NFL bans kneeling during the national anthem

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/sports/nfl-anthem-kneeling.html?partner=rss&emc=rss  (go into incognito mode to get past the paywall)

I commend the NFL for ensuring that we see only the expressions of greatest respect for our flag and anthem on the field.

Because nothing shows respect for the American flag and national anthem like attacking a core part of what those symbols stand for

[TPIG]

The NFL is a private institution. None of these players have an inherent right to their jobs with the NFL, and if they don't want to respect its policies, they can leave. I'm glad to see such a popular institution be unafraid to stand up for this country.

[CookieDamage]

If it was white players bending the knee cuz of some conservative reason y'all ugly Trump supporters would be loving them

[courts]

there are people that didn't vote for trump that support the nfl decision.and people that voted for him that disagree with it in thread..op isn't even a trump voter

[OSR stands with Israel]

If I were an NFL owner, if a protest was divisive and resulting in alienating parts of the fanbase, I also would implement a rule against that protest during work hours on game day as well. It has nothing to do with politics, it's just business.

[junior chįmp]

This wouldn't be such a big deal if it we're white NASCAR drivers kneeling over some mindless right wing inspired drivel during Obama's presidency.

The fact is that just seeing a bunch of blacks kneeling pisses off alot of white suburban folk...And I'm not even being SJW here since I could care less what the NFL does.

This is just another one of those pointless issues that gives right wing loons something to obsess about. Back when I was in High school, right wing cry babies had CBS cancel a Ronald Reagan miniseries because it didn't portray him as 100% perfect with no faults:

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[OSR stands with Israel]

This wouldn't be such a big deal if it we're white NASCAR drivers kneeling over some mindless right wing inspired drivel during Obama's presidency.

The fact is that just seeing a bunch of blacks kneeling pisses off alot of white suburban folk...And I'm not even being SJW here since I could care less what the NFL does.

This is just another one of those pointless issues that gives right wing loons something to obsess about. Back when I was in High school, right wing cry babies had CBS cancel a Ronald Reagan miniseries because it didn't portray him as 100% perfect with no faults:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The players could always just protest outside of work hours.

[junior chįmp]

The players could always just protest outside of work hours.

Nope...that won't satisfy them either. You belong to a party that thinks being gay in your private life is a justifiable reason for work termination.

You really think protesting outside of work will end the issue? C'mon....this is just another one of those pointless culture war issues meant to rile up the dumb masses of this country. You go back to the Iraq war, everyone who was against it even privately basically was relentlessly attacked:

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And nobody even bothers bringing up all of these right wing bills that try and ban protesting against police brutality and Israel:

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It's amazing that somehow the right manages to get away with this image of "the defenders of free speech" when they are just as easily triggered and intolerant

[Maxwell]

Most NFL fans support the new policy


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/poll-nfl-fans-overwhelmingly-support-leagues-national-anthem-policy-193906840.html

NFL fans have always had utter contempt for the actual players and don't tend to view them as real humans.

I mean think of it - NFL fans couldn't be less concerned about brain damage from the game, and were in fact angry over the attempt to research the link between CTEs and playing of the game. But as soon as one player makes a political statement in maybe the most inoffensive way ever, they're as loud as ever.

Some, I assume, are good people.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

If it was white players bending the knee cuz of some conservative reason y'all ugly Trump supporters would be loving them

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm against any kneeling during the anthem regardless of the reasoning.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

If it was white players bending the knee cuz of some conservative reason y'all ugly Trump supporters would be loving them

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm against any kneeling during the anthem regardless of the reasoning.

And no one is forcing you to do so.

[junior chįmp]

Most NFL fans support the new policy


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/poll-nfl-fans-overwhelmingly-support-leagues-national-anthem-policy-193906840.html

NFL fans have always had utter contempt for the actual players and don't tend to view them as real humans.

I mean think of it - NFL fans couldn't be less concerned about brain damage from the game, and were in fact angry over the attempt to research the link between CTEs and playing of the game. But as soon as one player makes a political statement in maybe the most inoffensive way ever, they're as loud as ever.

Some, I assume, are good people.

Well....NFL fans say the just want "politics out of sports,"....but nevermind of course that the Pentagon spends millions of tax payer dollars to the NFL for paid patriotism.

Maybe it Kopernick wrote them a check....they'll change their minds

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

If for some reason I am ever compelled to go to a football game (highly unlikely), I'll kneel during the anthem just to trigger some people.

I'll dress in all black, so it will look professional.

