The fans will have the final say in the disrespect of America shown by the NFL and NBA players. We are voting with our feet and wallets.
4
When a bully goes after you it is startling and the ordinary person is instantly afraid. A psychopath like Trump takes advantage of the fear and goes in for the kill. He demands absolute submission. The bully takes no prisoners. Read Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” Once the bully has subjugated people, they lose their will to fight back and he has absolute power. On the other hand, all it takes is one person to stand up, speak out and talk back — even if they become a martyr like Kaepernick. Once the light is ignited it roars quickly into a fire. The bully is no match for one brave person — or Spanish speaking child who remembers her auntie’s phone number. Overcome your fear America (and Congress). Trump is a Know-Nothing president who has nothing going for him except fear. He will back off and even slink into the shadows if you will stand up and say “NO MORE!”
20
The fish rots from the head. Goodell is showing his cowardliness. There is a shocking lack of honor and decency in this as well as many other national organizations, and good on Silver for taking the high road without fear of retribution. No mention in the article, though, of the fact that the NBA has had a rule in place for years (ie- before Kaepernick) that players stand for the anthem, and no great outcry. My guess is the players don't mind b/c they are able and willing to speak their minds on and off the court. Free speech....hmmmm...what a concept.
4
Despite their sincerely held beliefs, when Colin Kaepernick and other National Football League players took a knee during the National Anthem at the start of the game they inadvertently changed the discussion. It was no longer about police brutality and on-going racism but about the meaning of the anthem and the nature of the country.
Something similar happened a generation ago when a handful of Soviet Jewry activists, determined to underscore the plight of Jews denied the right to emigrate, began wearing yellow stars reminiscent of those worn by Jews exterminated during the Holocaust. Suddenly the right of Soviet Jews to leave the Soviet Union became secondary to a heated debate about the appropriateness of the analogy. Holocaust survivors were offended by what they saw as both invidious and also disrespectful to the memory of those who perished. Others saw it as a distraction from the core issues. As one of my colleagues wrote, if the issue of Soviet Jewry is as pressing as the activists believe then it does not need comparisons to other events to make its case.
A modest proposal: An hour after the game, NFL players might organize an old-fashioned Teach-In on racism and police brutality outside the stadium where tailgate parties were held prior to the game. My guess is that there are even some owners who would willingly (maybe sighing with relief) co-sponsor the event.
6
How is it that a multi-thousand word article on the social justice differences between the NBA and the NFL fails to mention this important fact:
For decades, the NBA has had a rule in place about standing for the anthem.
In other words, the original trigger for the NFL protests- Colin Kaepernick's kneeling during the national anthem- would not be allowed in the NBA. Not in 2016, not in 2018.
6
Trump’s legacy will likely pair him up with Jefferson Davis as the two worst leaders in U.S. history. There are many parallels, including inflexibility, inconsistent and ineffective leadership, pandering to racists, appointing officials based on fealty rather than talent, and doing his best to divide the nation rather than unite it.
A hundred years from now, Trump will probably be revered by never-say-die supporters in the way that Davis is now, by many in the South. But those supporters will undoubtedly be dismissed by the vast majority of Americans, as Davis’s are now.
10
It is because the NFL has aligned itself with the military for so long whereas the NBA hasn't. Football is more gladiator-esque which fits in right in with the militarism. That choice has always made it more of a right-wing sport, for lack of a better term. I guess the NFL is dependent on military sponsorship/ads in the same way that Republican Congresspeople are dependent on NRA monies.
And to be clear, kneeling during the national anthem is NOT disrespectful. Telling people to shut up and play is.
9
The NFL is the only major league team sport in the world that doesn't have guaranteed contracts. Not only the NBA, but the NHL and top level European soccer leagues all have them. It's actually kind of bizarre that the NFL can sign a player to a contract that the player is forced to adhere to for the length of the term, but that the team can cut him at any time. I've never really understood how it can be legal as a matter of contract law.
25
So many misguided comments here. People forget: in the summer of 2016 during the preseason, Kaepernick's job was on the line, with the very real possibility that he would be demoted to second or third string, and a remote chance he might not even make the team that year. Then the protests started, and he became, at first, too much of a liability to get rid of, and then too much of a liability to keep.
I'm not questioning his intentions and motivations now. I think he sincerely believes in the consciousness he's raising. But he's not "paying a price" for it. His playing days were over two years ago. And the only "collusion" going on today is that he doesn't have the chops anymore to play at the NFL level, and he didn't have them two years ago.
The two things are not related.
8
The NBA has a rule concerning team conduct during the national anthem: "Players, coaches and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the National Anthem.” It’s unfortunate the article did not mention this, nor did it mention another key difference between the NBA and the NFL. The NBA protests and commentary have generally been targeted against a person (Trump) or incident or policy. The NFL anthem protest is easily perceived as one against the country as a whole and by association the military and veterans. While I respect what Kaepernick was trying to do, he could not have chosen a more decisive form of protest. And that has nothing to do with the NFL.
6
Good article exploring interesting differences between the leagues. However, it missed the key difference that allowed Trump to "pounce" on the NFL players: Kaepernick's decision to use the anthem as his protest platform. He could have had real success directing attention to issues of justice by just speaking out about those issues. His poor PR choice gave Trump the opening to turn the issue into one of "disrespecting the flag and military veterans." In effect, Trump "changed the channel" on Colin and issues of justice got lost in the noise. You don't see NBA players "taking a knee" during the anthem; yet they are making their points and being heard.
7
I hope that NFL players have taken the example of Colin Kaepernick to heart. The owners of the NFL have told the players that if they don't stay on the plantation, they will be punished.
The Black players (and any White players who care) need to take their humanity back. I call for a 'day of absence' (look it up). Let the owners see what happens when they don't have Black bodies to push around. The players might lose some money. Some might even lose their jobs. But they'll regain their self-respect and they might even discover that they have more power than they think.
A wise woman once said, 'it's better to die on your feet than live on you knees'. Black men in the NFL need to get off their knees.
11
This article has been thoroughly debunked and here is why: for all the research the author has allegedly done, what he does not reflect upon if NBA players and coaches would take a knee and disrespect the flag, the anthem and the military. The reaction would be visceral and immediately highly negative. If Lebrun James would turn away from the flag, his Twitter account followers would drop 35% overnight. Note that the NBA players won't do that for all their social activism because they know it is dynamite for them personally.
3
I'd be curious to know how many of our Uber Patriots, out there in viewer land, actually stand at attention, hat off, beer down, hand over heart and reverently, loudly, sing all the words of our anthem?! Whilst sitting at home, or in the bar, or neighbors garage/mancave?! I've never witnessed it. Usually it is time to refill and or hit the john.
But some how, that 1min. and 30sec. has turned into Donnie Dotard's national poutrage. With his band of deplorable dilettantes parroting his false nationalism and jingoism.
It really to bad, this effort to do everything but, talk about what is happening to many of our black citizens.
