Tone Deaf: the NFL and Patriotism
Yesterday, in a high profile example of profound tone deafness, the NFL announced that its team owners have agreed that any team which has a player who kneels during the national anthem will be fined by the league. Interestingly, the decision was made without consulting with the NFL players’ union. The decision was an attempt to make the controversy around NFL players’ protests of police brutality go away by making those protests not about police brutality, but disrespecting the flag and the song. That accusation is not, and never has been, true.
For now, let’s set aside the appropriateness of all the super duper displays of patriotism at sporting events today. It seems that you can’t attend any event, including 5 year old kids’ soccer games, without the obligatory playing of the national anthem. The big leagues have taken all the flag waving to nauseating heights, parading military personnel out on the field between quarters and innings, doing the obligatory (and corny) on-field reunions of veteran-come-home and their families, competing for what team can get the gigantastigest flag out onto the field, and having everyone from Little Big Town to opera singers to sing the song. Major league baseball has even taken the rituals to a whole new height where, not only does everyone now stand, put hand over heart and sing the national anthem before the game, now we have to stand, put hand over the heart and sing God Bless America before we can sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh inning stretch. Am I the only one to think all this military ritual is stupid?
What’s really important about this issue is all this jingoism and flag waving only started after Bush trumped up (no pun intended) non-existent evidence of Saddam’s WMD and invaded Iraq. To whip up his base, he and his propagandists (read Dick Cheney and pals) started accusing those who disagreed about the war as being unAmerican. Remember being publicly chastised and accused of “hating the troops” if you disagreed? I do. In 2009, when the Defense Department started PAYING for military tributes before big games, the NFL adopted a policy of requiring players to not only be on the field, but requiring them to render respect for the entire ordeal. Before then? The players stayed in the locker rooms during the national anthem.
The NFL’s decision to now fine teams for their players exercising their right to free speech is nothing more than playing to their own base and pandering to Trump who has fanned the flames of hatred of African American players who dared to step out of line. The entire controversy could be averted in two other ways: 1) stop requiring employees of the league to participate in patriotic rituals, or 2) actually address the content of the protests, the actual problem of police brutality against racial minorities. But, no. The NFL owners have cowardly made it about the flag and the song, just like Trump has, to avoid dealing with the actual issue.
Oh, and one last thing – while the NFL owners are getting all dewy-eyed over their love of the flag, and anthem, they’re selling THESE on their websites.
Oh, and this nice little piece is being sold by MLB:
Does anyone in business or the “gubmint” remember that part of the Bill of Rights about “Freedom of Speech”? Does working for the NFL or MLB now mean we leave our civil rights at the doorstep? This is beginning to look like slavery again.
I for one will not give one thin dime of my money to any organization which makes this kind of demand of any employee.
ITMFA–and convict him.
1I respect the flag. I don’t tear it down, burn it or whatever. This other stuff reminded me way too much of not only ancient Rome but of the Nazis and their propaganda. Once upon a time I actually could enjoy a football game, in person or on TV. Not so damn much anymore. It is no longer anything resembling a sport. The jet flyovers, releasing an eagle, all the other pomp has begun to make me feel used. And I do wonder if the players, at least, feel the same way.
2@Maggie – Same here. I’m glad I’m not alone in seeing the current scary historical parallels. The MSM will never put the historical parallels out to the public, who are mostly too dumbed down to see the connection to what is happening now.
I have never supported national sports in any way, shape, or form. I’ve stopped putting my flag out for holidays. I am just ashamed of how it’s being used as a propaganda tool. Old Glory no longer stands for freedom and justice for all any more, imo.
3In my tiny town there are god fearing patriots everywhere. They hate these unAmerican brown people and anyone who supports their terrorist protests. However, as you drive around this same little town, you will see flags everywhere. They are, at best, tattered along the edges and, at worst, literally a barely recognizable rag hanging by a thread (at a cemetery no less). Only one flag is lit at night (put up by heathen libruls!) and one is taken down most nights. The street flags are tangled in trees and one spent several days on the ground when it fell.
