The league has a long history of enforcing behavior rules for players, so why not for anthem protesters?
Much like the mainstream media blaming President Donald Trump’s criticism as the reason it has lost the trust of the American public, the leadership of the NFL and many of its players have sought to level the lion’s share of blame for the league’s tanking ratings and loss of fans on Trump and his criticism of players kneeling to protest during the national anthem.
However, as has been noted before, the NFL brought this contentious issue upon itself by failing to act decisively in setting rules against protesting during the anthem. The league made a half-hearted attempt in May — two years too late — but has effectively backed off even that.
It’s not like the NFL leadership never penalized players or teams for actions it believed detracted from the product. For example, back in 2012, the league forbid outspoken Christian Tim Tebow from wearing eye-black stickers with Bible verse references printed on them. Or take all the variety of rules the league has created surrounding celebrations. How about all those uniform rules? In 2013, Brandon Marshall was fined by the league for wearing green cleats in his bid to raise awareness for mental health disorders. In 2015, DeAngelo Williams was fined for wearing “Find the Cure” eye-black for breast cancer awareness. And maybe the worst example of the league behaving like rule-nazis was disallowing the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a helmet decal honoring the five Dallas police officers killed in the line of duty by a deranged anti-police bigot in 2016.
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5 comments:
Easy FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION! They don’t have to stand for the anthem the same way we don’t have to watch or go to the games FREEDOM!
who cares about what those clowns do? so over them!
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
What NFL players, and all of Hollyweird dont get is we DONT CARE ABOUT YOUR POLITICAL VIEWS, do your job and keep your opinions to yourself!
When it looks in the mirror, NFL has only itself and its overpaid commish to blame.
It's a highly paid job for even the newest and lowest paid player. The rookie minimum is more than the President's salary.
They are employees under contract, and 'on the clock' when they're dressed and on the field. NFL has the right and ability to stop this immediately but with a few owner exceptions has lacked the balls to ensure a modicum of respect for our nation's flag.
They will not recoup lost revenue down the road and I know countless die-hard fans who no longer give a rip. Fans pay the bills in stadiums and through TV; that house of cards has an eroding foundation.
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