Do your thing Kaep. I cant kneel with you (two false knees), but I'd proudly stand by you.
Go Broncos!
15
I live in Australia. For the past number of years, I've purchased both the online packages of the NFL and NBA (my wife would divorce me if I picked up the MLB too!).
This year: I'm cancelling my subscription to the NFL (not like my constant renewal of the NY Times!).
I'm done with the NFL. Their blatant disregard for employee welfare, both health and financial; their disgusting use of the military for marketing purposes; and their spineless, jingoistic support for the tweeter-in-chief is all I can stand.
Basketball is truly global. And it's only a matter of time before the NFL goes the way of the dodo . . . and rugby union takes it's rightful place!
20
It's too late- Both the NFL and NBA target minority [black] kids as early as the 7th grade! How is that any different from parading African Slaves in South Carolina sea ports during the 1700's? Exploitation! Exploitation! Exploitation! This is already baked in the national cake - are all of us willing to become vegan? Doubt it!
1
Well, the African American players get paid, many handsomely. Their children aren't taken from them and sold on an auction block. I totally support them in whatever they do to protest racism and injustice, but their lives are significantly different than those of slaves.
8
Twenty two, mostly black young men giving up their bodies in tight formations under orders from middle aged, some borderline elderly, mostly white men.
What's there for middle-aged, some borderline elderly, white men not to love--and not to demand absolute fealty from those mostly black young men.
2
REALITY: the NFL player protests are not credible given the NBA player reactions I.e. the police are getting a bad rap
2
I’m curious as to why there’s no criticism of the black and white NFL players that don’t or haven’t kneeled or protested?
3
Trump is "The Mother of Dragons" to NFL owners so they "bend the knee"
3
Let's not make this more complicated than it is. Imagine a French professional soccer team decides to support a cause (pick a cause, any cause), and chooses to kneel during the playing of the French national anthem. Some percentage of French soccer fans would be appalled and would boycott the games. It is not about racism, social injustice or anything else. It is about showing disrespect towards the anthem and the flag...duh.
4
Any lessons from the LGBT community? Less than 8 years ago even Obama was ambivalent about legalizing gay marriage? What changed? I think it was the rich gay community entering politics and pumping money into the system. If the super-rich black athletes did the same, will we see a difference? Who will be the catalyst? Kolin K? LeBron? Steph? KD? Someone who will not fear losing advertising revenue?
2
All our sports have gone overboard in honoring military undertakings. In a crowd of 50,000, there are many who are not there to honor what happens at war. But almost all of us honor fallen soldiers. And almost all of us honor law-abiding poor blacks (as well as whites) who have lost their lives senselessly. I would call for a balance. Honor the families of both and send the message that the deaths of both heroes and senseless victims are worth remembering. Now I'm down with that.
2
Please ...NFL players. Consider this. Stand respectfully for the National Anthem. When it's over, keep standing quietly in the same position for one full minute. You'll get more unity, no anti-patriotism feedback, and your message will be clear.
5
The dynamics are different.
The NBA is driven by stars, almost all of whom are African American.
Although there are huge NFL stars, football is more of a team game with greater overhead, management, and coaches. In the NFL there is also a higher percentage of white players, and fans identifying more closely with them. (However, notice Howie Long's sons have protested also.)
Counting practice squad members, each NFL team has about 60 players. In the NBA there are 15 players active and inactive on a team. Hence, communication between players and management is quantitatively easier in the NBA.
Although very deleterious to the health, the NFL is still King Football, just about the biggest entertainment enterprise around. More people watch, and there is more money on the table in football. Super Bowl Sunday might as well be a national holiday. It's bigger than Easter. (Not for me.)
That said, Commissioner Silver has done a superior job communicating with his NBA players than Roger Goodell in the NFL. In the NBA, players and management have taken advantage of mutual interests to be on the same political page. It's a more healthy situation.
The NFL had been politicized by pregame military guards, flags, and foofaraw. That set the stage for conflict. The Dept of Defense pays the NFL several million $$ per year for this propaganda. General Dwight D. Eishenhower who inveighed against the military-industrial complex, must be rolling over in his grave
2
Wow, this article makes me wish I was a basketball fan instead of a football fan. Sadly, I've never been able to summon much interest in the hoops game. As for the NFL, I will not be watching anymore as long as the cowardly owners bow down to the Dotard. I will miss watching my Green Bay Packers, but we do have a league up here in Canada which has some pretty good football to watch if I need my fix. I realize that many NFL players give time, energy and money to very worthy causes, often behind the scenes, but I admire role models like LeBron James who speak out so forcefully against the injustices happening in society.
9
There are far more people in line for food, drinks, bathrooms, etc., or talking w/each other, or yelling at someone else, or trying to attract the attention of the TV cameras during the playing of the anthem than there are players taking a knee. If everyone should be standing at attention, hats off, & singing the anthem, then the cultural police railing against the protesting players ought to take a good look around them in the stands at all of the white people disrespecting the flag.
9
In the spirit of “Debate, not division,” a theory and a modest proposal: Middle-aged, obese white men tend to see the world as a constant state of war. They fetishize and identify with symbols that apotheosize physical strength, violence and death in the service of a satisfying, heroic yet team-based, life narrative. Painfully aware of their inability to compete against the growing number of stronger, harder-working brown people as individuals, either on the field or in the marketplace for labor, they naturally confuse football players with soldiers and see both as extensions of their manly, conformist pride slipping away. A modest proposal: an obligatory, mechanized Battle Royale league for all white males with a BMI above 30. Get Out meets The Purge meets Robot Wars. Fox News is the exclusive broadcast partner and deathblows are available for sponsorship naming. Oh, and the national anthem plays throughout.
1
It is ll about the bottom line and sponsors!! Based on 2016 estimates, the NFL’s value (74.8 billion) dwarfs the NBA ($37.4 billion) and MLB ($38.6 billion) combined!!
1
@REK :how does the NFL's 74.8B "dwarf" the NBAs and MLBs 76B combined ?
Your numbers, but my math.
2
Can't wait to see a handful of NFL players standing for the anthem, with 90% of them opting to stay in the locker room. THAT would be a sight, eh?
1
The wealthy NFL owners -often with the collusion, consent and/or indifference of fans--blackmailed needy cities to build their stupid, overpriced stadiums, hid information about the sport and concussions, looked the other way re domestic violence and players, can't figure out that the term "Redskins" is racist but they think the answer is preventing a silent, respectful protest during the anthem? The whole league is about exploitation: exploiting players, exploiting cheerleaders, exploiting fans. I grew up with football part of the community culture--high school, college and professional. It was part of the rhythm of the week during football season, Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. But now it just makes me sick. I hope the NFL completely fails. If it deserves to "live" as a sport, let it be revived by players who form player-owned cooperatives that address the above issues.
