NFL bans kneeling during the anthem, teams will be fined for it - Sensationalist Headlines

I'm in agreement that this is within their rights to do I think however, it's not at all fair, or at all going to play out in a positive way for the NFL. 68% of the NFL is black. 68 fucking percent of the league is black. Are we really going to say that sweeping the racial tensions of america under the rug during a football match, which is a clearly racially divided sport in the USA, is going to work without a problem? If so, I think that's pure naivete. The NFL is in the right to do what they want, but they'll see a backlash from this. The vocal minority that gets upset about the kneeling are fucking irrelavent in the long run. They're not the only fans of football, and football likely will be hurt by this shit.

And nothing is more american than protesting against the government. If the nfl doesn't want politics in football, why the hell are they playing a political song.

The NFL weren't the ones that brought political discourse into a game of handegg in the first place. In fact, they are trying to stop the controversy. Football was never about politics in the first place. The national anthem was just something to be played to show patriotism, no different than enjoying fireworks on the Fourth. If the players want to make it a political statement, then fine. But don't expect everyone to cater to you, especially if it negatively affects people's perceptions of your employer.

Yeah they are actually. They played the anthem first. The players didn't play the anthem. The NFL did. Because in America, you have to do this stupid patriotic shit. It's a political message. They started it. You're wrong.

They made it political when they stepped down to say who can and cannot show their views. Players chose the path of least resistance when showing protest, and people pissed thenselves crying calling them unamerican. Know whats unamerican? Telling people to stand for something they do not believe in. NFL can do whatever it wants, but i hope the players realize how far they are willing to go to silence them and strike.

Does anybody else find the concept of telling people "no protesting" a bit humorous? It feels a bit... "oh man ya got me what i ever will do.... EXCEPT PROTEST!"

There's nothing fair about it, literally, which is why players are protesting to begin with. This is quite far removed from breaking an NDA or saying your boss sucks on twitter, and that's why the the blanket statement of "you signed a contract" doesn't work here. This isn't Rome and you don't remove all your rights as a person as soon as you step into the basement of a colosseum or get a jersey at a signing. If you think the NFL is going to last as profitable entity into this century with people like Jerry Jones in charge of the ship treating human beings like cattle, you're probably going to be pretty disappointed in about decade or so. The country is changing and organized sports will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new zeitgeist just like every other time the country changed socially and sports had quite a bit of trouble catching up.

Football was never about politics except for the people who don't watch it but like partaking in whatever drama comes out of it, Super Bowl or protests aside. The national anthem is there to build some spirit and enjoy a game of football. You ask any average football watcher and I doubt they even give a hoot whether the anthem is played or not, just what team is playing and who to pick next season on a fantasy league. You don't want to stand for the anthem? Great. Move on and play the game so the fans can have their moment of brainless enjoyment. Don't make it more political than it has to be.

Maybe I'm out of the loop, but is kneeling supposed to solely represent protest for racial discrimination? Could you kneel in opposition to the net neutrality repeal, for example? Or to call attention to abortion issues?

This is just false. The "NFL" started playing the Anthem in the 30's, post war times to build patriotism in a country that was going through the great depression. It's ALWAYS BEEN political. Always. Since it's fucking inception. I don't really care what the average person thinks in your scenario here. I care about the reality of it. It's political for the NFL to play it, it's political for the players to kneel during it. You can't have your cake and eat it too, and the NFL is trying to do so. The people will end up reacting to this, and as I stated previously, if 68% of the league is black, how well do you think this is going to go over? If 68% of the league is black, what percentage of the viewers support them? I'm almost certain the vocal minority that pushed the NFL to this, includes loud mouths like the President, and that's in part, why this is happening. You can't call that "Non political". It's a fucking joke.

The kneeling was never intended to be a political protest anyway, the president made it one when he decided to go off on his twitter shitposts about it.

How's it far removed, and why not? While they are on the field they are representing their employer and their conduct reflects on their employer, no different from any other job that exists in the public eye. The NFL forced the issue by introducing a political display to begin with, but if part of your job description is participating in mindless shows of patriotism, you have the right to refuse to do so, but no right to avoid repercussions for failing to do your job as directed.

Turned political once trumpy said it was unamerican to do so.

