American Veterans fight for our rights on a daily basis to allow individuals throughout the country to take advantage of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness — and the ability to protest.
We are becoming used to seeing the majority of protesting being done on the side of liberals, with expanded media coverage for all types of far-left and alt-left displays that include screaming into the sky on the anniversary of President’s Trump’s auspicious victory. Conservatives across the country, on the other hand, have been silently protesting the antics of overpaid NFL jockeys inspired by the likes of Colin Kaepernick as they “take a knee” on the sidelines to fight their idea of injustices.
It seems that NFL fans have decided enough is enough, and they’re taking their protest to social media in droves to express their displeasure with the direction of the NFL.
NFL leaders seem to have finally woken up to the mass discontent happening in living rooms across the country, evidenced by their attempt to alleviate the problem by skirting it and holding a two-minute moment of silence during the recent Veteran’s Day weekend.
Is this small gesture enough to bring back fans who are increasingly frustrated by the injection of politics into their favorite sport?
Where It All Began
Colin Kaepernick likens his disrespect of the national anthem to the wartime protest of Muhammad Ali, a comparison that is not well-accepted by fans.
It all started with Kaepernick’s decision to “take a knee” during the anthem last year when he was working as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, with a stated goal of protesting police brutality. Before long, this bad behavior spread beyond Colin and his team, and began to infect all of the NFL.
Even high school and college sports teams of various types were found making similar decisions — many of them paying the price of lost scholarships or spots on their respective teams as a result. The key difference between Kaepernick and Ali in this instance is that Muhammad Ali was forced to give up his chosen profession of boxing during his prime fighting years, sacrificing millions of dollars and going on the road to speak out against violence. Alternatively, Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL when he was not offered a position and remains a free agent.
The NFL’s Powerlessness
Unfortunately, the NFL has no such rules requiring that players stand during the national anthem, instead allowing them to make a personal decision. While this rule has come under fire since the protests began, it continues to stand and was recently reinforced by NFL leadership as being their stated direction.
“There has been no change in the current policy regarding the anthem,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “The agenda will be a continuation of how to make progress on the important social issues that players have vocalized. Everyone who is part of our NFL community has a tremendous respect for our country, our flag, our anthem and our military, and we are coming together to deal with these issues in a civil and constructive way.”
Veterans Fight Back
During the recent Veteran’s Day holiday, millions of Americans were determined to take matters into their own hands and wage a protest of their own against the whole of the NFL.
Bars, restaurants and sports establishments tuned their televisions to different channels due to pressure from guests, while other veterans simply stated they were spending time with their families on Sunday instead of watching football. Many expressed disgust that the great American pastime was being used as a pawn in the ongoing political feud that only resulted in disrespect to the American flag and national anthem.
Facebook groups calling for a complete boycott of the NFL are gaining hundreds of thousands of followers, while advertisers for the weekly big game continue to lose eyeballs for their message. The real question is what the NFL is ultimately going to do about this issue.
With Colin Kaepernick’s recent induction as GQ’s 2017 Citizen of the Year, the only thing that is guaranteed is that this narrative will continue for the foreseeable future. Individual NFL team owners are trying to mitigate the damage in Goodell’s absence, with Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys stating that any player who takes a knee will also be taking the bench for their disrespect. Despite such efforts, American football is still falling out of public favor very quickly.
~ Liberty Planet