5
Excellent analysis and writing. I would also add that the differences between the NBA and NFL include the respective cultures and the totality of players and coaches that make up the two leagues. The two communities are clearly distinguishable. When it comes to social justice, American athletes and their fans span the entire political spectrum, but in the NFL a much higher percentage tend to be on the right
3
When I stand for the National Anthem, I am honoring the flag and the country it represents. It is a country that promotes the right to protest, that has written into its Constitution the right to free speech. I am honoring those who serve and who have served in the military to protect those rights. I do not stand to honor the President or the way he behaves. I watched teams sing their national anthems with vigor at the World Cup and was saddened by the lack of respect for our country.
6
What makes the two leagues different? The fan base.
Why are the fan bases different? The games are different.
Basketball takes place in arena that showcases the American Dream, that any person with drive and talent can rise to the top, and showcases some of the best virtues Americans are known for: teamwork along with individual achievement and non-stop good sportsmanship. Despite the fast play with likelihood of injury and fouls, when there is a foul the game goes on after a short free throw or timeout.
Football takes place on a battlefield where the players, beefed out with armor, take orders and don't call the shots.
In both sports winning a team has become a badge of financial achievement for the owners, but the fans of basketball still seek the intimacy of a small arena to witness the game. Football fans tailgate, party drunk, and brawl after. The sport is unworthy of a fine person like Colin Kaepernick.
18
Maybe someone who got multiple deferments because of "bone spurs" on some foot (he can't recall which one)
"shouldn't stay in the country."
31
I'm looking forward to the NFL season to see if any players exercise their right of freedom of speech. Will the players union support those players? Will the older, more secure players lead the way? The owners get fined for the players' actions? There are so many mares' nests, the lawyers may be the only winners. What will the stars do?
1
Football has always been far more conservative, and remains that way. Take a look at college football - it dominates the entire south. Whereas college basketball is much more of a east coast, and midwestern type of phenomenon.
4
If Colin would have just spoken out about social injustice rather than dragged the national anthem into his protest, he would have had the same impact, and would have received the same response, as the NBA players. Don't over-think it.
7
Barely thinking about it all, it's obvious to me that he would not have had the same impact.
9
The anthem controversy is a harbinger of the inevitable decline of the NFL. Five years from now, we will be sitting around saying, "How did the the NFL owners ever think they could get away with controlling what their players do?" Ten years from now, we will be sitting around saying, "What ever happened to the NFL?"
25
I think in ten more years its more likely that we will say, "whatever happened to Donald Trump?".
1
The issue of whether pro football players stand or kneel or sleep during the Star Spangled Banner is of pitifully small importance compared to that game’s scientifically proven, legally accepted, deadly and tragic consequences. Fans are still in deep denial about the life-destroying and -shortening effects of constant collisions (concussions being the most visible, but not the most important, contributor to these, as has been shown).
The letters here passingly refer to any of this, even as additional 100’s or 1000’s of the players they watch even now are dooming themselves to an awful fate.
This anthem ‘controversy’ is ridiculous in light of this.
Anyway, the Anthem, I have read, only became a pre-game ritual during WWII, before baseball games. It’s too bad ‘normalcy’ didn’t return with VJ-Day. This practice should have nothing to do with these entertainments, or put the other way, why isn’t the Anthem played before every sitcom, crime drama or Broadway show?
These sports games are just as much entertainments, and are big profit-making ones.
Fetishizing the Anthem and Flag at games is not the same as patriotism. It’s really quite frankly a cheapening of true patriotic feeling and expression.
There’s nothing wrong with entertainments for profit! There is something sad about entwining them with ‘more-patriotic-than-thou’ fights, especially when profit-over-sanity issues of health, life and death are unfortunately overshadowed by it all.
59
I would have stopped after the first paragraph. The lure of the money is too great for most players to consider that every hit to the head - a practice the NFL refuses to penalize or stop - can eventually result in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It was even more tragic how the NFL was in complete denial about it, then grungingly paid as little as possible - and still tries to hold up payments to this day. What you take away from the whole thing are owners who are about as forthcoming as Trump and just as emotially absent. It really is a lousy way to make a living and most certainly not worth the risks - you know, the ones owners, coaches and fans don't want to hear.
11
Compared to other sports, football is tame. Watch pro surfing for any length of time and there will be a shark attack (if not two) or someone will snap their neck and die. Its a truly brutal sport.
Or take the Indy 500 that I was honor bound to watch every year growing up in Indiana. There have been quite a few more deaths at the Indy than in NFL superbowls.
You may have to ask Mohammed Ali if boxers get their head hit more than quarterbacks.
Or we could just review the last Olympics and watch some snowboarder break his neck.
Or watch Wimbledon and watch someone blow out a knee and have to retire from sports.
Hockey?
I think we are left with putt-putt golf as a risk-free sport to watch. If PGA golfers got into brawls on the green once in a while, I might watch:))
1
About 40 - 50 years ago, the Baltimore Colts team included a fearsome linebacker, Mike Curtis, who was at once forthright and perceptive. He noted that pro football is an extension of childhood, which rang true at the time and continues to do so today, and is in part at least, a description of its fans.
7
As you'll also remember, his nickname was, "Animal." He would have been remembered like Butkus is he had been bigger.
4
Football is an extension of male teenage years. It is driven by violence, obedience, and testosterone.
Baseball, basketball, track all have women's teams and fans. Football, boxing, wrestling only have the few female outliers.
Trump has made politics and his fan base of those caught in a tribal status of violence, obedience and testosterone. The USA is in trouble.
2
When I watch sports on TV or in person I want to see the game. If I want to see political acting out I will watch the shouting heads on Sunday TV.
Advertisers spend millions of dollars on TV time to sell their products, yet these kneeling football players expect to use the TV air time free to air their issues. The viewers aren't standing for it, and neither should the advertisers.
If you have a message to convey, by all means get a soapbox and go stand on a street corner and shout it to the world, as is your right in America.
I used to like watching pro football on TV or in person, but never again until the protesters use their own time, not mine, to convey their disgruntlement with...with what? It started out as a protest against police violence directed against blacks, more recently morphed into a plea for pardons and clemency for prisoners. Next it will be reparations, I'm sure.
Who writes the scripts for these football protesters to act out? What is the agenda here? Is every aspect of American life to be protested? If so, it will take a long time to act out, by which time the NFL will be out of business.
If the NBA goes the way of the NFL in allowing employees to protest on air, it, too will be out of business.
12
Actually, if you watch football what you see are commercials, with the game interspersed among them. The protesters as you call them, are not taking away from air time whatsoever, they're sitting during the National Anthem, something that shouldn't be played to begin with.
Like you I used to like watching pro football but never again, until the NFL owners let players express themselves, and give Colin Kaepernick his job back. Even then I record the game so my Sunday's are spent watching the stream of ads, that have ruined the game far more than any freedom of expression the players are exercising.
