the National Anthem have proven themselves to be as spineless as, and no better than Donald Trump. They cannot or choose not to see kneeling for what it is, A celebration of what the Flag stands for. It is a shout to the world, regardless of the words or actions themselves, that says " Look at me, I'm an American, and I can say and do this here and now."
Excuse me for being co corny.
11
Thanks NFL for sending a message that free speech is not tolerated by your players.
I will choose not to watch NFL games or purchase anything NFL related.
Hope you suffer as much as Papa John's pizza did for their comments and maybe the NFL will become an organization that White Supremacy groups support for muffling MOSTLY players of color with their KNEE.
12
Send a message to you black players. If the players were white, and shown solidarity with a supremacist hurt at a rally, Trump would have supported their free speech, there NFL and media would be outraged and then there would be no fine or a light slap on the wrist and move on. But protesting 450 years of racial repression and then repressing their right to protest?
Players kneel when other players are injured as a sign of respect. If you visit the pope or a monarch you are expected to kneel out of respect. When you pray to God, you kneel.
The idea that kneeling is a sign of disrespect was invented out of thin air by people who don't want attention drawn to institutional racism in police departments.
The Anthem and the Flag are important symbols of our Republic, but the Constitution is far more important.
The Constitution of the United States is the operating instructions of our system of our government.It defined the branches of government, and how they function The First Amendment protects freedom of speech. To claim that respectful speech, kneeling, is disrespectful to the National Anthem betrays a complete misunderstanding of both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution.
Too bad corporate media would rather let Republicans rewrite the Constitution based on political whims than hold then accountable to the plain meaning of our founding documents.
12
Not that I'm all that into football anyway, but I guess now I'm a Jets fan.
7
Me too!
the NFL should be ashamed, but they've got lots to be ashamed about.....they also support domestic violence. I have always loved football, but am tempted to not watch anymore. The flag is merely a symbol.....not standing for the anthem is free speech. It is so ironic that the president is trying to tear down our institutions of government, but cares so much about the flag. I guess that's why he served in the military. The NFL has wrapped itself in the flag for too many years....huge flags, jet flyovers....why? It's football, folks!
11
So, the NFL owners, whose teams are valued at billions of dollars, have willingly and knowingly chosen to violate a player's constitutional rights. I look forward to reading about the player's union lawsuit that results in them owning the NFL. That would be a good outcome.
The time has come to end the NFL billionaire's club.
1
Of all the stories in today's NYT, this one about football players has drawn the most comments. I can only conclude that this is because those commenting (1059 and counting) care more about football than, say, the Mueller Investigation (382 comments), a federal judge ruling that Trump can't block users on Twitter from criticizing him(313 comments), a new E.U. threat from Italy's populists (76 comments), and the families of Sandy Hook victims suing a conspiracy theorist for peddling bogus claims about this horrible tragedy (125 comments).
While I absolutely believe that the football teams' owners made a disgraceful decision, I do question the NYT readership's priorities.
1
I think people are commented out on Trump. It's been an exhausting year and the months with him.
The issue people are commenting about isn’t football. The issues of concern are freedom of speech, racial injustice and the apparent success of the president to bully and subject the NFL and its fan base to his viewpoint.
Let's put some realism into this issue. If you are in a work setting, whether at Verizon, IBM, Office Depot or Starbucks, how would things go if you spontaneously decided to stage a protest over racial matters? Your manager would tell you to stop it and go back to work. You're on work time in the workplace and the employer gets to tell you what is or is not allowed. There is nothing new here.
The same is true of the NFL and its' players. They are at work, in the workplace, and subject to the same controls (yes, subject to the CBA of course). Is it wrong to protest racial injustice? Absolutely not! But, unless otherwise allowed by your employer, do it on your own time and in your own place.
The NFL players are famous enough that they can easily generate publicity concerning their views on racial injustice. Instead, some have chosen to hijack their workplace setting for person reasons. The NFL, in my view, is free to ban conduct it deems inconsistent with its' product. If that offends you, don't watch; however, you should recognize and accept the NFL's right to make this decision.
8
What if your employer demanded you to stand while they played the national anthem at the start of each work day?
