© Paul Childs / Reuters
Sunday saw an unprecedented number of NFL players and staff engaging in a protest against the US national anthem after President Donald Trump called for protesting players to be fired.
In the opening game of the day, more than 20 players from the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars knelt and linked arms during the pre-game national anthem as an act of protest.
The owner of the Jaguars, Shad Khan, also took part in the demonstration. Khan had previously donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund.
The protests escalated when a slate of nine games kicked off Sunday afternoon.
Athletes and coaches from nearly every team playing either took a knee to protest the anthem or locked arms in solidarity with players who were demonstrating.#TakeTheKnee has been trending on social media as people share images of the protests.
At the Atlanta Falcons v Detroit Lions game anthem singer Rico LaVelle also took part in the demonstration.
The Pittsburgh Steelers elected not to take part, instead staying in the locker room. However,
one of their players, army veteran Alejandro Villanueva, stood in the tunnel with his hand over his heart.
Trump took to Twitter to claim that the linked arms demonstration showed "great solidarity" for the national anthem. He then added, however: "Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"
The fresh wave of protests came after the president repeatedly criticised the anthem protests in recent days.
"If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast," Trump
tweeted earlier on Sunday. "Fire or suspend!"
He then followed that up with a tweet saying
the league is losing popularity because people are turned off by the ongoing anthem protests which were started last year by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Speaking at a rally for Republican Senator Luther Strange in Alabama on Friday night, Trump suggested any NFL player protesting the Star Spangled Banner should be fired.
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He's fired. He's fired!'" he said.
"You know, some owner is going to do that. He's going to say, 'That guy that disrespects our flag, he's fired.' And that owner, they don't know it [but] they'll be the most popular person in this country."
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
said the comments showed an "unfortunate lack of respect" for the league, while
the owners of several NFL teams released statements criticizing Trump.
Robert Kraft, the owner of the Super Bowl winning team the New England Patriots, was among those to attack the president, despite the fact that Trump considers him a friend.
"I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the president on Friday," Kraft said in a statement posted on the Patriot's Twitter account.
The University of North Carolina men's basketball team, who are NCAA national champions, announced on Saturday that they would not visit the White House, while Trump withdrew the invitation for the NBA champions, Golden State Warriors.
It hasn't been all bad news on the sports front for President Trump. The Pittsburgh Penguins, who are champions of the National Hockey League, announced on Sunday that the team has accepted an invitation to visit the White House for the traditional ceremony.
Comment: In contrast to the NFL, NASCAR owners are standing firm
against kneeling:
Richard Petty who co-owns Richard Petty Motorsports told the AP that anyone who refuses to stand for the national anthem should be forced to leave the country.
"Anybody that don't stand up for the anthem oughta be out of the country. Period. What got 'em where they're at? The United States," Petty said.
Those sentiments were echoed by another owner, Richard Childress, who said any protests from his team members would "get you a ride on a Greyhound bus."
"Anybody that works for me should respect the country we live in. So many people gave their lives for it. This is America," Childress said according to Yahoo sports.
Owner Andy Murstein also condemned the protesters but took a more conciliatory stance. When asked what he would do with an employee who takes a knee, Murstein told ESPN: "I would sit down with them and say it's the wrong thing to do that and many people, including myself, view it as an affront to our great country."
"If there is disenchantment towards the president or a few bad law enforcement officers, don't have it cross over to all that is still good and right about our country."
There was one notable exception to the hegemony, however, with driver and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr backing the right of all Americans to peaceful protest, by quoting JFK on Twitter.
Trump tweeted his appreciation for the stance of most involved with NASCAR on Monday morning, saying he's "so proud" of the sporting organization and its fans.
Judge Jeanine Pirro chimed on
on Fox to say "shame on you" to all players taking the knee, as well as commissioner Roger Goodell:
Roger, if my memory serves me correctly your stance on some of the NFL players and the women they batter is somewhat problematic. Think Ray Rice... and Josh Brown.
And a neuropathologist examining the brains of 111 NFL players found 110 to have CTE aka "chronic traumatic encephalopathy" the degenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head.
Instead of mouthing off about how you are a force for good, Roger, maybe you ought to get ready to reveal damaging information when the lawsuits start. Think Aaron Hernandez.
According to USA Today NFL player arrests are not only disproportionate to the general population, but the violence associated with these arrests is shocking. And I'm not even talking about the homicides.
And Commissioner, instead of taking sides against the national anthem, maybe you ought to think about your stock holders, your investors.