4The self proclaimed patriots need to get their symbols straight. If you display the flag follow the code and show respect. Stop using as an article of clothing or a beach towel. You show more disrespect to the flag every day you display it poorly than anyone who kneels during a poem, poorly adapted to a British song, sung before a game played solely for profit. Get a mirror folks, the real unAmerican will be right in front of you.
Truly Texas… besides the clothes and everything else with the flag on it we have those stamps! What does it say about us if ) in the old days ) we licked the back of those flag stamps? Remember it is a flag code issued by the US Army I think ,not a law.
5Not much to say here.
Drumpf, a supposed billionaire, calling out millionaires and hearing support from other billionaires (the team owners) for having called them out, generates very little in me aside from my usual disgust for Drumpf. It does not generate sympathy for the millionaires involved, regardless of the race-baiting that clearly happens.
Pro team sports commoditize, de-humanize, their players, turning them into replaceable parts. Whether this is necessary is fodder for another time, but it does happen and has for many years. Read Moneyball. Talk to someone really really into sabermetrics.
Pro team sports are 100% a business. Don’t look there for morality or ethics. Each left town on a fast freight shortly after the league was formed.
Knowing this does not prevent my enjoyment of a perfectly thrown spiral or a perfectly executed double play, but I worship elsewhere.
6Just a correction, El Jefe: The singing of “God Bless America” started in New York at the first games played after 9/11. After 18 effing years of hearing this at EVERY. DAMN. GAME. I have long become thoroughly sick of it. The 7th inning Stretch used to be fun.
7For at least as far back as I can remember, politicians wrapped themselves in the flag mainly for their own self-interest and used it to condemn those who did not happen to agree with them. It was done during the Civil Rights era, the Vietnam War era and now Dump is using it to set himself up as the Patriot-in- Chief in the police brutality era.
8What these self-appointed flag wavers are really doing is silencing dissent, which is the true essence of the American constitution. Peaceful protest is our right under the first amendment and when this is denied, the result will be violent protest. That’s what will come boiling up as a result of Dump’s repression. He doesn’t see it coming.
@WA Sceptic:
I think what we are seeing is the crushing of public dissent, first on the sports field.
9How long will it be before the powers that be, expand it beyond the sports arena?
I saw something somewhere about the people in the stands possibly starting to take a knee in support of the players. It will be interesting to see if anyone actually does start that trend.
10Donnie is being deliberately obtuse while attempting to obfuscate the issue to fire up his ‘base’. Like myself or any number of veterans, we support the players rights and respect their efforts to speak out for those who do not have equal justice. Until people of color, those of limited means, and/or any persons are treated anyway but equal under the law, afforded the presumption of innocence and due process, we will continue to speak out about this and kneel. That’s what taking a stand means.
Message to Laura Whatshername and others like her, “no, we will not shut up and dribble.”
11Anybody ever see “Triumph of the Will”?
12It was stated by a number of team owners that Trump’s name was mentioned several times during the NFL owner-billionaires meeting, presumably because they didn’t want the wrath of Trump’s tweets electronically bombarded on their legally non-profit business model, if they made the “wrong” decision.
Nonprofit. Not to mention getting taxpayers to build the stadiums for you.
13Rhea, Triumph des Willens, we watched it with the boys in English & then German as an introduction to history and languages. Both versions impacted the lads, but we think the German version made a bigger impression on them. Das oder die Donnie’s speeches in German would probably scare the hölle out of them.
14If the Democrats take one or both houses of Congress this year, a mess of these flag-waving patriots will be screaming for secession. Their love of country is as thin as Drumpf’s skin.
And after what happened to Sterling Brown, maybe the NBA players need to take a knee.
15To comprehend true respect for the flag, let’s consult an expert: Sarah Palin. Yep, throw Old Glory over a bar stool and prop yer elbow on that sucker.
https://jezebel.com/5306190/sarah-palin-breaks-flag-code-in-runners-world-magazine
16@Jane & PKM
Leni and Adolph were pretty tight. She died in 2003 at age 101 of cancer, as opposed to 1945 at age 43 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or poison.
