The NFL is trying to get rid of the protests but why It would be a mistake if they do so.
The NFL owners have been meeting in recent days and have discussed the issue regarding the national anthem protests involving players kneeling to voice themselves on social issues such as police brutality and racism. Reports have stated that the NFL yesterday has considered a rule that if a player kneels than his team would get a 15 yard penalty and that the home team decides if the teams would be out on the field for the anthem.
The 15 yard penalty sounds ridiculou, no player should ever be punished for expressing their freedom of speech. This issue started in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick sat during the anthem and he stated by saying he’s not standing up for a country that is Oppress over black people, many other NFL players followed along including teammate Eric Reid and both have not been signed to a team because of It and is why both are suing the league.
The Cincinnati Bengals were in the verge of signing Eric Reid but Reid turned that the contract after the Bengals asked him to promise them that he wouldn’t kneel. The Bengals have Adam Jones who has a history of domestic violence, For owner Mike Brown, It’s ok to be charged with domestic violence but It’s not ok to kneel in front of a flag to have a job, that is kind of absurd.
The issue took to a whole another level last year after the president of the United States hijacked the issue and called for the players to be fired and called them sons of you know bitches. What many don’t realize is that the president went after the league because they didn’t let him buy a team when he tried to purchise the Buffalo Bills back in 2014.
I get that the owners are trying to find a way out of this because rating are down and they are losing money but you can’t give the players the right to do something and than take It away from them. If the league starts to force players to stand, the players may walk out and the league knows that they would walk out a the league needs their players too and so they are trying to find another way around this. League needs to come up with either two solutions, one is either the player stand for the anthem or stay in the locker room or two get the TV networks to not show the players kneeling during the anthem because you know what, I blame the sports media for all of this. If the TV networks weren’t so hot on this topic when Kaepernick started kneeling, Maybe the protests would not be such a hot debate and because of what the sports media did, people are trying to pursade the league to change their anthem policy.
Fans have to understand that the players have the right to kneel and express their consituational right, even if they disagree with It. People forget that we do not live in a country like China that is a communist country and forces their people to stand for their anthem and in America we are allowed to kneel in front of a flag, I’ll save the politcal speech for later. Ethier the fans let It go or just shut up, and if the owners try to force the players to stand and if players continue not being signed because they are protesting, boy would I love to see this get challenged in court and the NFL owners might not want to go there.