4
If standing for the anthem isn't "political acting out" what is? This is America dude and we're free to believe what we want (or aren't we?). We're free to criticize the country (or aren't we?). In fact if we weren't allowed to criticize the country we'd still have the slave-holding south, only white men who owned property would be allowed to vote, we'd still be "fighting commies" in Viet Nam.
And if you really cared about your time, you'd protest the zillion artificial breaks in action to allow for five minutes of inane and boring commercials which makes your average football game about an hour longer than it need be (not to mention the time it takes to play the awful national anthem before every game).
4
I think all of your issues would disappear if we just stopped pretending that sports events are somehow related to patriotism. They are not. Playing the anthem before an NFL game makes no more sense than playing it before starting your car or buying a bag of Doritos.
Regarding the rhetorical question of whether every aspect of American life is to be protested, they have specifically chosen racism against Black people. I take it that you are not Black and so, see anger about racism as “acting out”. Perhaps, if their concerns were also your concerns (say, imaginary immigrant criminals, taxes, confederate statues) you might not find them so trivial? I encourage you, my fellow American, to consider the role of other people’s suffering in your weekly amusements.
5
It does seem that the NFL goes out of its way to find the most reactionary owners and that the owners are totally committed to the GOP agenda.
8
If Football, Hockey, Boxing, and MMA were drugs - the FDA would not allow them as their side effects, especially brain damage, would be unacceptable today.
While it is safe to assume that Colin Kaepernick's football career is over; I believe his political career may just be beginning. Time and destiny may play in his favor rendering many of those who mock him today to be themselves mocked in the future books of American history.
13
Basketball at the professional level is an urban sport, and cities are where Trump is least popular. The NBA has never made "patriotism" the fetish that the NFL has (how can you do a fly-over in an enclosed stadium even if you wanted to?). So from a business perspective, the NBA owners lacked the incentive that NFL owners felt when black players stood up by kneeling down to protest how minorities are treated by the police. I'm not saying that NBA owners are enlightened, but I think they'd have not covered up a deadly and debilitating plague like brain damage in order to protect their rich baubles. NFL owners had no problem with covering this up. NFL owners had no problem with bending their knees to Trump.
9
Every sport at the professional level is an urban sport. When you've got stadiums with >60,000 seat capacity, you need people to fill them.
But Basketball is a far easier small town sport, teams are a small fraction of the size, you need less than a third (worst case scenario) as many umpires, referees and judges, the amount and cost of equipment is miniscule in comparison, and Basketball is played both indoors and out.
Just the cost of the playing field alone makes football prohibitively expensive!
Football will continue to see a decline at the local level as more and more parents prohibit their children from playing, the potential for permanent injury is far greater than any amateur team sport.
6
This seems like a rather long-winded way to say that the NFL fan base includes a greater percentage of Trumpers than does the NBA's. So, to no one's surprise, Trump can get a rise out of manipulating the NFL but not the NBA. Please wake me up when NASCAR drivers start taking a knee during the anthem.
12
Now that you've dragged NASCAR into the discussion, let's remind all of the NASCAR fans that etiquette regarding the U.S. flag requires that our flag should never touch the ground.
So, why does NASCAR allow a parachutist to descend with a U.S. flag attached to one of his feet and then allow it to drag on the ground?
1
I’m going to guess that the NFL is bigger than the NBA in deplorable country. NFL team owners want to keep the base happy too.
11
Clearly, the athletes in the NBA and the NFL have more courage and conviction than the feckless members of the Republican Congress. I'm not going to stand for the Pledge until Trump is out of the White House. I can't possibly support this administration.
26
In the NFL, you can't see players faces, because of helmets. It depersonalizes the sport. During an NFL game, players might as well be robots, because they have no face. When you watch an NBA game, you can see the expressions on players' faces. Think about MJ''s hangin' tongue, or Kobe's tongue, or LeBron's expression. Furthermore, interactions like Reggie Miller's taunting of Spike Lee adds personality to the NBA. Same with seeing movies stars at the Game (Jack Nicholson, Marl Wahlberg, etc.).
I grew up in Boston in the 70's and 80's. We loved al the sports teams, but we felt like we knew a player like Danny Ainge (not even Larry Bird) much better than, say, Steve Grogan. That's because we saw his facial reactions on court, I think.
Lastly, there are more debatable call in the NBA. Therefore, there's more lobbying by players on court. You don't see many NFL players contest off sides, but you see plenty of NBA players jawing with refs over fouls. There's just a ton more human drama and personality on show during an NBA game.
10
I think the dichotomy is also partly, if not primarily, due to the fact that (American) football is inherently more violent than Basketball.
In Basketball a physical contact is usually a foul. In Football, contact is everything; harder the better.
This is also evident in the criminal entanglement of NFL players.
For NFL fans, rooting for the physical hit is routine. In NBA, you can be scrawny and still be a star.
So, thugs and wanna be thugs (and hence Trump base) obviously gravitate towards NFL.
12
I love both sports, but the NBA is miles ahead of the NFL when it comes to social issues.
If I ever have a male child, he won't ever play Football. Tennis, Baseball, Track, Basketball, Yes.
Football no.
13
It is revealing that the author is so admiring of the NBA leadership actions and so disapproving of the NFL. Could it be his political orientation?
I think the NFL is actually more respectful of the rights of others than is the NBA. The NFL appreciates the rights of its players while the NBA actually only appreciates the rights of persons who agree with it.
The NFL did not simply prohibit kneeling protest during the national anthem. It did NOT demand that players appear and show respect during the anthem. It recognized that they have rights as well as owners have rights as their employers. So, the NFL specifically provided that players need not appear for the national anthem, they could remain in the locker room as protest if they pleased. This compromise is not perfect and there can certainly be legitimate criticism of it. But the point is that it was an effort by the NFL to accommodate both players rights and owners rights as employers.
Contrast with the NBA. When it disapproved of the private speech of one of its owners, Donald Sterling, it showed not the slightest respect for his rights to speech. It just kicked him out and forced him to sell his team.
10
The NFL is unique in that player contracts can be suspended due to injury. How on earth is that respectful of player's rights? No other American major team sports totally abandons the economic security of its players after they suffer a game related injury. And no other sport went to the great lengths the NFL did to deny the permanent and almost ubiquitous brain damage inherent in its play.
No other sport in America treats its players as badly as football does off the field and after retirement.
6
Um, no. how has the NFL shown hey care about its players when they blocked CTE studies? Or when they sided with a wannabe authoritarian over a right to free speech? Or let criminals play on Sunday, so long as a) the media doesn’t find out and b) he’s a REALLY good player? Stop trying to justify the unjustifiable.
Donald Sterling was a slumlord who harbored racist feelings against his own players. Ownership is at the discretion of the League. You have a right to your opinions, but that league, thankfully doesn’t want those garbage humans in their midst. I shudder to think about what those NFL owners think about the black athletes who make them so much money.
The NFL has lost a lot of fans including myself, and all of it is self-inflicted. The League lacks the character to confront the ignorance and poorly veiled hate festering in this country.
