Rex Trulove
One of the big controversies going on in the United States right now has to do with the players and coaching staff of National Football League refusing to stand for the US National Anthem and the display of the colors (the flag). This shouldn’t be a controversy at all, even though the uproar was actually caused by the news media making it into an issue.
The reason it should be a non-issue is two-fold, but it is important to understand that the reason for the kneeling is a protest against the oppression of certain people within the US. While the media has worked hard at making this a racial protest, it really isn’t one because males and females have been oppressed regardless of color, country of origin, or religious beliefs.
It is also important that readers understand that in no way am I in favor of oppression, in any form. However, this article, despite being rather an op-ed, is an attempt to look at it logically. It is even simple to see that not only is the controversy is not racially related, it also has nothing to do with first amendment rights.
For those who don’t know what the first amendment rights are, they are rights guaranteed by the US constitution that ensure the “freedom of speech” for people within the US. In many countries, if a person speaks out in opposition to the government or governmental policy, they can be arrested, jailed, or worse. In some countries, people have even been executed for voicing their opinions.
In the US, the constitution gives people the right to voice their opinions, even when they are contrary to what the government says or does. It would seem to some like this would give people the right to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem and presenting of the colors, despite the fact that it is tremendously disrespectful to our country and the very freedoms they are using to protest those freedoms.
However, as I said, this is immaterial in two ways.
1. The National Football League has a rulebook that covers all facets of the sport. The rules cover everything from the rules of the game to the rules of conduct both on and off of the field. This is the reason that an occasional player has been fined and/or dismissed from the team for off-the-field altercations involving that player. In essence, every player and member of the coaching staff represents the whole NFL and if they don’t act in a reasonably prudent and just way, they are in violation of the rules of conduct.
Among those rules of conduct is a section that specifically deals with the playing of the National Anthem and presentation of the colors. Players and staff are required to be on the field when the anthem is played and they are to stand for both the anthem and presentation of the flag. If any player or member of the staff fails to take the field or stand for the anthem, they are in violation of the rules of conduct established by both the owners and the players. In such an event, the rulebook dictates that disciplinary action needs to be taken, including fines, suspension, ejection, or removal from the team.
Indeed, if no disciplinary action is taken, nothing that takes place in the game has any meaning at all, since the rules have been violated before the game even started.
2. The NFL is a business, even though it is subsidized by tax-payer money. Think about that for a minute and let it sink in. Have you ever worked for any company who would allow you to protest while you are on the job, on company property? There may be businesses that allow it, but I’ve certainly never worked for one and don’t know of anyone who has. The normal consequence of protesting while on company time, on company property, would be dismissal. In other words, you’d be fired. It would make no different how good you were at your job or what you were protesting and the employer would almost certainly be within their legal rights, since that would qualify as gross misconduct.
In fact, good luck with finding another job in the same field, since the reason for the firing would be a matter of record. Companies tend not to want to hire trouble-makers and people who violate basic rules.
Ultimately, it is the owner of the team that has the right to make the decision of whether to allow the gross misconduct or not. To my knowledge, only Jimmy Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has officially stated that if any of his players or coaching staff fail to be on the field and standing during the anthem and presentation of the colors, they are immediately off the team. Still, it is the right of every owner to make it crystal clear that this would be the consequence for the violation of league rules and the violation of the business code.
By the same token, it is the right of any fan to refuse to watch the game(s), to refuse to buy jerseys and so forth, to refuse to purchase concessions at a stadium, or to boycott sponsors of the game. In fact, this has already begun and NFL profits have dropped tremendously just in the last couple of weeks. Many sponsors have pulled out and others have threatened to do so. All of this is because of gross misconduct and inappropriate behavior that is in violation of the NFL rules of conduct, but which has been allowed.
William Harvey Carney, the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor. He received the medal after being wounded many times, when he refused to let the American Flag touch the ground.
It is important for people to understand this point: It makes no difference what the protest is about. The protest might be worthy, but the football stadium isn’t the place it should be conducted. It actually doesn’t have to do with the respect of the flag, anthem, or country, either. The first amendment protects both those Americans who hate the US and those who love it.