I’d say there would be grounds for excessive demands vis-a-vie labor laws
The barista at Starbucks isn't being watched by millions of people when making your latte. Get real, most people don't have a voice because no one is watching.
1
i support the kneeling players from day 1. if the NFL thinks this changes anything, what silly bit of hubris on the NFL side. an effective protest that would truly drive home to the fans is empty bench areas during the playing of the song. if the bench area is empty each week at some point the nay sayers of our public just might understand the right of these men and what they are actually protesting.
8
I wish I'd been a football fan, so that my refusing to watch from now on would have meaning. This almost makes me want to go to a game, just so I can kneel. How shameful, that showing both respect and disagreement -- which is what kneeling was, respectful disagreement, which is anyone's right -- should now be punished. We should all be kneeling about now...
More and more it feels to me that by watching the NFL we are no better than ancient white Romans who watched enslaved gladiators beat one another to death for entertainment. Between continuing to defend and promote the sport unchanged, even with the growing irrefutable research on CTE, and now the stripping of players’ ability to be people of conscience and use their platform for respectful protest of the monumental societal ill of systemic racism, the NFL owners and coaches have demonstrated that their only true motive is the great green dollar. It’s hard to justify watching anymore.
I had held out some hope that the NFL would support their players’ constitutional rights if not their health. I truly hope that this decision will only fuel the players’ determination to make their voices heard in other ways- fists up, locked arms, turned backs. And I do hope that players will show solidarity in their action, because regardless of whether you’re a player who wants to kneel, at the heart of it you’re an American who should very much care that the first amendment is being violated for your teammates. I’ve been called an optimistic idiot for lesser hopes, but I want to believe. If it doesn’t happen... well, I’ll have lots of hours free to do things other than watch football this fall.
2
The First Amendment has nothing to do with this. Here we are talking about private sector employees being directed by their employers to conform to certain norms. If the employees would rather move on and find other employment they’re free to do so....
2
I will not entertain professional football from now on.
3
About time. 360,000 mostly white northern soldiers died in the war to end slavery. Another 520,000 in WW1 and WW2 defending our freedoms.
The National Anthem honors those who died, the million plus who were grievously wounded and lived physically and often mentally broken. Refusing to stand is an act of self gratification, even a publicity stunt, and definitely an insult to those who sacrificed.
It's an insult to the country.
8
It's a song-originally a drinking song. Although Key's lyrics were about a war against the English, the composer was an Englishman.
It didn't become the national anthem until over 100 years later.
There is nothing sacred about it.
1
The NFL is being paid by the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting. The NFL is making lots of money and it is not patriotism. These new rules were adopted because of optics. The NFL Owners are being cowed by a 5 time draft dodger in the White House also. The first amendment is being muzzled. 2 war U.S. Army veteran in Iraq 1991 and 2004-2005.
2
That the NFL bows to Republican values, while utilizing the skills of Black Americans to make money hand over fist, makes me sick.
Professional Black players should pool their money and use it to keep young black players from signing up to the NFL. After a year, they will change their tune.
Remember how boycotting the bus system in Montgomery got things to change or how companies pulled out of North Carolina after enacted bathroom laws?
Money talks.
1
Good idea. And just where do you think the players are going to find jobs that pay what they now earn? Oh, wait. I forgot... NASA needs some more scientists...
1
How many speaking out for the players free speech rights (which they don’t have while on the job) were defending James Damore’s free speech rights at Google?
6
I have been indifferent to the kneeling - I don't think it really accomplishes anything meaningful. But given this edict -- If I were an NFL player, I would now definitely kneel during the anthem. I bet that many players will come onto the field and do just that.
1
The NFL has chosen to create a deeper divide between people of color and the country. This article should have been about how the NFL intends to address the concerns that cause them to kneel rather than pick a fight with those who do.
If they had worked with those who have a rightful concern for the treatment of blacks in America and came to an understanding of how to improve it, then maybe this article would be about the players who chose to stand and would not, believing action would be taken to improve the lives of blacks in America by the NFL.
Trump has created more division in this country on purpose than I have ever seen a president recklessly do.
Here’s some shocking news. The NFL is a business, not a social studies laboratory....
