NFL Protests: The Facts

Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem of the San Francisco 49ers preseason games of the 2016 season. Since Kaepernick, over 200 NFL players have since protested due to various reasons. Kaepernick began protesting due to the police brutality and racial inequality in America. Kaepernick’s kneeling was controversial and has lead to more controversy since more and more players began kneeling during the National Anthem.

There are many questions that arise when people see an individual kneeling during our nation’s song. Should we be focusing on a player kneeling during the Anthem rather than focusing on serious issues such as illegal immigration and domestic abuse? Is this action a disrespectful gesture towards the veterans who have fought to preserve this country? Since he is peacefully protesting, why is what he’s doing considered wrong?

The biggest reason this protest is looked at on such a big scale is due to Kaepernick supposedly “disrespecting” America and all of the veterans. Since he kneeled during the National Anthem, many people are viewing this protest as distasteful and more or less a publicity stunt. This has lead to the NFL losing ratings as people don’t want to support them because of the protesting happening prior to kick-off. According to the Washington Post author Bryan Flaherty, Kaepernick stated, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” This statement was following the game that started the protests back in 2016. It is written within NFL contracts that the players are encouraged to stand for the anthem, but are not required to as stated by the NFL.

Where the “disrespect” view comes from is that the United States military has fought for the freedom of the citizens that reside within the states. It is viewed that Kaepernick doesn’t care or think that it is important to acknowledge what the military does for the country. The other side of that argument is that the military fought to protect the citizens which includes the first amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Those who have served in the military are fighting for these rights, specifically in this case, the freedom of speech. Kaepernick is using his rights to protest how minorities are treated in the country as are many other NFL players.

President Donald Trump has put his own view out for the public. President Donald Trump has said that NFL owners should be firing those who partake in the protests. Trump believes that if fans were to get up and leave the stadium as the protests are happening, this will all stop. One thing that many people believe is that politics should not be involved in sports. If sports and the players shouldn’t be involved in political issues, should political figures be bringing sports into spotlight. People oppose politics in sports because when an individual goes home to watch the game of the week on Sunday, they want to sit and enjoy one of America’s favoured pastimes. Football is viewed as entertainment, a distraction from what is happening in the real world. If football, basketball, baseball, etc, players shouldn’t be using the NFL or whatever sports program to express their political views, should the leader of our country be speaking indirectly to them that they should be fired and what they are doing is wrong for peacefully protesting rather than burning down buildings and violently rioting through cities?

The NFL has taken hits since the protests began. Sponsors have withdrawn from the NFL due to these protests, one being Papa Johns. Papa Johns and others sponsors have dropped their sponsorship with the NFL due to their views on the protests that are happening. Papa John’s claims that they are losing sales due to the NFL. Apparently people choose what pizza chain they will go to based on the NFL, not because some certain pizza chains (I’m looking at you Papa John’s) claim that tomato sauce on cardboard counts as pizza. As per New York Post author Zach Braziller, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell states, ““[I want to] get beyond what we call protest to progress, get to the point where we can make that positive change, because people come to our stadiums to be entertained, have fun, not be protested to.” NFL players met with owners to hopefully discuss a resolution, but alas, no resolution was found.

Roger Goodell is not a fan of the protests and if he can’t solve the issue peacefully, he will be handing out suspensions as he believes this is the proper way to handle this. According to New York Author Zach Braziller, Goodell also said, ““It goes to courts and court after court and appeals court, and you get into a legal process and it holds. So from our standpoint, we think that it works. As painful as it is, we feel we have to do it.”

The NFL protests are doing what all of the players wanted it to do. It has disgruntled the viewers and made them uncomfortable, thus making the protests seen on a national level. When something reaches a national level, people start talking. The point of the protests was to bring attention to police brutality in America and is forcing the issue to be dealt with. As per Washington Times writer Valerie Richardson, black people killed by police are at 175 deaths as of October 12th of 2017, lower than both 2015 and 2016 at 259 and 233 deaths by police respectively.