That's still political, whether you're going out of your way to do it or not

Maybe I'm just a retard but the way most (if not all) of the players in the image are kneeling still exhibits a body posture of respect to me, so it's not like the NFL doing it "to protect the respect our great nation deserves!" makes sense. Like, if you were to ask a random person whether that kneeling posture was respectful, they'd probably say yeah. Gee, I wonder why else they'd enact this fine. Really activates my almonds. Plus, how impactful could the fine possibly be? I'm under the impression that most NFL players have quite the generous contract. Unless the fines were ginormous, couldn't the players just pool their money together to pay for the fine(s) whenever the whole team knelt regardless?

Even if the fines were massive I'm sure the black community and it's supporters would go out of their way to compensate players that came out and said they needed financial support. If Cap' put out a book or a song or something and asked people to buy it to offset the costs of the fine, I personally would pitch in no matter how broke I was at the time.

Its supposed to be disrespectful.

I just don't see standing for the anthem and kneeling for it as "politically" even. Kneeling for the anthem is actively sending a message that's against the cultural norm. That's (actively) making a statement. Standing for the anthem is the cultural norm. It's herd mentality. Most people are likely just standing there waiting for it to end. So I guess when playing the anthem/standing for it is labeled as political, it just sounds off to me.

Oh, did we get to the part of the debate where you and I split hairs over semantic definitions of "rights" and "protest" for four pages already? That was fast. And no, we're not going to split hairs for four pages because this is quite far removed from "representing your organization" or "the public eye". The NFL has a history of choosing money and hypocrisy over the literal health, longevity and welfare of their players. The players are protesting racism, and the unwarranted deaths of people that are exactly like them that happen to have the "problem" of too much melanin in their skin while being arrested. Secondly and more importantly, I never said ANYTHING about being fired or not or any kind of procedural or logistical immunity thereof, so you didn't even pick the right person to argue with for four pages, so there will be no argument.

Standing in absence of the anthem is not a political statement. Standing to it, is a political statement. Kneeling to it, is a political statement. Not sure what's hard about this to be honest.

What's the statement made by standing for the national anthem?

You support this government.

Lets be real here. The NBA, NHL, etc. are having no problems with their players and keeping up with the times. The NBA is keeping up with it especially well. The only reason the NFL ever had a problem with this sort of player expression is because they're old and conservative and their fanbase is old and conservative. The NFL is going to get bad press either way considering their demographic and wider public scrutiny, so I think it's more than fair to judge them purely on the character of their actions rather than in the practical business sense (which is, I have to say, pretty spineless corporate apologism imo). Good on the players for standing up (or, rather, kneeling down) for what they believe in. If people cant handle a protest this peaceful, then there is no placating their mindset or playing to their sensibilities.

What are you on about? You said 'This is quite far removed from breaking an NDA or saying your boss sucks on twitter' and then didn't provide any justification or reasoning why. What do you mean, how's it different? I know your usual thing is to get really unnecessary belligerent and hostile from the get-go but can you please make an effort to be civil? I asked you an extremely simple question.

I completely agree the NFL members should be able to kneel or express their views however they see fit, However I'm conflicted though because at any job you have some restrictions on free speech if you want to keep your job, ie you can't bash the company, say offensive remarks, or act in a manner that could be considered rude. If you're doing something at your job that is causing customers to leave, it's not unreasonable for the company to fire you. I think it's dumb that there are people who aren't going to games because of the whole kneeling issue, but if it's causing financial harm to the company, should the company be allowed to restrict those actions? I'm genuinely not sure where I fall on this issue.

Most jobs don't require you to swear fealty to your country every work week though, its inherently becoming political to do so. The national anthem isn't about some mandatory allegiance like people think it should be.

If fans don't give a damn, then why does the NFL care at all about players kneeling during the anthem? Aren't they supposed to cater to their fans?

So we've gone from "quit protesting in disruptive ways" to "quit protesting period because we don't want to see it"? Sounds like things are totally going in a great direction there.

That is a political statement, though. One that looks pretty damn creepy from outside the US, by the way.

So then why can't football players do the American thing and protest, over how completely unAmerican actions have been occurring. The most American response to this is to join them and stand for the inequality they're protesting.