2
It seems a shame that kneeling must cost players money, but it's not much in the scheme of their salaries. I encourage them to take turns absorbing the fines, so that the kneeling protests may continue. Perhaps opposing teams could agree each game how many players will carry on the mission. The thing about this all--as with any capitalistic enterprise--is that it seeks to co-opt or abscond direct challenges to power. CK successfully brought attention to #BLM and police abuse. The issues remain; patriotism is a cop out and a way to stifle one of black Americans' most influential platforms for political speech while profiting from their talents.
As a former season ticket holder has watched a total of zero minutes of the NFL football since Kaepernick started taking a knee it is about time. This isn't a free speech or racial justice issue. It is purely a business issue. And after a year of declining viewership the owners of the business have finally stopped walking on eggshells and made a decision to try and save their 100 billion dollar franchise. I honestly haven't decided whether to start watching again, it is easy to find other things to do with that time on Sunday. Which just shows it's much easier to break something than to unbreak it.
5
Football used to be activity that allowed me to escape political nonsense, now not so much. I don't want to be subjected to the disrespect these players show to the flag and the national anthem, especially when I pay to watch. I have found more productive uses for my time and money.
So, by sheer force of will alone, Trump has won the day on the issue.
And the provision that let's them stay in the locker room during the anthem only plays further into Trump's "I, and I alone" narrative.
Watch. In 2018 names of players who stay in the locker room will be taken and made public and those players will face the same Trump flamethrower as the ones who kneeled last year.
How about this: Players should kneel during the anthem on both knees and say they are praying silently out of respect for the anthem. Then sue on religious discrimination grounds when they are fined.
Make that sword cut both ways.
Why is it acceptable for players to express their feelings by standing with their hand over their heart, but it is not acceptable for other players to express their feelings by kneeling? They are both just expressing their opinions. Why are the kneeling players denied their equal right to free expression?
There are many reasons to boycott the NFL, including brain injuries and mindless jingoism, as well as blatant discrimination and exploitation of the cheerleaders. This moves to the front of the line - the stifling of protest when there are lives at stake? Blatant free speech violations? This protest has nothing to do with the symbolism of the flag, and everything to do with police shooting unarmed Black men. I'd like to see them raise their voices even louder.
1
A real patriotic Veteran, not an odious mercenary enlisting/ killing for lifetime benefits package,would support protesters sincerely held beliefs.
2
Don’t like this decision? Turn it off.
I stopped watching the NFL regularly a few years ago, nixed the season tix too. Sports are emotionally addicting but you can break the habit... if this is important enough to you, that is.
2
Anytime it is made mandatory to "respect" some symbol, whether it be religious or patriotic or otherwise, and you are depriving and denying a person their personal independence of thought and enforcing a policy of group-think. This should be unacceptable in America. Anyone who wants to stand is free to do so, anyone who doesn't want to stand should not be forced to. The minute you start insisting that the next guy should kowtow to your views, no matter how noble and honorable you think they are, you are denying liberty.
2
What if the show of disrespect to the national anthem was due to some white supremacist cause? Would you still be so supportive of their free speech rights? The employers who are losing money due to the idiocy of these players have rights too. They have the right to make rules that stop players from disrespecting the national anthem on the employer's dime and on the employer's time.
Pretty much guarantee that if you lost your employer millions due to some political position you have you would be looking for other employment.
More old white men deciding things for young blacks and others with conscience who are outraged by their continued slaughter. Gross. I'm just about done with the NFL...It's going to be flag football in a decade or so anyways once the concussion thing really blows up.
The players have a right to Protest but the playing of the National Anthem is not that place.
2
Congratulations, citizen. The freedom to stand during the national anthem will now be mandatory. You will no longer be burdened by the decision of whether to stand. You will be free from opposing view points expressed in protest. You will have the liberty of not having ills of your society pointed out to you in uncomfortable ways. Long live Freedom. Long live Liberty. Glory to Our President.
God Bless America.
God Bless America.
God Bless America.
...
NFL might just be making a business decision. But the mentality of the "Americans" who demanded this is disturbing.