3
It is not intolerant to fail tolerate intolerance.
1
"The N.B.A., meanwhile, has avoided any such entanglement. Its star players and coaches have confidently dived into the political debates without retribution and with the support of the league commissioner and many team owners, if not all of them."
I'm not sure why you have to go further than this. Everyone in the NBA is on the same wave length. Protest is patriotic regardless of political views.
16
While the NFL may still be on top, its decline seems inevitable at this point. The NFL feels old and out of touch, yearning for the "good old days" when there wasn't brain disease, performance enhancing drugs and players just did what they were told. Meanwhile the NBA has come to terms with our changing world, is empowering its players and embracing the future. It is just a matter of time when the NBA's ratings surpass the NFL's.
49
Sometimes a writer can analyze a situation, and come to legitimate conclusions, but just be do blind of the obvious.
I dare Lebron, Curry, Durant, or any other NBA player to kneel during the Anthem, and think in any way or form that an explosion the likes the NFL would not ensue.
The anthem, besides being tied to the military, patriotism, history, and a unifying bond during national crises, happens at the START of each game, where usually all eyes are watching. (and not a T-shirt lebron wears during practice, or pre-game).
As such, it is only logical that many, many people will be offended, and will counter the "Freedom" of expression of that player, with the "Freedom" of expression to criticizes that position.
15
Great post. It's ironic to the point of humorous that anyone would use the anthem protest as an example of how much more "woke" the NBA is on civil rights than the NFL, when the fact is that NBA has a much stricter anthem rule than the NFL.
And, as you note, it's equally puzzling the article doesn't even seem to make the connection.
12
Sorry, the first player to ever kneel in protest during the National Anthem was Tim Tebow. The response of white fans and league owners? Total silence and acceptance. You can talk about fans being offended all you want but when the skin was white, the player a conservative Evangelical Christian, and a Republican it was all good in the eyes of the fan base and the owners.
40
The NBA anthem rule was a result of collective bargaining. Contrast this type of collaboration with the NFL's top down, the owners way or the highway, decision making process. Without guaranteed contracts football players risk careers when they deviate from ownership edicts.
16
The overall analysis is sound. But let us not overlook contrary examples. On Thursday, Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins and Benjamin Watson, current and former players, members of an advocacy group, the Players Coalition, of National Football League players, responded to Donald Trump's challenge to name people treated unfairly by the justice system with an opinion piece in this newspaper. I hope other NFL players will join them. I hope NFL fans will support them.
15
Right now, all of America's professional athletes would stand together for unifying families.
As he talked about sports and patriotism, Trump's military-civilians targeted and executed the nation's first non-lethal force attack on citizen neighbors, including separation and detention for all ages.
Test case or trial run, Trump's rapid-deployed attack on innocents, a style of warfare being practiced lethally on children in Syria/North Korea/Philippines, attacked Latin American citizens neighbors/families, and aimed a brutal blow at tender-age children.
The NFL has seen the effects of violence and stress on brain chemistry. The Administration's actions can hurt the children. Under 12, family separation creates neuro-chemical imbalances in children that affect their cognitive/emotional development.
5
As some other commenters have hinted at -- the answer for the difference simply lies in the demographics of the league fan bases, present and future. The NBA (players and league) is preaching to the choir when they take a progressive stance. The NFL players face a far more risky proposition when you consider their more conservative fan base.
The NFL may think of itself as "purple" but that includes casual fans -- the most avid NFL fans are more likely to skew older, whiter, and be concentrated in non-urban geographies. So significantly redder.
The NBA fans are likely bluer today with a more diverse, cosmopolitan and younger fan base...and far larger international fan base that is growing rapidly (and no, the NFL playing games in London and Mexico City doesn't even begin to compete with the NBA on the int'l front). Yao Ming was a hero to a nation of 1.5 billion people when he played in the NBA. No such comparison exists of foreign impact in the NFL.
Just look at the advertisements during an NFL game (Ford trucks and pharma companies galore) vs. an NBA game (Kia Motors, Youtube, Nike, Taco Bell, etc).
That demonstrates who the ad buyers think is really watching, regardless of the gerrymandered stats that the leagues try to spin to display "audience breadth". I don't recall seeing many erectile dysfunction ads during the NBA finals; I might have missed one, but I doubt it. They play every few minutes during an NFL game.
80
The NBA has mini spats of in game activism. Lebon's Heat wore Trayvon Martin hoodies. But it was focused; fans understood the the who, what, and why. It wasn't disruptive. Kaepernick protested during American liturgy. By kneeling during the anthem over opaque social injustice, he appeared to indict the country and NFL fans for the plight of African Americans. And it wasn't an accident - that's exactly the message he wanted to send.
11
What? A liturgy? The anthem is not a religious rite. Remember "separation of church and state?" We're a free people and we can sleep through it or suck down a beer or go to the bathroom. Get it?
And if the social injustices are "opaque" please try opening the blinds.
No indictment. Just making a critical and honest point. Don't take it personally Stephen.
1
I'm a huge NFL fan, but when I'm at work I'm expected to act accordingly. These men are at work, in their work uniforms, and representing their employer on national television. When the anthem plays, please rise and take off any hats or headgear.
No one is asking NFL players to limit their lobbying, fund-raising or political advocacy activities on their own time.
10
You're attempting to draw parallels between your own workplace and that of professional athletes.
They are in no way equivalent. Let's imagine that your own workdays are televised daily to millions across America. Then let's say you happen to be a minority who experiences discrimination and/or harassment. And then let's say your HR department ignores your protests.
What options do you have to bring attention to your cause? Do you protest publicly and risk losing your job (as Kaepernick did)? Or do you continue to suffer in silence and toe the corporate line?
I'm a huge fan of most all sports. And I do not resent NFL and NBA players, especially the African-American ones, speaking out about police brutality and economic inequality. These issues are real.
But given the demographics of the fans who support the NFL, the NFLPA should have recognized that anthem protests would ignite public opinion and, instead, sought another platform.
18
I don't really understand. No one is required to stand for the anthem. That would be a fascist demand.
Should we throw grade school kids in jail for not saying the pledge with enough sincerity? Our flag stands for the right to dissent. Debate and disagreement is what the flag is supposed to stand for, unity in diversity, not nebulous and abstract patriotic sentiment.
More particularly, I respectfully but entirely disagree that players should stand because they "are at work." Unless you're an employee of the government there is no way to argue that a performance of nationalism is part of your job. This isn't North Korea.
I think this whole debate is an empty waste of time. It's an issue for a country that can no longer distinguish between matters of national significance and trivial cultural differences. Not to mention a nation that cannot tolerate having to acknowledge the pain circulating in many of our black communities. This is not an actual question of American nationalism. It's an attempt by some reactionaries to hijack nationalism for racist purposes.