Prolly if you look hard enough on the youtube, you can find all the Drumpf speeches in the original German.
17So they’re required to stand. Can they turn their backs?
18Are the Lords of Commerce going to make the beer sales and hot dog vending cease during the anthem? If not, why not?
All members of all teams need to just stay in the locker rooms until the pageantry is finished. Just declare, this is a team sport and we intend to maintain team cohesion. Hang tough until the players union gets to participate. This edict is a little too plantationy for me.
19Never watch professional sports in large part because of the hyper-patriotic schmaltz. It’s nauseating. But, Micr, it seems to me the millionaires who kneel are necessary because ordinary black and brown people who try to pull that stunt risk being gunned down in the process.
20Micr, uh thanks. I think. While I do enjoy gently pranking the boys, exposing them to any of Dotard45’s speeches whether in English-Covfefe or the more apt Drumpf Deutsche Pannhaas available on youtube would be criminal child abuse at a level yet to be addressed by the Geneva conventions.
New definition of “subtle racism” in the wake of Dotard45: the assorted indignities people of color suffer that do not result in an automatic unadjudicated death penalty. Stephon Clark shot dead in his grandmother’s backyard for the ‘crime’ of holding a cellphone while Black; that’s racism. Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks tasered for an alleged parking violation and probable crime of owning a car while Black; yeah, that “passes” as subtlety today.
21Hello JJ, For everyone who read or/and commented, I am attaching a link to the latest Chris Hedges article. PLEASE make mention, share or post. He has been talking about the complete takeover of our Democracy for years and we were ignorant to the depth of destruction that was taking place under and sometimes on the radar. Hedges has been a foreign correspondent for most of his life and has seen the collapse of governments around the world. The US is no exception. It’s already happening and this assbag in DC is merely a puppet for them ( Putin) (Kochs) ( Fundamentalists) to finish the job. We can make all the jokes we want, or watch the comedians, but it won’t stop it. I hate to be a doomsday person, but we are tumbling down: police brutality, closed doors to media, Sinclair buying up TV, people too stupid to realize that they are now the serfs of this regime. It is so dangerous. And getting worse. Chris says it. People are delusional. We don’t think it can happen here? Hell yes it can. Voting will help but this is bigger than just voting. The Big D Dems are almost as bad and sold us out. Corporate Ownership of our Democracy.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/21/coming-collapse?utm_term=The%20Coming%20Collapse&utm_campaign=The%20Coming%20Collapse…%20And%20the%20Battles%20Ahead%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-The%20Coming%20Collapse…%20And%20the%20Battles%20Ahead%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review-_-The%20Coming%20Collapse
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/05/22/trumps-authoritarian-grip-tightens?utm_term=Trump%5Cu2019s%20Authoritarian%20Grip%20Tightens&utm_campaign=The%20Coming%20Collapse…%20And%20the%20Battles%20Ahead%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-The%20Coming%20Collapse…%20And%20the%20Battles%20Ahead%20%7C%20Your%20Week%20in%20Review-_-Trump%5Cu2019s%20Authoritarian%20Grip%20Tightens
22@Gillian Randall
And kneeling millionaires have accomplished what for the “ordinary black and brown people”?
At the end of the day, kneeling before an athletic contest will not get Colin Kaepernick a new team and will not restore the life of a single Black male murdered by bigoted citizens or police. Nor is kneeling before an athletic contest likely to prevent the murder of a single Black male in the future.
Kaepernick’s quote after his first kneel should not be lost in the kerfluffle that still happens, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color, ….”
I took that quote for its consistency and sincere quality; I don’t know, have never met or talked with Kaepernick. I believed him then and continue to believe his description of why he kneeled.
23@Micr
24It is the closest we have come to talking about the problem on a level that reaches a majority. The challenge is to keep bringing the discussion back to the real reason for the kneeling and not letting the KKKonservatives keep hijacking the conversation to “patriotism”.
@maggie: Are you aware of the fact that federal law specifies burning as the proper method of flag disposal?
25“…tailgate toss set”
26At least they had the good sense to not call it “Corn Hole”!