This is something the media continues to gloss over, apparently in an attempt to create a story so they can make money. By focusing on everything else except for the obvious; rules violation and business practices, they are taking the public away from the real problem that is right there in the open.
Again, the issue isn’t and never has been oppression and it certainly has nothing to do with the color of a person’s skin. However, peaceful protests should be done in an appropriate place and manner. In the case of the NFL, neither the place nor the manner is even close to being appropriate. Because of this, the affect of the protest is the opposite of the one that is intended and hoped for.
Again, as I said today on your other post, it is absurd to allow the disrespect.
I am in full agreement with you.
good post and captivating article
I totally agree with all of you. The press is making a big deal of this not only to make money but to promote its own agenda. It supports this selective breaking of the NFL’s own rules. The real issue is to divide the country further and to eventually impeach the President. The President’s opponents, including the biased press, will do anything to try to take him down.
Behind even that is the ultimate goal — to destroy our form of government as defined in the Constitution. America’s enemies within have always used their Constitutional rights to try to destroy the Constitution itself. I’m not saying that everyone who opposes the President wants to destroy the country, but some of them do and will use any person, cause, or organization to divide people.
I totally agree. As it is, they’ve made up many stories, and true stories that they’ve reported on have been purposely slanted so far as to put the president in a bad light, though he’s actually doing extremely good things. It is very interesting to actually watch a press briefing, listening to both the questions and answers, then to watch how the press spins it to make it something it wasn’t. The sad part is that some people have fallen for the inaccuracy and bias, possibly not even knowing it. I see press talking points that are inaccurate or downright false, repeated online by a lot of folks.
In regard to the NFL, they were clearly in the wrong and the moment the president gave an opinion (one that the overwhelming majority of Americans actually agree with), the press made it into a political issue, which it should never have been, to begin with. What is more, they tried to claim that Trump made it into a political issue, though he obviously did not. They are trying to murky the water, which is really the reason for this article. It has nothing to do with politics, the first amendment, or protests. It has everything to do with rules and the business of the NFL.
You can’t force someone to be patriotic but, when you are on the job, your boss gets to decide what you can and cannot do.
I also find it interesting that those who support the protests objected to Tim Tebow kneeling and those who supported Tebow are very vocal about the current protests.
I’m not a football fan so it’s not that important to me.
You nailed it on the head. Freedom in the US means that people can be decidedly unpatriotic…many men and women died to give them that right. However, their rules are explicit. People have also sent a loud message to the entire league. Revenues are down by over 31%, compared to the first few games of the year. That is HUGE. Sponsors are feeling the heat, too.
As for Tebow, that is slightly different and I have never figured out why people got upset with him. He violated no rules and didn’t kneel for the anthem, he knelt to God to give thanks, such as just before taking the field, after a touchdown, etc.
I don’t think there’d be a big deal if the current players stood for the anthem and then knelt. Personally, I stand for the anthem and I do kneel to God. That’s the flop side, because thought of in that way, the protesters are giving religious reverence to the anthem and colors.
That’s interesting. The information about breaking the NFL’s rules should be the clincher here, whatever one might think about being unpatriotic as a protest.
That said, the United States is particularly touchy about its flag – even to the extent of having laws about it. We are not quite like that in the UK, except in military environments. We even allow people to fly their flag upside down – but that is usually because people don’t know which way is up and which is down!
I agree in regard to the rules. It is very interesting that very few times have the NFL’s own rules been mentioned by the major news media in this country.
Yes, we tend to be touchy about the flag, which is meant as a symbol of freedom and the sacrifice of so many men and women who died fighting for it, both here and overseas. However, a great number of Americans don’t understand flag protocol, unless they served in the military. For example, once a flag is damaged or soiled, it is to be properly disposed of, normally either by burial or burning, depending on the circumstances. Most people here think of flag burning as an offensive show of disrespect, when it is actually a sign of high respect. :))