Just Enjoy the Game
There is nothing more American than football. Many Americans see NFL Sundays as a form of escapism from partisanship. Unfortunately, both Democrats and Republicans now seem intent on making football about politics.
When Colin Kaepernick initially took a knee last season, he wasn’t protesting the national anthem. He was protesting injustice in the country. All over social media you see people using the metaphor “Rosa Parks wasn’t protesting the bus.” And it’s undeniable that the conversation has been pulled away from the meaning of the original protest to questions about the first amendment and national anthem etiquette.
The reaction has been completely overblown. The knee is a quiet protest, and it has been met with outrage and vitriol from many, including our president.
Trump called the players who kneel “sons of bitches” and suggested they should be fired for their actions, an unbelievably hypocritical reaction from a man who once tweeted this:
Trump is clearly using this issue to rally his base, and it’s working for him. A Reuters poll shows a majority of Americans stand during the anthem, but a Cato Institute study showed that 68% of Americans oppose firing players for kneeling, which Trump suggested.
So Trump is calling for an NFL boycott due to these protests, meanwhile Shaun King and those on the left are boycotting the NFL for not hiring Kaepernick. Admittedly, Kaepernick is not an incredible quarterback so it’s not shocking that he remains unsigned, but he’s probably good enough to have a job in the NFL.
NFL owners are hesitant to bring Kaepernick onto their team because of the bad press he’s associated with, but if domestic violence abusers are allowed to play, someone taking a knee shouldn’t raise so many concerns.
Kaepernick is now being hailed as a sort of martyr by the Left, and this is definitely not a winning strategy. His protest is being called “patriotic,” but Kaepernick doesn’t really fit that description. Kaepernick is a man who praises Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and wears socks depicting police officers as pigs. It’s safe to say he may not have a ton of love for America.
NFL ratings are tanking right now, and it would be foolish to think that so many people are turning away just because Kaepernick isn’t on the field. Clearly the amount of players protesting against Trump’s comments last week annoyed people. Nonetheless, in this debate, it is clear that there is no clear winning team.
With so many people protesting the anthem, and so many others protesting the protesters, it’s time for this controversy to die. Kneeling during the anthem is not something I’d ever do, it seems inherently disrespectful to me, but everyone should have the right to protest injustice however they see fit. America is undeniably a country with a lot of problems—problems bigger than NFL millionaires kneeling before a game. Stop caring, enjoy the game.
