The NFL Fumbles Anthem Solves Nothing

• Steve
• May 25, 2018
• 0 Comment
• 599 Views

What the NFL Did –  New Anthem Rule

I’m sure you’re all aware that the NFL has released a new policy on the National Anthem.  First thoughts, they missed wide right.  After giving it more thought, they fumbled it before they got to the goal line and it’s not even worthy of a 5-minute booth review.  These are the keys to the new rule:

• If Players are on the field for the national anthem they must stand and show respect for the flag
• If they choose not to stand they may stay in the locker room or off the field during the Anthem
• Clubs will be fined by the league if team personnel do not stand and show respect for the anthem

The new policy means that if you are on the field you will stand for the National Anthem.  If you don’t want to stand for the Anthem, you must be out of site and off the field.

Any form of protest on the field will be met with a fine to the team of the player or personnel violating this rule.

Why did they do it – Profit Loss

By now you have an opinion on Colin Kaepernick and the players that protested.  A majority of people are somewhere in between taking selfies of themselves kneeling before the flag and demanding the players be fined, fired, tarred, feathered and deported.  The league heard both sides, but ultimately what they heard were television sets being turned off and people taking to social media to proudly boast how they were no longer spending their Sundays watching the NFL.  The league was driven by dollars and profit margins, and made a decision that they believe stops the bleeding in terms of reaction and impact on dollars.

How NFL owners feel about continued anthem protest

Let’s be clear folks, while the league did see a drop in viewership and attendance, the league did not see a drop in revenue, in fact that had another double digit billion-dollar year, so they are by no means hurting (sorry MAGA Breibart guy who keeps saying “bye bye NFL”, we’re not quite there yet even with all your hard core MAGA boycotting).  The capitulated to the demands of Donald Trump and those his supporters who derided the players as disrespecting the flag, military, police, and pretty much everything American.  The owners will never say it publicly, but it seems as though they feared what sort of negative impact additional negative tweets from Donald Trump could create given Trumps ability to shift media and social media focus by hitting send from his twitter account.

Why the league didn’t go further and could not really fully appease the MAGA crowd and Trump has nothing to do with caring about the players right to protest or the issues they were protesting, but has everything to do with the CBA and the league’s previous action/inaction regarding the anthem.  The league’s former rule required each player to be on the sideline but did not specify that they had to stand, thus allowed to kneel, thus protest.

The NFL can’t unilaterally make a change to player policy without bargaining with and approval from the NFLPA due to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. That being said the rule regarding the National Anthem is nowhere in the CBA (learned the hard way as I literally read the entire thing looking for it), no the rule is oddly enough in the Game Day Operations Manual (which does make sense, just annoyed it wasn’t where I thought it was going to be).  The Game Day Operations are not collectively bargained and therefore could be (and have been) changed by the league and the players would have little say, but there is a caveat that has to do with timing.  The league over the last two seasons has stressed to the NFLPA and the public that the players have a right to protest and that right will not be impeded.

NFL CBA limits NFL making a firm unilateral decision on Anthem

Because the league didn’t come out and implicitly say two years ago “Everyone has to be on the sideline for the Anthem and Stand for the Anthem, the league actually painted themselves into this corner of compromise.  You’re probably asking why they just don’t say “you have to be on the sideline and you have to stand”, and again that has to do with the league saying the last two years that the players have a right to protest.  If the league office didn’t leave that loophole of “staying in the locker room”, they knew that the NFLPA would most likely be able to challenge the rule and likely win on the grounds that it’s a change in policy based on the league’s own words and that policy should be collectively bargained.

Because the league didn’t take a strong stance one way or another two seasons ago when this first came up, they were left with this compromise of a policy that is generating just as much negative media coverage and outrage as the players kneeling.

Why were players protesting – injustice

By now you’ve been made aware that the players were not kneeling to disrespect the flag, veterans, active duty, you, or your dog.  I will note that the message got convoluted and turned into kneeling about social injustice in general, early on there were more specific concerns that at least Colin Kaepernick was kneeling for.  Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Eric Garner are just a few names of many that were killed by police unjustifiably. Not only did the police take these men’s lives, but there was no punishment administered beyond administrative leave.

Protesters at a rally against injustice. Why NFL Players were kneeling

Even more recently a body cam video was released of Milwaukee police arresting and using a Taser on Milwaukee Bucks NBA player Sterling Brown over a parking ticket.  Watch the first 8:00 minutes of the video for a sense of how these situations happen and why people are upset about it.   If your argument is he should just comply, ok fine, then explain this video of a woman being very disrespectful to police officers and interfering with them issuing students a citation. It’s never been about special treatment or extra benefits, it’s always been about fair, equitable, and just.

