The NFL and NFLPA Have Paused Enforcing Kneeling for the Anthem Rules
We're actually back to talking about NFL players kneeling (Super Bowl Executive Producer Promises: We’ll Show Kneeling Players and Report: NFL to Bribe Kneeling Players with $89 Million). Which is kinda funny. Because after Trump's disastrous Putin presser, I sarcastically said this:
Even Fox News is blasting Trump for today. Quick. Someone say something about a football player kneeling.— Socially DistantAF (@Socially DistantAF) 1531762067.0
Twitter is going to be straight fire on Friday!
Some backstory. The NFL and the players' union came to a compromise over the National Anthem. If you wanted to "protest" you could stay in the locker room. But if you came out, you were expected to stand. That agreement is on hold.
The National Football League and NFL Players Association have issued a joint statement that league and team policies regarding conduct during the national anthem will not be issued or enforced for several weeks as part of a standstill agreement between the two sides.The move comes as word broke today of a special plan by the Miami Dolphins to punish players. The league and the Players Association were headed to an independent arbitration on the anthem policy.
The decision for a standstill temporarily avoids a potentially ugly dispute between the league and players who have become increasingly vocal about their right to protest during the national anthem. The Players Association contends that banning protests infringes on the players’ civil rights.
https://t.co/4dEMTwzbLv https://t.co/sMp8zInCZZ— NFLPA (@NFLPA) 1532050910.0
Am I the only one who just wants NFL RedZone on in the background while I constantly refresh my fantasy football scores?
Here's the dumbest thing in all of this. The players say the protests are about criminal justice and police brutality. Maybe in the beginning, that was true. But to quote Frank Luntz, it's not what you say, it's what people hear. Also, optics are a sonuvabitch. All the protests look like now is a giant f*** you to President Trump. Which, in the media, gets turned in to a giant f*** you to the half of America who supports Trump. Plus those of us who just want seven hours on Sunday to not get bombarded with politics. So.
Whatever the original intent of the protesting two years ago, it's been lost. Time to move on and find another way. People just want to watch football. The NFL just wants to make money on players playing football. It's time to move on.