[HillGoose]

they're a private organization, they can do whatever they want.

i dont care if they ban kneeling or support it, either way its completely in their right to

[136or142]

The name National Socialists (Nazis), which was prior to Hitler joining it (known then as the German Workers Party), a standard European authoritarian right wing party, derived from the concept that patriotism in Germany could be enforced from the top down via its citizens being forced to unite behind common causes (from Wiki: sought to convince all parts of the new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the "common good."')

So, it's not at all invoking Godwin's Law to argue that those who want enforced patriotism here have the same spirit as the original Nazis.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

If it was white players bending the knee cuz of some conservative reason y'all ugly Trump supporters would be loving them

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm against any kneeling during the anthem regardless of the reasoning.

[YE]

If for some reason I am ever compelled to go to a football game (highly unlikely), I'll kneel during the anthem just to trigger some people.

I'll dress in all black, so it will look professional.

I do that every time I go to a football game (which is often - sometimes weekly during football season) and it has triggered exactly no one

[Torrain]

If it was white players bending the knee cuz of some conservative reason y'all ugly Trump supporters would be loving them

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm against any kneeling during the anthem regardless of the reasoning.

Can I ask why? Subverting national symbols like National Anthems and patriotic songs as a way to protest the status quo is a long accepted form of dissent.
(See the abolitionists altering the lyrics of 'My Country This of Thee' to spread their message, UK republicans refusing to sing the National Anthem to show their antipathy to the monarch).

[Cold War Liberal]

Trump: "Maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the flag

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Disgusting totalitarianism espoused from the President yet again.

My opinion on this issue:

There need to be actual reasons to feel national pride before symbols of pride mean anything.

I know (or knew; many are now dead) many men of the WWII generation who would wholeheartedly agree with Donald Trump on this issue, including some who never voted Republican in their lives.  These are the men that defended our country and defeated REAL facism during WWII.  Men like the REAL JFK, not posers with a red avatar.  A few I knew were Ellis Island immigrants; many were first generation American born.  To a man, they'd agree with Trump.

Their reasons for national pride was the freedom it gave them.  Their reasons for national pride was that they were citizens of a nation that took them in, made them one of their own, and was a GOOD nation as well as a GREAT nation.

You have no idea as to what either goodness or greatness is.

While I am not a big fan of having the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem leading off every public meeting or sporting event I attend, others disagree with me, and I may well be in the minority in our society on this issue.  When the National Anthem is part of the venue, I stand for the flag because I love my country, and I revere its ideals, even when they're honored in the breach more than in the observance.  And there is something wrong with someone who has been given the opportunity the NFL affords its players when they can't stand for the National Anthem as far as I'm concerned.  I stand to honor both our nation and the flesh-and-blood men who fought to defend it, and especially those who fought in the most terrible war in history, WWII. 

A few things:
1) what some dead person who I admire thinks is not the main thing influencing my positions on current issues
2) I never called Trump fascist, I called this particular statement of his totalitarian, which is different and much more accurate
3) I stand for the anthem because I love the stated ideals of this somewhat flawed country. If I didn't I'd leave, I have the means to. One of the ideals is freedom of expression and the ability to protest, and the freedom to speak out against protest you don't like, and discuss issues like police brutality that need to be addressed.
4) to assume that people who have the means to leave America hate America because they don't stand up for what is ultimately a silly song is ludicrous. You don't know Colin Kaepernick so how can you make a judgement about a person like that?
5) soldiers like my great grandfather (Korea) and both grandfathers (Vietnam) didn't fight for a piece of cloth and some song, they fought for the country and the right to do things like protest. But please, lecture me about the sacrifices they were prepared to make and what they were prepared to make them for.

[7,052,770]

If white NFL players were kneeling for the national anthem to protest the legality of abortion, they would be widely loved and lauded by conservatives.

Not unanimously so, but the anger and vitriol from the Right wouldn't be nearly as high.

[The Dowager Mod]

If white NFL players were kneeling for the national anthem to protest the legality of abortion, they would be widely loved and lauded by conservatives.

Not unanimously so, but the anger and vitriol from the Right wouldn't be nearly as high.

*cough* Tim Tebow *cough*

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Trump: "Maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the flag

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Disgusting totalitarianism espoused from the President yet again.

My opinion on this issue:

There need to be actual reasons to feel national pride before symbols of pride mean anything.

I know (or knew; many are now dead) many men of the WWII generation who would wholeheartedly agree with Donald Trump on this issue, including some who never voted Republican in their lives.  These are the men that defended our country and defeated REAL facism during WWII.  Men like the REAL JFK, not posers with a red avatar.  A few I knew were Ellis Island immigrants; many were first generation American born.  To a man, they'd agree with Trump.

Their reasons for national pride was the freedom it gave them.  Their reasons for national pride was that they were citizens of a nation that took them in, made them one of their own, and was a GOOD nation as well as a GREAT nation.