3
The better solution: no National Anthem at NFL games. No flyovers, no military escorts, etc. There's no national anthem at most workplaces, so why at a football game. Just skip the phony patriotism and play ball!
3
Does anyone think it looks patriotic to stand with your right hand on your chest above your left breast? That is not where your heart is. The national anthem should not be part of any sporting event. Actually, none of this matters much because football is losing its popularity faster than any other sport. Before it is gone for good, the only fans left will be the ones who claim to be patriots while they watch young black men damaging their brains for the fans' sick entertainment. They won't be interested in watching any protests. It might upset them.
2
The NFL is trying to define patriotism as flag-waving. Brings to mind: "The last refuge of a scondrel is patriotism", S Johnson.
At one time I enjoyed watching the games but the owners' callous disregard for the rights and display of disrespect for their players is another reason I'll be skipping the NFL this season.
This knee-JERK reaction was predictable after their failure to address CTE adequately.
So Long nfl. Don't let the door hit you.
222
Exactly! Disrespect for players disgusts modern fans. Pro football is now over, and college and high school football will be reformed to protect young people's brains.
6
I sometimes also kneel and bow my head when I pray to God. Does that mean that I’m disrespecting God?
By the way, regarding our soldiers who got killed in battle, they’re not heroes; I like the soldiers who didn’t get killed. Trump fans, do you think that is being disrespectful toward our military? Or not? (Remember who said something along those lines? I’m just trying to make a point here to the Trump fans.)
7
I was never a football fan, but now I am absolutely done with the NFL. The League has the opportunity to help make this a country where people WANT to stand when they hear the anthem. Instead, they seek to stifle dissent without even consulting the players. I'm disgusted by the owners' behavior and sincerely hope the players will unite in their opposition to this cowardly, inept, and unpatriotic decision. #boycottnfl
9
What happened to the First Amendment?
6
It's still there. The players won't ever be thrown in jail, they just may face a fine according to rules of their employer. The players were afforded way more leniency than most Americans. Any average American that used his/her workplace for political protests that disturbed the employer's business would have gotten fired in 2 seconds.
It's a private company. The owners have a right to fine them. Players will kneel and get fined. Some people have to wear a suit to work. McFly?!
3
I'm going to have a lot more free time on Sundays and a few weeknights.
7
I don't care if players kneel or stand upright or stand on their heads and spit out wooden nickels.
I do care that 1/3 of pro players develop severe brain injury.
Pro football is the modern day equivalent of the
lions /gladiators of the old Roman Empire.
When players kneel they should just be ignored.
Address the concerns they are protesting.
Ask the TV cameras not to show the players during the anthem.
5
How dare they? I would kneel next to these players if I could.
All players should quit the N.F. L. in protest.
I have been reading "Beloved" by Toni Morrison and am overcome with emotion at the brutality, not exceeded by the Nazi's, by whites against enslaved people. I am an senior citizen, white, and did not know the extent of the physical brutalities, the whipping of virtually all slaves, the psychological torment of not being willing to become attached to your child because they will be sold at maybe age 2 to 4, on and on and on....We owe these players a profound apology for the arrogant insult being levied against them.
5
If participating in the "show", on the field, is part of the employment contract, then the game is up.
Trump's fake patriotism, sold to solidify his base, wins.
Flag and Anthem (invariably the tools of despots) win over the ideals of your Constitution: freedom, justice, liberty for all...and, apparently, reminding, educating people of these ideals is a threat to the Nation.
8
Great news! Nothing says freedom like the forced recitation of a song, and being required to stand for it.
11
It is long overdue to end the playing of national anthems prior to the start of professional sporting events. In the NFL and NBA, the anthem had mostly stopped being broadcast on television (in favor of more ads) until player kneeling protests started making news.
5
Well, if CTE wasn't reason enough to quit watching, this one is. Premier League, here I come.
3
What if a player is a citizen of another country? What about a player who has dual citizenship? What about cheerleaders? Concessionaires and groundskeepers? All are employees. Will teams be fined if any one of them fails to stand?
3
Jackie Robinson, a veteran, couldn't bring himself to salute the flag after all he saw and suffered. That our society is still so racist, that we have progressed so little since the 50's, is not the players' fault and this abridgment of their first amendment rights is the most retrograde response possible, right in line with the NFL's other "values".