Even though the stock market, thanks to President Trump is at an all-time high, there is one area that is suffering greatly. Companies that broadcast, yes, the NFL games.
They are all down. Do you think that just maybe there is a correlation between the NFL broadcasting stock slump, the NFL TV ratings fall off, as the protests by these Bozos rises? Attendance is down at NFL games. Sunday night football viewership is down at least 7 percent.
...
Here's my take: People watch sports to get away from day-to-day stresses, work, illness, financial worries, we don't need to be reminded of political divisions.
...
There are so many of you who make tens of millions of dollars why don't you get together and take care of the social injustice instead of disrespecting our country?
The country that has turned you into heroes while you train 8-year-olds who don't know any better to take a knee against America... because they're taking their lead from all of you when they don't know any better.
See also:
Update (Sept. 26)Restaurants across the US are boycotting NFL games due to the player protests. They say they'll start showing the games again once players begin paying respect to their flag and country again. The crowd at Monday's Dallas Cowboys game
booed the team as the entire members locked arms and kneeled before the anthem. However, they stood up for the anthem, earning some Trump praise:
The opposing team, Arizona's Cardinals, stood with arms locked.
Update (Sept. 28): When games were broadcast on Sunday, networks made sure not to show images of angry fans booing the anthem protest. One staffer even told
Sporting News that camera operators had been told to avoid crowd shots for this very reason (CBS denied the allegation). Networks usually don't broadcast the anthem. As Sporting News put it yesterday:
By covering one of the most significant days in NFL history with rose-colored glasses, the networks cheated viewers. We got an incomplete picture of what really happened in stadiums on Sunday and Monday.
Whatever the politics involved, the protests are bad for business. The CEO Hardwick Clothing, America's oldest suit maker, just announced he is
pulling the company's wardrobe sponsorship and advertising from the NFL. Louisiana state rep Kenny Havard is pushing a bill to
stop subsidizing the New Orleans Saints.
"I totally agree with their right to protest and I think it just needs to be done somewhere else. They can do it in the streets, they can do it on Sunday mornings... They can do it wherever they want, but not during our national anthem. I think it's disgraceful."
According to a 2015 piece in Forbes, Saints owner Tom Benson could potentially make around $400 million via state taxpayer dollars through 2025.
And just in case you thought this was an issue that could in no way involve
Russians, you were wrong. Russian trolls are allegedly fanning the flames:
Russian Internet "trolls" are exploiting a controversy over protests against police violence by black American football players to stir up divisions in the United States, a senator on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on September 27.
Senator James Lankford (Republican-Oklahoma) said paid social-media users, or what he called "trolls," have been fanning both sides of a heated public debate that emerged recently after some black football players, to protest against recently reported incidents of police violence against black crime suspects, knelt on the ground rather than stood up, as is traditional when the U.S. national anthem is played.
...
Lankford said the Russian trolls, who congressional aides said were detected by U.S. intelligence agencies that briefed committee members, are not taking sides in the dispute but rather are seeking to amplify the anger expressed by people on both sides.
"They were taking both sides of the argument this past weekend, and pushing them out from their troll farms as much as they could to try to just raise the noise level in America and to make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue," Lankford said at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
Comment: In contrast to the NFL, NASCAR owners are standing firm against kneeling: Judge Jeanine Pirro chimed on on Fox to say "shame on you" to all players taking the knee, as well as commissioner Roger Goodell: See also:
Restaurants across the US are boycotting NFL games due to the player protests. They say they'll start showing the games again once players begin paying respect to their flag and country again. The crowd at Monday's Dallas Cowboys game booed the team as the entire members locked arms and kneeled before the anthem. However, they stood up for the anthem, earning some Trump praise:
The opposing team, Arizona's Cardinals, stood with arms locked.
Update (Sept. 28): When games were broadcast on Sunday, networks made sure not to show images of angry fans booing the anthem protest. One staffer even told Sporting News that camera operators had been told to avoid crowd shots for this very reason (CBS denied the allegation). Networks usually don't broadcast the anthem. As Sporting News put it yesterday: Whatever the politics involved, the protests are bad for business. The CEO Hardwick Clothing, America's oldest suit maker, just announced he is pulling the company's wardrobe sponsorship and advertising from the NFL. Louisiana state rep Kenny Havard is pushing a bill to stop subsidizing the New Orleans Saints. And just in case you thought this was an issue that could in no way involve Russians, you were wrong. Russian trolls are allegedly fanning the flames: