NFL Anthem Protest: Right, Wrong or Wrongly Perpetuated?

WOULD THIS PROTEST CONTINUE IF NO ONE KNEW IT WAS GOING ON?

With the start of a new NFL season, thoughts of Super Bowl games dance in the heads of all football fans. This could be the year the Browns win their division and go all the way. Can the Eagles repeat? Will a 40 year old Brady get that last ring and ride off into the sunset as the GOAT?

Despite all the hopes of a new season, the elephant in the room is the anthem protest. First, the NFL decrees that the players must either stand for the National Anthem or remain in the locker room. Then the NFLPA cries foul and the NFL walks back the rule and says "let's talk". So, no change and no solution. Is there really a solution?

To be fair to both sides we must remember that the NFL had no "anthem stand" requirement until 2009 when they signed a lucrative contract with the Pentagon to "promote patriotic displays".

Sally Jenkins, sports reporter for the Washington Post, in a column on the 22nd of July, wrote that the "anthem debate is a case of misplaced emphasis". She goes on to say the "enforced patriotism, is not patriotism at all".

But sports in America is indeed rooted in patriotism, as it is in all the countries of the world. Soccer matches in Mexico begin with the their Himno Nacional. The people in the bleachers stand, remove their hats and proudly sing along. The players are all standing, with their hands on their hearts, singing along.

Jenkins asks the question, "How can a mild protest by at most 12 % of the league cause such a stir"?

To answer this, we must agree on two things.
     1. The average NFL fan, whether at the game, or at home is very patriotic.
     2. A player seen kneeling is perceived as being unpatriotic.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, medalists at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, were loudly and roundly booed for their raised fists on the medalists podium. This action was widely seen as anti-American and unpatriotic. Colin Kaepernick's "pig socks" were similarly seen as divisive and unamerican by the average NFL fan.

When NFL players, in the UK and Mexico stood for the host nation's anthem yet knelt for the Anthem of the United States of America, this too was viewed as unamerican, unpatriotic and a slap in the face to all Americans.

The average American sports fan agree with Tim Suttle, a Pastor and writer from Olathe, Kansas who penned: "The liturgies of sport teach us that America is a singular beacon in a world of hackneyed imposters...The game embodies the belief that this nation stands above all other nations as more powerful, virtuous, righteous and more justified in our actions...".

We, as fans are proud of our nation! All other nations are too. As a group, we desire our athletes to be like us. We don't say, so and so the black football player, or so and so the ballplayer from the Dominican republic. No...we say my teams pro bowl Safety or our All Star shortstop. Sports fans everywhere want an escape. We turn to sports.

So..what is my solution to this morass the NFL has created? Let the protests continue. Do nothing. What can it hurt if just 12%, a figure attributed to Jenkins, of the league protest a perceived injustice.

But, the league needs cooperation from the media. Are the protests worthy of attention? Without the television constantly covering the sidelines during the anthem, there would be no attention brought to the subject. Censorship you say...during the 2017 season the networks, and even local coverage, deliberately avoided showing the empty stands. The league "suggested" coverage of this was detrimental to the ratings. Constant badgering of the players by the print media on how they "felt" about the kneeling served no purpose but to inflame an already agitated fan base.

The owners should press Goodell to minimize the effect on ratings and league attendance. The Green Bay Packers reported in their annual report to stockholders that revenue was up year-to-year and that 99% of the season ticket holders had renewed with a waiting list of 137,000.

The league is in fine shape!

So...can the Eagles repeat or what?