5
It looks like the owners have sided with cowardice, pretty disappointing. Football is on a downward trend, losing money and this will accelerate the downward spiral. Wrong decision owners, it's going to cost you more fans and more money due to the fact people vote with their wallets.
7
What about the drunks in the stands who continue to drink and run their mouths during the Anthem? Or those patriots who ware hats ,shirts, and shorts resembling the flag? What about those fans who can’t get off their backsides to stand for the Anthem? The players who kneel for the Anthem are showing more respect for it than these morons. Genuflection is a sign of deference.One only kneels to that which one respects. This may not be the players intention, but it can be easily construed as such by an objective observer. Plus what is the point of playing the Anthem at at a sporting event anyway,especially foot ball. Doing so simply relegates it’s to the point of banality.It is treated just like any other familiar tune.
6
In the land of the free certain silent behavior now will not be allowed during the playing of the national anthem. Those who disobey this rule will be vaporized.
3
What happened to freedom of expression? Is it possible to know what is in the minds of the players when they are kneeling? Meditation perhaps?
2
The irony is thick. “Patriotic” fans wearing the flag as a poncho, shirt, shorts, towel, and even soles on shoes complaining about a respectful kneel by players protesting injustice and inequality.
Demanding my adherence to something I choose to do is unpatriotic. When you demand my respect, you’ve lost it. Our veterans fought for this choice (regardless of their opinion about it). This decision is disrespectful to them, and any other American with an understanding and appreciation of the Constitution.
The NFL has lost my respect (not necessarily the players) and my interest has waned.
9
You have to stand when a judge enters a courtroom under peril of being fined and/or jailed for contempt of court. That has never been ruled unconstitutional regardless of how little one may actually think of the court, the judge, the laws, etc. You can “protest” by remaining seated, but at a cost.
Some standing is by custom as a demonstration public respect for an office holder, such as a president. No law requires it, though etiquette...and I quite confident that some outraged posters in here would have been practically apoplectic had such courtesy not been shown to President Obama, regardless of one’s politics.
Life is complicated sometimes.
4
It’s not an issue of etiquette when fines are involved. And of course, etiquette isn’t an issue where Trump is involved, because somehow none of his supporters ask him to respect an office, or military service, or the flag. Rather they cheer him the worse he gets.
1
I would rather see the kneeling during the National Anthem than burning down the cities. It is a peaceful protest. What I find repulsive is Trump never wore a uniform as many of his supporters but they are ready to get us in a nuclear war. In the past it has been the middle class kids and Democrats who sent their kids into battle. We must make it fair from now on if the GOP get us in a war there families need to fight also.
3
One day I hope to see everyone watching the game not stand. Send a message to say, the game is over, 1% have most of the wealth and the American dream is dead. Just name one thing the USA gives you for being a citizen.
3
So much for free speech and constitutional rights.
2
This shameful suppression of one’s right to freedom of speech is unAmerican. The NFL lost me forever as a supporter.
4
Interesting us of words by the commissioner that All rather any of our players are unpatriotic
To the point it is patriotism to stand against injustice and it is the owners, commissioner, and league that is unpatriotic. Not only will no longer do season tickets I will no longer watch or read about it
2
What if all white players, demonstrating support for their teammates and freedom of speech, chose to kneel, while all non-white payers stood with their hands over their hearts during the anthem? Would the fines still be levied?
5
“To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous, instead of a compulsory routine, is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.” – Robert Jackson
6
Exactly. How sincere can a ritual celebrating patriotism be if participation is mandatory?
Bye, bye First Amendment. It's been fun.
3
Don’t like it? STOP watching it for heaven’s sake! Everyone complains but then continues to support it. I stopped watching years ago and couldn’t care less about the NFL. Better ways to spend your days.
2
Will kids get fined for not saying the pledge of allegiance in school?