10
There is NO LAW saying an American citizen must stand or take off his hat during the playing of the national anthem. These players are not breaking any law that I know of.
And when YOU are at work, you have every right to express your views, especially in a situation of political crisis. There is no need to remove your political buttons, etc. just because you are in the work place. What is required at work is doing your job well. The players all do this--AFTER the opening protest against racism. They are paid to play well--which they do--not salute the flag.
12
Informative, unbiased, and eye-opening analysis of the two different leagues, and their social justice stances. Thanks
13
Standing up for a song that has no reason being played before an *entertainment* event is not a gesture of patriotism or even respect. Worse yet is mumbling your way through the clunky words. Placing your hand over your heart, saluting foreign generals, or hugging the flag also do not count as virtuous acts of patriotism. How many right wing country singers strut around in jeans with American flag patches? Burn their MP3s. Burn em all.
Here’s what’s patriotic: realizing that people fought and died for the values that the flag represents and that all Americans and even non-Americans under our custody are entitled to those values. Here’s what’s not: conflating idolatry of a piece of fabric with the only true patriotism.
That the wrong wing can’t understand the silent and respectful gesture of taking a knee says everything one needs to know about their non-stick wallpaper brand of Sunday patriotism.
150
May I ask who appointed you America's arbiter of what is and is not patriotic? In one national poll after another, around 60% of people disagree with protesting during the anthem, versus around 37% who support Trump and a similar percent who identify as your "wrong wing."
The anthem has been played at NFL games regularly since the end of WWII. The ceremony was considered a time to be thankful to be able to spend 3 hours on a leisure activity, and to remember all the people who'd fought and died so Americans had the luxury of spending 3 hours on a leisure activity.
When my father took me to my first NFL game, in 1967, he closed his eyes during the anthem. When I asked him why, he explained he was remembering fellow soldiers he'd seen die in WWII, an uncle who came back "not right" from combat (today we'd call it PTSD), his father's brother who'd been killed in a German forest five days before WWI ended, and two other ancestors who'd fought in the Civil War. (One died in Shiloh prison; the other never came home after the war and was presumed to have been killed. Both were white Union soldiers.)
If you don't think it's patriotic to stand for the flag, that is your right. But where do you come off telling people who choose to stand and remember that they are somehow less patriotic than you?
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/sep/25/short-histor...
1
Wait -- 60" and no mention that the NBA's anthem rule is much more strict than the NFL's?
In the '90s, an NBA player declined to stand for the flag, and the NBA immediately fined him and instituted a "thou shalt stand" rule -- without "consulting" the players' union.
The NBA policy is very clear: Players can protest and politic all they want -- including with graphic clothing during pre-game warm-ups -- EXCEPT FOR the 2-minute flag ceremony. For this, the media hails NBA as enlightened heroes.
If Goodell were even mildly adept at his job, he'd have followed suit on Day 1. He'd have fined Kaepernick $10k for the (indefensible) pig socks, adopted a "thou shalt stand" rule, and let the players protest and politic all they want at other times.
Had Goodell done this, NFL players would still have plenty of voice and exposure, NFL viewership would not have dropped 18.7% in 2 years, Kaep would still be playing, Trump would have nothing to tweet about, and the media could report more on the players' actual issue, instead of endless articles on whether kneeling for the anthem is disrespectful or not. (an inherently subjective question.)
Speaking of kneeling, why is there no mention of the many players who sit, sit and eat, sit in groups and ignore the ceremony entirely, or stand for the anthems of other countries and then sit for the U.S. version?
This article seems to miss the fundamental point that the NBA has avoided this controversy precisely because of its anthem rule.
9
Great points. Yes there are demographic differences, etc., but the NFL's halting and incompetent handling of the anthem issue is a huge part of this mess. Not to mention how every disciplinary action it takes (on almost any off-the-field issue) seems more inconsistent than the last.
8
"Trump would have nothing to tweet about" that line alone undercuts your entire comment.
4
NFL viewership declined because the big market teams were horrible. Lose the NYC, LA, and Chicago markets, and no increase in the Philadelphia viewer numbers will make it up. Football is also a horribly tedious game now, with mandatory instant replay on every score and turnover. What a boring way to run a game into the ground.
I stopped watching after they decided receivers had to "execute a football move" to validate a completion. If I'd wanted to see a committee of adjudicators decide the outcome of each event, I could watch figure skating.
With Donald Trump everything is personnal, which means every policies, every speeches, every actions is determined by his person. Why Donald Trump attacked Amazon? Because Amazon owns the Washington Post which is very critical of his presidency. Donald Trump tried to buy a NFL team and he was refused. The commissioner Pete Rozelle said at the time that Donald Trump will never own a team under his watch. And there is the debacle of the anti-trust law suit of the USFL against the NFL, which was the idea of the owner of the New Jersey Generals, Donald Trump. President Trump was waiting for an opportunity to take his revenge. The protest of the players gave him the opening to do so. He just had to turn his base against the NFL, already plagued with problems like head injuries, bad handling of domestic violence, cheerleaders mistreatment,...
8
This is a purely anecdotal, personal opinion... but as someone who completely gave up football in favor of basketball over time, here's my hot take:
The NFL (and a large portion of its fans) takes itself too seriously - and they have their priorities backwards. They spend an inordinate amount of time punishing "who cares" infractions - like touchdown celebrations and dress code - and not enough time punishing things that REALLY matter - like domestic abuse and racism. They say it's to enforce "sportsmanship" and "class"... but to everyone else, it looks more like an organization obsessed with protecting its superficial appearance at the cost of its players. Ex: The NFL punishes marijuana use heavily... yet it's an open secret that painkillers are rampant among its players. They heavily enforce the first for the sake of appearances - yet permit the second to keep the players playing.
The NBA doesn't have that same sort of hang-up. Overall, I've found that the general attitude of NBA fans is much more relaxed and playful, because they understand players are humans and sometimes, emotions happen... and that it's wrong to punish players for harmless conduct. NBA athletes seem to take themselves less seriously (see: Klay Thompson) and are much more relatable to fans as a result - likely because they don't feel 24/7 pressure to protect the "dignity" of their "owners".
Until the NFL loosens up, and remembers that sports are supposed to be FUN, they'll keep losing people like me.
85
"Until the NFL loosens up, and remembers that sports are supposed to be FUN, they'll keep losing people like me."
As the cliche goes, The NFL is not known as the No Fun League for nothing...
23
Truth.
The NFL's "classier-than-thou" attitude would be bearable if it actually walked the walk... But it has repeatedly demonstrated that, like most exploitative employers, noble ideals like "professionalism," "team loyalty," and "sacrifice" appear to be a one-way street that conveniently places all of the actual onus on the players... for the exclusive benefit of the owners.
No fun, no heart, no spine, no thanks.
Pete Rozelle, NFL Commissioner From 1960 to 1989, was a sharp PR man who understood that the game was what mattered.
