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NFL looks for a way to side-step the anthem protest issue

Prior to 2009, you didn’t see all the players at NFL games standing the sidelines during the national anthem for prime time games. Prior to that year, NFL players in such games stayed in the locker room, though on Sunday afternoon games the players were out on the sidelines. [1]

In 2009, the NFL set a new policy saying that, nope, players had to be out on the sidelines during the national anthem during prime time, and suggesting (but not mandating) that the players should stand during the anthem.

(There have been reports that the Defense Dept. paid the NFL to do this. The actual DoD actions, that have been documented, were payments to the NFL in 2012 for various patriotic displays at NFL games, itself a sketchy practice.)

The kneeling protests by NFL players during the anthem, protesting racism (esp. law enforcement) in America, have been highly controversial (which, indirectly, is kind of what you want protests to be). The president has been livid about it, fans (some at least) have been angry, the NFL owners have been unhappy about the brouhaha but haven’t been willing to force the issue (perhaps because compelling people to act patriotic is, even if legal, also kind of sketchy).

Well, word is that the NFL owners may try to defuse the whole mess by simply going back to having the players stay in the locker room until after the national anthem. That will probably make all sorts of people unhappy, too, but its also an unhappiness that doesn’t have a weekly set of visuals to go with it.

(Questioning the American compulsion to engage in a communal expression of patriotic fervor before sporting events apparently is not on the table. Why is there a big national anthem at football games and NASCAR races, but not before Formula 1 races or golf tournaments? What purpose of national interest or celebration of liberty does such a mandated display actually serve?)

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[1] https://www.snopes.com/nfl-sideline-anthem/, http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/us/nfl-national-anthem-trump-kaepernick-history-trnd/index.html




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30 thoughts on “NFL looks for a way to side-step the anthem protest issue”

  1. The Anthem represents America. America created football – a modern version of war. Football satiates that aspect of human instinct in a (relatively) harmless way. America also created the technology that allows pivotal moments of that war to be openly reviewed from every angle by a worldwide audience. No offense intended, but sports that involve tapping a ball into a hole or going round in circles don't quite represent the same level of a united, strategic human achievement. How about this solution: The players kneel to communicate there are problems in America that need to be fixed, while at the same time, bow their heads to give thanks for what we have created? Everybody wins. Thank you for considering it.

  2. +Steven Carr​ EXACTLY how I feel! Football is a guy sport. Golf is for weak retirees with LOTS of time on their hands. Bowling is worse. Auto racing is a guy sport. Rugby is a spin-off of soccer. Except they use their heads to hit the ball. I think the NFL went to England to show them a REAL game. They LOVED it! They play polo which is a rich man game of hockey on horses. Canada has hockey and so does the U.S. We have drag racing! The Swede's have ice skating and downhill skiing. And don't forget Wrestling in the U.S.!

  3. +Kee Hinckley Hi Kee, I don't understand your "testosterone" comment. Was it my use of "war" as a metaphor? Sorry it was late, I was setting up my google+ account and happened to see the football article and quickly typed out a viable solution. Besides, women are in the military now – so I was just wondering about your reasoning. Can everyone please publicize and pass along my suggestion that NFL players consider bowing their heads in thanks for what they have while they are kneeling? Thank you in advance for doing it! Happy Thanksgiving,, Steve

  4. +Steven Carr actually it was more in response to another comment which has either been deleted or blocked.

    But no, I thinking bowing their heads in thanks for centuries of slavery, repression, imprisonment, and repression that still hasn’t stopped is a bit much to ask. And far too reminiscent of how we’ve made them bow their heads to white people all those years. I don’t tell people how to protest.

  5. +Kee Hinckley Interestingly enough (picking back up into this late the following morning), while I see a large number of invisible-but-flagged-as-spam comments, it looks like a lot of others have been deleted, or the accounts themselves deleted. Except for one stray who I've blocked as a faux account.

    +Steven Carr I think that the folk in question (at least in the picture above) are kneeling but still putting their hands on their heart is more than enough obeisance to what is an optional group patriotic display. I don't mandate to folk on when they should "properly" bow their heads, especially if it is only to make other people satisfied as to their social conformity.

  6. I always find it fascinating what people invest their racism in. Football is a sport primarily performed by black men and it physically destroys them. Before that there used to be battle royal. It's technically not racist if white people enjoy it. Unless the real reason is to gleefully watch black men hurt each other. I kinda suspect that the kneeling connects the dots between black violence and that makes people's dissonance pop and crackle. If the elite athletes you like who are just doing what comes naturally to their race are acknowledging that they are people disturbed by in civility and violence then ! the savage just might be the person observing them! The outrage is because that assumption is challenged.

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