NFL Demonstrations

Quote: Wizard

I agree. But how is kneeling at a football game helping?

It's a protest. Protests are about drawing attention to something. It may not help. What did Martin Luther King accomplish after the first protest he did? But that's no reason to give up.

As to how, it might make people wonder what would make talented athletes who make a lot of money (while their careers last) stage that kind of provocative action.

Quote: Nareed

It's a protest. Protests are about drawing attention to something. It may not help. What did Martin Luther King accomplish after the first protest he did? But that's no reason to give up.

Good point. In going through the Vietnam series the point is strongly made that protests at home played a major roll in ending the war.

I still say if you're going to protest something, do it on your own time, if your employer opposes protesting on the job.

Quote: Wizard

I still say if you're going to protest something, do it on your own time, if your employer opposes protesting on the job.

They aren't even protesting anything
legitimate. Does anybody in their
right mind really think cops are gunning
down black men just for the sport of it?
I've known a couple of lifer cops and
they say it's the last thing you would do.

Quote: Wizard

Good point. In going through the Vietnam series the point is strongly made that protests at home played a major roll in ending the war.

I still say if you're going to protest something, do it on your own time, if your employer opposes protesting on the job.

Employer and customers.

The players are now just banging their heads against a wall. They thought that because they hate Trump, everyone must hate him. Trump has lured them and the league into a PR trap. People are not joining in their disrespect because they hate Trump. First, they underestimate Trump's actual popularity. It might not be the level of Reagan, but it is not near as low as the haters believe.

Second, neutral people are not going to join their disrespect to dis Trump. The NFL's audience is more patriotic than average. Many are Vets. It is like when the hippies in the 1960s were surprised the Hell's Angels did not join their cause. The Angels might have been anti-establishment, they were not anti-America.

Their BLM cause suffers from the same PR problem it always has. One, they defend thugs. Rosa Parks was not picked at random. It was a set-up that she would be the one the movement got behind. There were other black females did the same, but the movement knew if they had picked someone who was an out-of-wedlock mother with a checkered history that they would lose the PR battle. BLM does not understand this.

Second, they ignore black-on-black violence, the far bigger problem. Like someone has a filthy house and yells at you for not wiping your feet.

Quote: Evenbob

They aren't even protesting anything
legitimate. Does anybody in their
right mind really think cops are gunning
down black men just for the sport of it?
I've known a couple of lifer cops and
they say it's the last thing you would do.

Thinking about it, they are running one of the oldest tricks in the book. Like Cuba and N Korea always blaming the USA for the disaster that communism made of their societies. Black society has collapsed the last 55 years. It is the fault of government programs meant to help. The blacks that have made their way up in government feed off the same political machine. Last thing they can do is blame government, to do so ends their meal ticket. So they blame white cops.

Quote: Wizard

I still say if you're going to protest something, do it on your own time, if your employer opposes protesting on the job.

1) The NFL has not opposed it, neither have most teams.

2) Protest when you have a LARGE audience is far more effective than at almost any other time.

Best solution
Go back to 2008. Have the teams stay in the locker room preparing
It wasn't till 2009 that the military paid the NFL to help them recruit by having players on the field for the anthem

The Constitution doesn't require you to stand or honor anything at all.

That's the way it is.

Quote: Nareed

2) Protest when you have a LARGE audience is far more effective than at almost any other time.

Good point.

I have no problem with freedom of speech as long as it is on your own time or your employer allows it. Again, this issue doesn't make my top 100 and I really don't care that much about it. I think I've said all I have to say on that topic.

Quote: rxwine

The Constitution doesn't require you to stand or honor anything at all.

That's the way it is.

Too bad the Constitution does not govern player behavior. The team owners and collective bargaining agreement can require them to stand and act respectfully if that is what the fans prefer.

Life is full of things that require you to do things or prevent you from doing things the Constitution may or may not require/allow. It is what happens when you choose to work for someone.