The result – Fans reaction MAGA vs. Woke

My reaction – Disappointment in the league, disappointment in those who continue to make it about the flag, about the military, about police, and about patriotism.  They ignore the fact that fellow citizens, even if a small percentage face injustice and constitutional violations.

Wow!! The players union hates America. Find another way to protest, you dumbass players. What does the NFL have to do with ( alleged ) police brutality ? Time to boycott the NFL for good. These Kneelers will be working at McDonalds and protesting for $15/hour. 😂😂😂👍🏻

— bob morrissey (@majik7out) May 24, 2018

They ignore it because they don’t want to see rich black athletes “complain” about anything because they’re rich.  Oddly enough that same crowd gets infuriated if there’s a protest or a march for similar issues by everyday citizens that are not celebrities or entertainers.  When black people protest we get labeled as domestic terrorist or hit with the stigma of wanting handouts or being whiners, or reminded that other groups in this country got shit on too so why are we complaining.  What they want is compliance and silence.  Whatever issues or concerns black people have, they should handle them quietly, on their own, out of sight, and out of mind.  How dare black people have the audacity to demand equitable and fair treatment, when we had a black president therefore racism is over and everyone can relax. Doesn’t matter how many statistics they see, videos, reports, examples in their everyday lives (i.e. the white people who tell unemployed black people to get a job, but would never actually hire a black person, qualified or not) the entire argument of equality is non-starter for a lot of people in our great country.

I’m disappointed how this divided the nation and confirmed that this country has a long way to go regarding race relations.  Part of the country believes everything would be fine if no one ever talked about race ever, and there’s another faction that will blame the wind blowing the wrong direction on white people.  There’s also the group in between that live their lives and are tired of the rhetoric from both sides, but feel as though they have little influence over the whole thing so they say and do nothing, which allows the loudest voice on either side to dominate the conversation and prevent any real change from happening.

I’m disappointed that the same #Woke people that want to highlight everything positive Colin Kaepernick has done off the field, along with Malcolm Jenkins, Kenny Stills, the Cleveland Browns, Chris Long, and others, are the same people saying they’re going to boycott the game to hurt the league because the policy/message isn’t to their standards.

Looks like I'm boycotting #NFL for life. How's cricket and futbol? https://t.co/UZWCBKbv7Z

— Karen Hunter (@karenhunter) May 23, 2018

You want to hurt the very league that has given these players a platform and the resources to speak out on these issues and directly impact these issues through their non-profit organizations and philanthropy.  Yes, the league is caving to pressure regarding the anthem issue, but we can’t forget the tangible examples of good the players and even yes the league and some of its owners have contributed to society.  We can and should hold the league to a high standard, but in my opinion this fight needs to shift to actual actions that help resolve the issue.  If you want to continue to debate kneeling fine, but now I want to receipts on what this kneeling is producing.  I want to see what the league is going to do in terms of involvement in the neighborhoods, helping to mend relationships between the black community and police, I want to see what the league does for education and recreation for kids in the inner city with few options.  And I want to continue to see it from the players.  NFL players have a long history of social activism and philanthropy and that isn’t changing.  While the players kneeling has an impact, it’s now a story that’s been bastardized by the media, and by our President and turned into a story about kneeling itself, the message has been hijacked.  The way to take the story back is to show the work that’s being done and the results from that work.  What’s a more powerful message, a white police officer walking and talking with a black youth about his day and his grades where both feel safe or a player kneeling?  It’s time to stop talking about the change we want to see and to kick up the efforts to produce this change and bring it to reality.

The NFL missed the mark here, and I don’t anticipate the media doing them any favors by letting this die.  The media will absolutely count the number of players on the sidelines, they will have cameras pointing at the tunnels as soon as the anthem is over to see who comes out, and the media will craft narratives based on what they feel will create the most buzz, get the most clicks, ultimately generating the most cash.  This will not die, it will not go away, POTUS, ESPN, Fox News and Sports will drive this down our throats for at least another season.  Hopefully I’m wrong here and the focus is on the sport and the good the players are doing and for once the media thinks of the greater good than creating chaos in the name of clickbait.

There’s plenty of blame to go around here, from the President down to the obnoxious twitter troll and everyone in between.  This isn’t a referendum on the NFL, it’s a referendum of the country we live in.