You have no idea as to what either goodness or greatness is.

While I am not a big fan of having the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem leading off every public meeting or sporting event I attend, others disagree with me, and I may well be in the minority in our society on this issue.  When the National Anthem is part of the venue, I stand for the flag because I love my country, and I revere its ideals, even when they're honored in the breach more than in the observance.  And there is something wrong with someone who has been given the opportunity the NFL affords its players when they can't stand for the National Anthem as far as I'm concerned.  I stand to honor both our nation and the flesh-and-blood men who fought to defend it, and especially those who fought in the most terrible war in history, WWII. 

A few things:
1) what some dead person who I admire thinks is not the main thing influencing my positions on current issues
2) I never called Trump fascist, I called this particular statement of his totalitarian, which is different and much more accurate
3) I stand for the anthem because I love the stated ideals of this somewhat flawed country. If I didn't I'd leave, I have the means to. One of the ideals is freedom of expression and the ability to protest, and the freedom to speak out against protest you don't like, and discuss issues like police brutality that need to be addressed.
4) to assume that people who have the means to leave America hate America because they don't stand up for what is ultimately a silly song is ludicrous. You don't know Colin Kaepernick so how can you make a judgement about a person like that?
5) soldiers like my great grandfather (Korea) and both grandfathers (Vietnam) didn't fight for a piece of cloth and some song, they fought for the country and the right to do things like protest. But please, lecture me about the sacrifices they were prepared to make and what they were prepared to make them for.

I doubt your great-grandfather would have been thrilled to see flag-burners.

If your grandfathers got spat upon at an airport or a bus station by some misguided peacenik types, if they ever got called "baby killers", "murderers" and such while wearing their uniform stateside, I can assure you that this behavior came about because the "kneelers" of that generation made it OK in certain circles to do so.

Now I notice you've now got the screen name "Cold War Liberal".  You and I may not be as far apart on this issue as it initially appears.  I would suggest, however, that it was the "Cold War Liberals" that the "kneelers" of 1972 declared as their enemy and spent the next 20 years trying to run them out of the Democratic Party.  There's nothing "liberal" in hating America, and that's the real posture of a significant number of the "kneelers".  

[Person Man]

Trump: "Maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the flag

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Disgusting totalitarianism espoused from the President yet again.

My opinion on this issue:

There need to be actual reasons to feel national pride before symbols of pride mean anything.

I know (or knew; many are now dead) many men of the WWII generation who would wholeheartedly agree with Donald Trump on this issue, including some who never voted Republican in their lives.  These are the men that defended our country and defeated REAL facism during WWII.  Men like the REAL JFK, not posers with a red avatar.  A few I knew were Ellis Island immigrants; many were first generation American born.  To a man, they'd agree with Trump.

Their reasons for national pride was the freedom it gave them.  Their reasons for national pride was that they were citizens of a nation that took them in, made them one of their own, and was a GOOD nation as well as a GREAT nation.

You have no idea as to what either goodness or greatness is.

While I am not a big fan of having the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem leading off every public meeting or sporting event I attend, others disagree with me, and I may well be in the minority in our society on this issue.  When the National Anthem is part of the venue, I stand for the flag because I love my country, and I revere its ideals, even when they're honored in the breach more than in the observance.  And there is something wrong with someone who has been given the opportunity the NFL affords its players when they can't stand for the National Anthem as far as I'm concerned.  I stand to honor both our nation and the flesh-and-blood men who fought to defend it, and especially those who fought in the most terrible war in history, WWII. 

A few things:
1) what some dead person who I admire thinks is not the main thing influencing my positions on current issues
2) I never called Trump fascist, I called this particular statement of his totalitarian, which is different and much more accurate
3) I stand for the anthem because I love the stated ideals of this somewhat flawed country. If I didn't I'd leave, I have the means to. One of the ideals is freedom of expression and the ability to protest, and the freedom to speak out against protest you don't like, and discuss issues like police brutality that need to be addressed.
4) to assume that people who have the means to leave America hate America because they don't stand up for what is ultimately a silly song is ludicrous. You don't know Colin Kaepernick so how can you make a judgement about a person like that?
5) soldiers like my great grandfather (Korea) and both grandfathers (Vietnam) didn't fight for a piece of cloth and some song, they fought for the country and the right to do things like protest. But please, lecture me about the sacrifices they were prepared to make and what they were prepared to make them for.

I doubt your great-grandfather would have been thrilled to see flag-burners.

