Placating the National Football League Players’ Assn. over rights to protest the National Anthem, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell slapped 71-year-old President Donald Trump for criticizing protests. Protests started in 2016 when former San Francisco Forty-Niner’s quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the National Athem. Kaepernick said he meant no disrespect to the Armed Services but exercised his Constitutional right to protest what he thought was racial injustice. Kaepernick protested high profile white-on-black police killings, demonstrating institutional racism within U.S. law enforcement. Since starting his protests, other Black players like Seattle Seahawks tight end Michael Bennett and running back Marshaw Lynch also sat or kneeled during the national anthem. Speaking at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, Trump went after NFL owners for doing nothing.
Staging demonstrations out side Goodell’s Manhattan NFL headquarters Aug. 24, hundreds of people protested Colin Kaepernick’s alleged blackball from professional footfall. Once considered one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, Kaepernick can’t find even a backup job in the NFL. Protesters claim Kaepernick has been racially discriminated because of leading the National Anthem protests. “Wouldn’t you like to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son-of-a-b—-off the field right now. Out. He’s fired!” Trump said the protests were “hurting the game.” Whether admitted to or not, NFL owners and player personnel officials passed on Kaepernick because he’s more a lightening rod for protests than a team player prepared to sacrifice to win. Blaming Kaepernick’s unemployment on racism sadly misses the point.
Beleaguered NFL Commissioner jumped on Trump’s comments to rescue his sinking credibility and popularity. Goodell gets booed by NFL fans wherever he goes primarily because of controversial decisions on New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady, domestic abuse cases like Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson or former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, both suspended for alleged domestic abuse. More recently, Goodell received flack for suspending Dallas Cowboys’ running back Ezekiel Elliot for alleged domestic abuse. Jumping all over Trump, Goodell pandered to the leagues’ predominantly African American players who’ve jumped on the Kaepernick bandwagon. “Divisive comments like these [Trump’s] demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players . . .” read Goodell’s statement.
Most NFL fans would prefer to keep politics out of the game, despite recognizing standing or saluting during the National Anthem is voluntary. “This union, however, will never back down when it comes to protecting the Constitutional rights or our players as citizens as well as their safety as men who compete in a game that exposes them to great risks,” said Players’ Assn. President DeMaurice F. Smith. Smith defends NFL players to exercise their Constitutional rights whether or not it disrupts the locker room or the game. Refusing to give Kaepernick a job in the NFL this season speaks volumes how NFL owners and coaches have enough on the plate getting game-ready to deal with organized political activism. Kaepernick inability to land a NFL job spoke volumes not only about his quarterback skill-set but about whether teams wanted to put up his political activism in the clubhouse.
Criticizing NFL players’ protests with the National Anthem, Trump adds to media claims that he has sympathies for white nationfalists. With the NFL a predominantly African American league, there’s little sympathy for Trump on racism or events like Charlottesville. When Trump expressed his views on violence in Charlottesville Aug. 13, he was slammed in the national media for not 100% condemning White supremacists and neo-Nazis. National media has had a field day ripping Trump as sympathetic to white supremacists, pointing to his Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon. Whether justified or not, Bannon was fired Aug. 19, less than a week after Charolottesville because Trump needed a scapegoat with Bannon’s past job as editor of Breitbart News, a favorite Website of the alt-right and white nationalists. Bannon, and those that work and know him, deny any ties to the alt-right or white nationalist groups.
Fighting a tidal wave of alleged racism around the country, Trump’s NFL remarks only made him look more racist to the press and minority community. Lashing out at Trump, Goodell hopes to save his job, siding with the NFL Players Assn. that players have a Constitutional right to express themselves in whatever way they see fit. “Their decision is no different from the one made by countless others who refused to let ‘what they do’ define or restrict ‘who they are’ as Americans,” said the NFLPA’s public statement. Diverting the issue from contempt for the flag, the NFL and Players’ Assn. don’t get how offensive Kaepernick’s protests. When American soldiers are dying daily protecting U.S. freedoms around the globe, kneeling or sitting during the National Anthem rubs average citizens the wrong way. Trump’s remarks at Huntsville mirror ordinary citizens, despite the NFL and media saying otherwise.