Paul Tagliabue, Commissioner from 1989 to 2006, was a hair-splitting lawyer who fed the controversy over concussions with false statements.
The current commissioner, Roger Goodell, has never gotten a paycheck from any organization other than the NFL, thinks he is the face of the game, pulls in 40 million a year and, like Jerry Jones and the other owners, constantly has his hand in the fan's pocket.
Nobody in today’s NFL upper echelon understands that the only vicarious interest the average fan has is in the outcome of the game.
Fewer commercial breaks, a workable concussion policy, and less todying to the White House might be a good start.
15
So I guess we shouldn't expect NCAA football programs to boycott Washington State's football coach, Mike Leach, for his Trump-imitation lies about Pres. Obama.
5
Simply put, Trump's base is NOT NBA basketball oriented and NBA owners are not the reactionaries NFL owners are.
Heck, the original NBA was almost all Jewish. Arnold "Red" Auerbach, Z"L, immediately comes to mind...
7
I remember as a black man in America when someone pointed out to me what the "N" stood for in both leagues and it made sense. "Negro." If you do not stand up for something you will lay down for everything. It is okay to burn a flag but is not okay for a person to take a knee when the anthem is played. What is wrong with this picture?
19
What's wrong is the analogy is a non-sequitur. The Supreme Court has ruled that burning a flag is constitutionally protected speech. (as it should be).
But if Tom Brady burned a flag during the anthem ceremony, or Steph Curry burned a flag before an NBA game, you can be certain there would be enormous backlash.
5
The main reason why they are so far apart is simple - the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement: "Players, coaches and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the national anthem."
You seriously think NBA fans would not be up in arms if a bunch of high-priced NBA talent took a knee during the national anthem?
16
Reply to Steven RR
Players and employees in general respond to being treated well. In the NFL we have owners covering up head trauma for decades and then low balling the cost of treatment until the league’s practices were exposed versus the NBA where most contracts are guaranteed. If one is treated with respect one respects the league and what he league asks in return (Eg standing for the anthem). Just like you and me.
29
I agree with SteveRR. This article fails to even mention that NBA players are barred from kneeling. If they had been the story would be much different in terms of fan response.
4
If the NBA or anyone else for that matter truly believed that then it would not be hardwired into the contract.
As well - they would not have fined and suspended a player who violated it.
The Texan's owner pretty much summed up the thinking of the ownership class of his sport when he said: " You cant let the inmates run the prison". In other words, the NFL, is a prison, and the players are the inmates, and those inmates better listen to the warden. None of the other professional sports would let the owners of its sport get away with its treatment of the players the way the NFL Union does. The most fitting thing that could happen to the sport would be if Colin Kaepernick was made president of the players union, it would be the perfect ironic twist, and maybe the NFL with all its billions could actually move into the 21 century, by caring for its players properly, and guaranteeing the contracts of its players as well as doing the right thing for all the retired players who are now suffering debilitating injuries from the time they spent playing in the NFL.
77
Interesting article but it ignores the elephant in the room: that NBA players have, throughout all their social justice dialogue, continued to stand during the anthem. I wish the author had addressed why that is the case, as, with guaranteed contracts, NBA players are in a more powerful position to kneel during the anthem if they so chose.
18
I keep reading people posting about the NBA rule, as if in a vacuum. You really think Trump and his followers are OK with the "I Can't Breathe" shirt that LeBron wore? It's a mistake to play into the logic that "if only" NFL players would stand everything would be OK. There is a lot of complex stuff going on in these power struggles over the Anthem. It's not a simple as saying the strict NBA rule copied over the NFL would solve everything.
6
Yes, but at least the NBA players and two of their coaches are very quick to put down the Trump dog whistles.
Do you recall any fan backlash during the many instances when NBA or other players have worn clothing commemorating Trayvon Martin? Or "I Can't Breathe"? Or Stephon Clarke? I saw none.
Has Trump ever tweeted about any of these protests? If he did, I missed it. (And, lord knows, if something bothers him, he tweets about it.)
You seem to believe that anyone who disagrees with the anthem protests is a Trump supporter. Can I ask why? Statistically, Trump's approval rating is something like 37%, whereas roughly 3 in 5 people disagree with the anthem protests, even though a healthy majority of Americans support the players' cause.
This is not about Trump, no matter how much he and others may try to make it about him. Many players don't believe the flag is worth standing for, most fans don't support this view and thus are staying away. You don't think the NBA would face a similar backlash if its players sat or knelt during the anthem? Or wore pig socks without apologizing?
Here's another view. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. The players have every right to kneel during the National Anthem. The fans have every right to stop buying tickets, stop buying merchandise and stop paying for TV packages to watch the NFL. That's what is happening. People watching NFL games is on the decline, teams that once sold out games no longer are. Something tells me that a good percentage of people who watch the NFL probably lean conservative and a majority of people who watch the NBA lean progressive
12
You realize that trend started long before this controversy right? It has been on the decline for years due to many reasons including the extra Thursday night games, cord cutters, less preseason practice so the first bunch of game kinda stink to name just a few. Let’s see what happens when next year. I doubt the rating bounce back for more than a week or two
7
Your post is factually and demonstrably false. Average NFL viewership per game rose four straight years from 2012 through 2015, and rose during the 2016 preseason until the moment the protest story broke, at which time it immediately dropped by double digits. The 2012-15 rise came despite cord-cutting, TNF, concussions, too surfeit of commercials, etc.)
You can validate this at sportsmediawatch.com, a nonpartisan tracking site that merely reports viewership, including cord-cutting. Business Insider also ran a piece that graphs the 2012-15 rise in average viewership per game.
The biggest market teams in the NFL have been terrible in recent years.
Another note, the massive increase in the number of mandatory instant replay reviews have slowed the game to an unwatchable bore. They used to schedule games at 4:05PM, anticipating the first games would be over by then. Second games are now scheduled at 4:25PM, because they've made them that much longer.
Another piece to this puzzle that might be worth analyzing:
As much as I loved watching Kaepernick torch Green Bay with his legs and almost win the 49ers another Superbowl single-handed, by the time he was protesting in 2016 he was far from a star. The 49ers walked out of 2016 with a 2-14 record. They were 5-11 the year before. 8-8 before that. Those records are certainly not all on Kaepernick, but the limelight of the Superbowl was long gone.
Meanwhile, LeBron and Curry are bonified international superstars. Combined, their respective teams have won the last 6 of the last 7 NBA championships.
Thing is, you don't exactly see a lot of Kings players protesting much of anything. As a matter of fact, you didn't really see Curry protesting anything in 2011.
I wonder if this would have been a different tale had the 49ers won the Superbowl and Kaepernick had progressed in his game like Russel Wilson has (the Seahawks finished 10-5 in 2016)? After all, Richard Sherman certainly wasn't quiet over the "Legion of Boom" era, on or off the field.
I wonder if this whole situation is due to the wrong guy kneeling at the wrong time in his career.
I wonder if its humanity's obsession with star power.
17
Upvote for invention of the word "bonified" --- I like it!
2
It's fairly certain you can't breathe if you're one of the well over four thousand African Americans shot dead by members of their own race in the last recent few years.While concurrently killed by officers of the law in the line of duty number in a percentage of one percent for the same last few years.
20
So, by analogy, as more people die of heart disease than opiate overdoses, no one can try to address the deaths due to the opiate crisis.
36
There are few things more offensive than the “Hey! Look over here!” game that Conservatives love to play. Rather than talk about the horror of living in ghettos from which few escape, stick to the topic at hand. Or maybe go to the comments regarding Trump’s immigration fiasco and blame the imprisoned children for deaths at the hands of illegal immigrants. That seems to be a popular game today...
16
Heart disease is not ignored ... " social justice warriors " ignore black on black homicide.
2
What the article failed to mention is that NFL football is losing out to NBA basketball because so-called football (which has very little to do with the foot) is boring.
The average NFL game has more than 100 commercials and just an average 'action' time of 11 minutes (out of a total clock time of 60 minutes and a normal TV-shown total time of over 3.5 hours). https://qz.com/150577/an-average-nfl-game-more-than-100-commercials-and-...
Now, back to real football and the World Cup.
For the rest of you NFL lover/losers, don't get too excited as you fantasize about more upcoming Sunday afternoons filled with 12-9 wins by the Cincinnati Bengals kicker against his counterpart from the Cleveland Browns.
46
I've quoted that study you cited many times when die- hard football fans explain to me that they don't watch baseball because it is slow and nothing happens during a 3-hour game. It's funny to see the looks on their faces as their brains sort of melt while they contemplate that undeniable reality and realize their argument against watching baseball holds no water. Not that I care whether or not they watch baseball, just that they acknowledge the hypocrisy of their argument.
7
Most stories about Trump and the NFL fail to mention that this is the man who single-handedly destroyed a competing professional football league, the USFL. For his troubles, he and his fellow owners received damages of $3.76. Add that disgrace to his already well-known racism and you have much more motivation behind his phony patriotism.
115
It would mean something if Trump actually demonstrated his respect for our Constitution and separation of powers. instead of kicking them in the teeth. Trump is no patriot.
1
The primary difference between the NBA and NFL is that the face of the NBA is a man who is the best player of his generation and the brightest athlete in sports. He happens to be African-American. He is LeBron James.
66
Yes-ish.
Part of the point of the story is that when LeBron expresses his political opinions, he's not generally told to shut up, and certainly has experienced no career consequences as a result of his tweets. Meanwhile, Colin Kaepernick has been blackballed throughout the NFL, and I have every reason to think his lawsuit has merit.
12
Good column. Many people attain fame and do nothing with it except make (and spend) money. The players in both leagues are standing up for what they believe. Let's support them!
As for the majority of NFL owners, maybe they should run for public office and join the roster of moral cowards there.
53
The article touches on but doesn't fully flesh out one key factor distinguishing the two leagues: the different demographics of their fan bases. The NBA's is almost certainly younger and more urban, and most certainly more international.
Social media and, as the article notes, the ways the leagues are marketed also play roles. LeBron James has taken heat in Ohio for his "Yo bum" anti-Trump tweet, but his fan ban base extends so far beyond Ohio that he arguably becomes more popular by taking that stand and in any event he is also such a local hero that come game time his political stances are put aside.
Yet another factor at play is how absolutely craven the NFL owners are when it comes to player health and safety. They continue to try to cover up the long-term cognitive damage the game does to many players, both through PR and by trying to control relevant research. It's part of the same greedy impulse and yes, plantation mentality, that caves to Trump. And it may well prove counterproductive in the long run as more and more kids steer clear of playing football and more fans turn away from this incredibly, inevitably violent and harmful game.
157
Ohio is so backwater and rusted shut that one needs to be mentally evaluated for reasons they want to visit much less live there. James deserves much better.
3
Fine letter, but my friends overseas are not fans of the NBA— sport or brand. The “international “ aspect you mention for the NBA is suspect.
2
Perhaps, but I would wager that the sport of Basketball is way more important and popular overseas than American Football will ever be.
1
The NBA is a player's league.. the NFL is a owner's league.. that is the difference. NBA owners support they players and seem more open to diversity.. NFL owners not so much. Then again the Texans owner did say " You cant let the inmates run the prison".
90
Until EVERY evolved player in the NFL takes a knee or walks off the field -- nothing will change. They have the numbers and the talent to force owners into guaranteed contracts.
43
“What is so different about these leagues that they find themselves in such contrasting situations?”
Maybe it’s their fans. The NBA and NFL have pretty different fan bases. These leagues are big businesses. They need to be smart about who their fans are and what they value. Just a guess here but I believe the typical NFL fan is from the south and the typical NBA fan is more urban.
15
“What is so different about these leagues that they find themselves in such contrasting situations?”
The difference is that NBA players have not (so far) disrespected our country by sitting or kneeling during our national anthem.
21
Get some new material, dude. Sad that you are rehashing the tired old lies and haven't learned a thing in all this time....
"Disrespecting our country" by peacefully protesting? No, those players were/are asking more from a country that continues to treat Black Americans like second class citizens. Progress isn't made in this country by keeping white people comfortable.
I cannot wait until this barbaric sport/league becomes a footnote in history.
14
When did kneeling become a sign of disrespect?
23
No one cared that Colin Kaepernick sat or knelt during the National Anthem. It was his politically incorrect answer as to why that got him into trouble. If he had said that he was sitting or kneeling because his hip hurt, we wouldn’t be talking about this. The truth is, a lot of NFL fans are racists. In their minds, the quarterback position is meant for a white man. So, they will look to anything to sideline the career of a black quarterback. Look at how much stink was made about Michael Vick’s dog fighting thing. If he was white, he wouldn’t have paid such a heavy price. And if Colin Kaepernick was white, he’d still be playing football.
126
"if Colin Kaepernick was white, he’d still be playing football."
This was never about the anthem or the flag or the military. Just another example of racist dog whistles, no different than "welfare queens" was in the 80's or MAGA (Make America White Again) is today.
I stopped watching the NFL because of the protests. No, not the ones on the field, the ones protesting the athletes actions. The protests that come from people wanting to silence all voices but their own.
9
Also when Tim Tebow knelt during the National Anthem, was there anything approaching the vitriol that Kaepernick got?
6
"Look at how much stink was made about Michael Vick’s dog fighting thing."
Dog fighting thing?!? Please re-read the horrific facts of Mr. Vick's abuse of his dogs. Anyone guilty of this type of abuse would have paid a heavy price and rightfully so. People who engage in dog fighting deserve the full punishment that the law allows - regardless of who they are.
2
The NFL is a coaches’ league – hierarchical, authoritarian, and conservative. The NBA is a players’ league – creative, individualistic, progressive.
74