If your grandfathers got spat upon at an airport or a bus station by some misguided peacenik types, if they ever got called "baby killers", "murderers" and such while wearing their uniform stateside, I can assure you that this behavior came about because the "kneelers" of that generation made it OK in certain circles to do so.

Now I notice you've now got the screen name "Cold War Liberal".  You and I may not be as far apart on this issue as it initially appears.  I would suggest, however, that it was the "Cold War Liberals" that the "kneelers" of 1972 declared as their enemy and spent the next 20 years trying to run them out of the Democratic Party.  There's nothing "liberal" in hating America, and that's the real posture of a significant number of the "kneelers".  

Why would people be trying to improve America if they hated it? I no understand.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

If white NFL players were kneeling for the national anthem to protest the legality of abortion, they would be widely loved and lauded by conservatives.

Not unanimously so, but the anger and vitriol from the Right wouldn't be nearly as high.

*cough* Tim Tebow *cough*

Not true.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Trump: "Maybe you shouldn't be in the country" if you don't stand for the flag

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Disgusting totalitarianism espoused from the President yet again.

My opinion on this issue:

There need to be actual reasons to feel national pride before symbols of pride mean anything.

I know (or knew; many are now dead) many men of the WWII generation who would wholeheartedly agree with Donald Trump on this issue, including some who never voted Republican in their lives.  These are the men that defended our country and defeated REAL facism during WWII.  Men like the REAL JFK, not posers with a red avatar.  A few I knew were Ellis Island immigrants; many were first generation American born.  To a man, they'd agree with Trump.

Their reasons for national pride was the freedom it gave them.  Their reasons for national pride was that they were citizens of a nation that took them in, made them one of their own, and was a GOOD nation as well as a GREAT nation.

You have no idea as to what either goodness or greatness is.

While I am not a big fan of having the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem leading off every public meeting or sporting event I attend, others disagree with me, and I may well be in the minority in our society on this issue.  When the National Anthem is part of the venue, I stand for the flag because I love my country, and I revere its ideals, even when they're honored in the breach more than in the observance.  And there is something wrong with someone who has been given the opportunity the NFL affords its players when they can't stand for the National Anthem as far as I'm concerned.  I stand to honor both our nation and the flesh-and-blood men who fought to defend it, and especially those who fought in the most terrible war in history, WWII. 

A few things:
1) what some dead person who I admire thinks is not the main thing influencing my positions on current issues
2) I never called Trump fascist, I called this particular statement of his totalitarian, which is different and much more accurate
3) I stand for the anthem because I love the stated ideals of this somewhat flawed country. If I didn't I'd leave, I have the means to. One of the ideals is freedom of expression and the ability to protest, and the freedom to speak out against protest you don't like, and discuss issues like police brutality that need to be addressed.
4) to assume that people who have the means to leave America hate America because they don't stand up for what is ultimately a silly song is ludicrous. You don't know Colin Kaepernick so how can you make a judgement about a person like that?
5) soldiers like my great grandfather (Korea) and both grandfathers (Vietnam) didn't fight for a piece of cloth and some song, they fought for the country and the right to do things like protest. But please, lecture me about the sacrifices they were prepared to make and what they were prepared to make them for.

I doubt your great-grandfather would have been thrilled to see flag-burners.

If your grandfathers got spat upon at an airport or a bus station by some misguided peacenik types, if they ever got called "baby killers", "murderers" and such while wearing their uniform stateside, I can assure you that this behavior came about because the "kneelers" of that generation made it OK in certain circles to do so.

Now I notice you've now got the screen name "Cold War Liberal".  You and I may not be as far apart on this issue as it initially appears.  I would suggest, however, that it was the "Cold War Liberals" that the "kneelers" of 1972 declared as their enemy and spent the next 20 years trying to run them out of the Democratic Party.  There's nothing "liberal" in hating America, and that's the real posture of a significant number of the "kneelers".  

Why would people be trying to improve America if they hated it? I no understand.

Many of the "kneelers" are not working to "improve America".  They are working to improve the conditions of "the black community", not America as a whole, and while those two goals aren't mutually exclusive, they do involve different concepts.  They are no more tied into the idea of being part of the whole of America than the neo-Confederates, who, really, aren't a part of the nation that is the United States of America.  (Those folks think they're doing a great thing defending Confederate monuments, and that may or may not be so, but that's not something they're doing for "America".)

America is not improved when an environment is created to where persons honestly believe that they have the right to resist a lawful arrest (e. g. Eric Garner) or not be captured and taken into custody after committing a violent felony (e. g. Michael Brown).  I've yet to hear one of the "kneelers' condemn Michael Brown's strong-arm robbery of a frail woman at a convenience store.  That silence convinces me that it's not the well-being of America as a whole that they are working to advance.