1
So let me get this straight. Instead of the NFL focusing on head injuries, possible CTE and other injuries sustained by former and current players, they are passing a policy to cater to donald trump? The white NFL owners caved to the white man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The same white man who wants a military parade to show what, American force? This is becoming quite scary that white, privileged older man feel its ok to tell over 80% of the NFL players how to act, how not to act! We want you on the field to give of your bodies, but if you want to peacefully protest, we want you to hide while doing that because the racist, xenophobic master they bow to in the people's house, the White House said it is unpatriotic. The same man who had bone spurs and refused to serve.
The protests have nothing to do with disrespect for those who served in the military. This flag, all stanzas of the national anthem mean something different to people who look like me and I hope there are players who will not sell their soul to continue to be a million dollar slave. The players earn millions while the owners rake in the billions and give money to support the causes of donald trump.
This is America!
4
Kneeling is not an act of disrespect. For millennia it has been seen as exactly the opposite. The players know this, as does every honest man in this world. People who loudly and repeatedly insist that kneeling is "disrespectful" are liars. Knowingly self-aware liars. People who howl that kneeling to the anthem is anti-military or anti-cop are propagandists, not patriots.
All patriotic Americans should now kneel at the sound of the national anthem. Everywhere. Every time.
Not necessarily in full support for BLM or the like, but to thwart the latest Big Lie. Problem is, most genuinely humble, patriotic Americans don't show up at NFL games in person anymore. They don't have the kind of money or clout for season tickets, and they rightly fear the snotty, plump, aging bullies who dominate the crowds at these events.
5
NFL players are arrested so often that USA Today actually has a NFL arrest database so you can see which one of your favorite players won't be playing today as he is behind bars. Strange how MLB, NBA and NHL players somehow avoid arrest on a regular basis. Pardon me if I don't care what these guys think about any social issues
2
Players should believe in their first amendment rights and show respect for our country. Solution: take a knee and hold a small US flag in your hand.
1
I guess the fans will have to take up the protests by kneeling in place of the players. Hopefully they will all kneel just outside the gates where they can keep the money they would have spent on those outrageous ticket prices.
4
2017 was the first year in which I did not watch one minute of football. I did not miss it one bit. Now with this new anti-American rule which is nothing more than a cave in to Trump, I have no intention of watching again. I would just ask The NY Times to quit all coverage of the NFL.
2
What a stupid, bigoted, un-American rule! So expressing your 1st Amendment rights is not showing 'respect for the flag'? But being a toady to a wannabe autocrat is? What a way to make the singing of the national anthem even more meaningless.
5
Google fires Damore...
NFL will discipline kneelers...
Try to keep your ideology consistent about how a company should treat an employee's right to self expression. If you take different views on these then you better be prepared to turn yourself into a partisan pretzel.
I stopped watching the NFL when the Jets gave a multimillion dollar job to guy who just got out of federal prison for torturing dogs. Now the NFL is saying we don't want black players protesting the fact that cops kill lots of black folks. Wow, what a product the NFL is marketing. Nice!
2
Pathetic. Since when has kneeling become disrespectful? I can think of a lot of much worse non-verbal communication.
So l guess the decision was to succumb to Mr. Trump’s short-sighted, demanding viewpoint. Some of his verbal communications are incredibly disrespectful, not to mention his scowling when he doesn’t get his way, even in the presence of US allies.
4
The owners, with an exception of one, are all white guys. They have decided that everyone they employ must act like a white guy to avoid offending the white guys. They claim this is nondiscriminatory and has nothing to do with race.
5
Let's see if I have this straight: I can refuse giving aid to a sick person if doing so compromises either my religious beliefs or my moral convictions but I can't kneel to protest blatant racism because...
6
So stupid, not to mention racist. These men are kneeling for their lives and all the young men of color who are being killed and beaten by police all over this country. Personally, I think they should strike. Or all the Black players not show up and see how far the game goes without men of color and their supporters.
7
Kneeling *is* showing respect for the flag and the anthem . . . and above all, for the constitution!
2
The majority of NFL owners are rich white men who extort the municipalities they operate in to build stadiums- at tax payer expense. They then employ workers whose careers are generally over in 3-5 years while destroying their bodies and minds. All this for a profit. Now the racist in the WH howls about disrespect- and the NFL caves. Money is more important than an athletes 1st amendment right. Let's eliminate the National Anthem before all sporting events, and maybe the words will mean something more to us.
3
This is a free country and there is no LAW requiring one to stand for the National Anthem. It is simply a tradition.
The hypocrisy in our nation today is staggering. The President LOVES to tare down traditional norms. Others do it, they receive his rage. Kneel if you wish!
4
I'm so sick of fake patriotism at sporting events. Save anthems for political functions where they belong and let sports be simply sports. Such silly American behaviour yet again!
5
Patriotic Holidays, Community Gatherings, Parades... Put music back in the schools so children can learn how to love their country with the positive feelings singing together creates. Music is now known to produce emotional responses in the brain that enhance learning, calm anxieties, promote friendly and caring relationships and more.
"Protect" freedom by denying it. Classic fascist move. And EXACTLY why the first amendment was written.
5
Maybe they should rename the NFL. Calling it the FFLOOWM (Fascist Football League Owned by Old White Men) would be far more accurate in terms of ethos.
3
That knock on the door, a sport's door no less, is called Fascism. Here I thought General Franco was dead and buried in Spain, turns out, he was just resting. All trump now needs is the uniform from his prep school...let out of course and a big old sash with a tin horn sword.
4
The NFL just lost me. A lifelong NY Giants fan, I am done. I served my country for over six years and what the NFL just did is threaten free speech.
I can see the end of the NFL from my computer... they really screwed the pooch on this one.
4
I hope that the teams playing against each other agree to kneel together....The NFL can afford the fines now that gambling has been allowed in every state in the Union.
Of course, kneeling is a moot point now that there's more $$$$ to be made.....People will watch the games because of betting, and not because of just for the joy of watching...something the NFL dreamed of getting since the beginning of time.....
Now they got it.
8
When the owners see their bottom line go to the cellar they will bend. Their bottom line is all they care about. I will rid my closet of any NFL item and find other things to do on Sundays during football season. It was a good run though...I truly believe the NFL has become a waste of time for me, as it seems the league is owned by Vegas. How many angles of a catch do we need? How many replays kill the momentum of drives? Pathetic. Count me in for kneeling at any anthem in the future.
18
This is easy. Stay in the locker room. National Anthems shouldn't be played at sports events anyway. Nor should God Bless America. Enough already.
26
Not that it matters, but I'm done with the NFL. I guess I'll go for walks on Sundays in the fall now.
I was already on the fence because I don't want NFL players' head injuries to be my entertainment. This just pushed me over. African American men are continually harassed -- and sometimes killed -- simply because of their skin color. These men, football players, have the right and the opportunity to protest their treatment by the people who are supposed to protect them. That it makes some snowflakes uncomfortable when a football player protests the treatment that African American men receive is the whole point. Snowflakes love to watch these men hurl their bodies into each other, but can't stand it when they kneel silently during the anthem. And the snowflakes won.
16
I now bow my head when the national anthem is played at sporting events. I'm ashamed of our country and the President that we elected. I'm considering remaining seated but, to be frank, fear for my safety with some of the lunatics out there. We all must work to drive Trumpism from our country. We are not safe and free until we do.
27
Yes to the safety part. Maybe they could encourage people to put their beers down too.
2
I’m on the fence now about attending a game now, but I will be contemplating sitting as well. In fact, I can’t imagine I could stand with these new rules intended to appease the president. I’m also concerned about safety but if someone wants to get into it then so be it. The majority of the owners are the worst of the worst. To the few owners who are standing up to this nonsense, thank you! At least the players won’t have to be or there for the—wait, why do we even play the anthem at sporting events?? I’m still waiting for my answer in that one. It couldn’t have anything to do with how in bed the NFL and the military complex are, could it???
1
Similar thoughts. I have been avoiding attending sports events because of this issue and wondered if others felt the same way Apparently so.
They must stand and show respect? Kneeling is not inherently disrespectful. Actually, thinking critically about your society is much more respectful than being blindly obedient. And now the owners are trying to force a display of what they see as patriotism, which is inherently undemocratic.
24
Today free speech died.
14
The NFL just doesn't get it. With their treatment of players (brain damage), cheerleaders (pimping), and now this - it's no wonder their ratings have been falling. For me (and probably plenty others), it's all a complete turnoff.
16