Protesting that makes sense... if possible

[Sandy]

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: Another interesting set of stats.

https://www.odmp.org/search/year

[Rvaughn]

[John Sneed]

This is just me and I seem to be on the tail end of everything, but when I see people disrespecting the National Anthem, I know it is not the Anthem but the country. I see guys sitting or kneeling, I see people saying "I hate the United States." That is me. That is what I see. My two cents, for what it is worth.

John

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[Rvaughn]

Keith, the "made-up issues" have nothing to do with Kaepernick's issue -- or at least only in the broad sense of talking about it in the same thread. The "made-up issues" refer to when Sandy suggested the reaction could be different "if the players had been white" and when I also suggested that some people would have reacted differently if Trump had reacted differently (aka, some of the protesters are protesting against Trump, not police).

[Rvaughn]

An interesting occurrence related to the anthem protest:

My uneducated guess is that this is a sort of "PR" move on the part of DirecTV, and also that not that many people will cancel.

[Jim]

The “K-affair” is finally working its way into the penultimate silliness mode. The Saints (at least some of them, black and white) took the knee in London yesterday, ostensibly to show their “loyalty-to-teammates” uber-righteousness. This is the same outfit that a few years ago was paying its players “bounty-bonuses” for actually injuring the opposition's players (get them out of the game), especially their quarterbacks. The coach was suspended for a year when he should have been suspended forever. The underlying theme for the blacks is their easily recognizable hatred of this country, sort of like biting the hand that feeds. Football is part of the entertainment industry, which just about says it all with regard to its supercilious sanctimonious loyalty to teammates and Clinton and Sanders (in 2016), never recognizing that a Private sleeping in a tent in Afghanistan means more to this country than all the NFL stuffed-shirt millionaires (both black and white) combined. The same can be said for the MSM, which keeps the pot boiling a la Sharpton/Jackson. In fact, it's a lead-pipe cinch that probably 90% or more of the players never wore the uniform and consider a GI about, as John Kerry put it back when he was considering another run, to wit, that guys who don't make it in high school wind up in the Middle East dodging bullets or losing their lives. Disrespect for the anthem and flag, never mind the reasons/causes given, is another way of expressing black racism toward whites, just as wrong as the reverse.

[Haruo]

[Jim]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

The "two Christians" story is not well done.

[Sandy]

It will be a while before the long term effects of Kaepernick's protest will be felt. There's no question his, and other player's protests have advanced the awareness of the problems and issues they are protesting to a point well beyond where it was prior to doing it. It takes awareness for action to happen. In spite of optimism and change in recent years, racism is still entrenched, and finds outlets to keep the ideology moving and having an effect. It's easy to ignore a problem that doesn't have a direct impact on your own life or family.

Yeah, these guys have been provided an opportunity to get to a place where few people do in their career, especially in an entertainment business. But that's not the point, even though many of them have their own personal stories of having to struggle against pervasive injustice. They realize that they are in a unique position to use what they've been given to advocate for those who are not in a position of power to fight injustice themselves. They weighted the cost of their protest against the benefits, and guessed correctly. There's been some frumpted up complaining, a little bit of booing, and some social media nastiness. But the NFL is still the NFL. People still love their football, and their teams, and the games. The opposition to their chosen method of protesting is a minority, and it's been relatively neutralized by the shows of solidarity and sympathy with the protesting players. The games go on, for the most part completely unaffected. So I'd say they've made progress, and time will tell how much of an affect their protests had on bringing change.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

The " two Christians" piece" is flawed, as Mattingly writes:

"Readers are told that Tebow is living out one version of the Christian faith, while Kaepernick is living out another.

The problem, of course, is that Tebow has – throughout his career – been relentless in his work with a wide array of charities, investing both his money, his skills as a fundraiser and his own time and talents. Much of this work has focused on the needs of children, especially orphans, in impoverished nations (the missionary kind side of Tebow's life) as well as special-needs children everywhere. That led to this fun Tonight Show moment a few months ago."

WP carried it because it fit the MSM narrative about American Christianity being neatly divided into the pious but mostly all talk, conservative evangelicals and the social justice, relentlessly working for the cause, religious libs.

Mattingly is not clear on what the "heresy" is for which he employs the term in his title.

Tebow isn't not the "darling" of all and is haughtily and lustily reviled by many, same as Kape.

It is a salient point for Mattingly to speculate what would happen if players protested abortion before games by kneeling. Owners would quickly squash that, I suppose, and sports media and MSM would take a different tack as well' I'd guess.

I commend Kaoe for good works and make no judgment about his faith. His protest is silly and confusing. But I'll let the NFL owners chew on how much money they are willing to indirectly invest in it.

At any rate, the piece by a religion prof in Australia has a big hole in it but why mess up a good title with balance and facts?

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

An article I read yesterday about Jerry Jones and the protests mentioned that the NFL’s Game Operations Manual addresses the National Anthem. I had never seen it referenced before. Assuming Time and Sports Illustrated got it right, here is what it says:

“The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”

I thought that is interesting, and am surprised I had not seen it mentioned before. While it says the players “should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand and refrain from talking” it does not say they must. Interestingly, though, it does say “all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem” -- something some teams chose not to do to avoid the controversy. Of course, this was a team choice, not a player choice, so I am not suggesting any fines are forthcoming.