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NFL Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 01, 2017 44 Comments
At Yom Kippur break-fast Saturday night I discussed the NFL players' "Take a Knee" protest and Trump's tweets. One of the people, who is not anti-Trump, thought it was a mistake for Trump to tweet about it as he did. That it simply made it a bigger deal and probably generated sympathy for the players. I disagreed.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 30, 2017 37 Comments
Earlier this month, Mary blogged about Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett claiming that he was racially profiled and victimized by Las Vegas police.  Bennett, an early supporter of former 49er Colin Kaepernick's anti-American protests, further claimed that one of the officers threatened to "blow [his] head off." Police responded to reports of gunfire in a casino, appropriately entered the casino with guns drawn, ordered those present to get down, and saw Bennett fleeing the scene. Additional police body cam footage, along with various security camera footage, has been released and shows that Bennett defied police orders and ran from the casino.  We do not hear whether or not Bennett was threatened with having his head "blown off," however, because that officer's body cam was not on.  This officer may be disciplined for the lapse.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 29, 2017 118 Comments
There are many different ways to poll the current controversy over NFL players protesting the National Anthem and flag on the sideline by kneeling down. One way to poll is whether the players "have a right" to protest. It's not at all inconsistent to take the position that they have "a right" to protest but also to criticize and object to the protests.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 28, 2017 48 Comments
Last year, when then-49er Colin Kaepernick explained why he knelt instead of showing respect for our nation, its flag, or its anthem, he was very clear about the nature of his pointedly anti-America protest.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
This was, of course, in the wake of the Ferguson riots and during the rise of Black Lives Matter.  The context was very pointed and very deliberately anti-America, and it mattered not that it was based on misinformation at best and outright lies at worst.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2017 58 Comments
I appeared on The Michael Koolidge Show on 1440 WROK Talk Radio on September 26, 2017. We discussed several of my posts about the NFL "take a knee" protests: Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 25, 2017 81 Comments
The NFL players' sideline protests over the National Anthem and flag have angered a lot of people. On the surface, that anger is about patriotism versus a sense of entitlement, with the players having too little of the former and too much of the latter. But there's another feeling of disgust I'm hearing a lot, how the NFL was one of the few remaining places to which we could escape from politics and just be left alone and allowed to enjoy something. The NFL was an escape. That's a sentiment I expressed in my post, NFL picked sides in the culture war, now it has to live with the consequences:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 25, 2017 34 Comments
To kneel during the national anthem or not is one of the dumber questions of our time, but here we are -- grappling with the very basics of patriotism in the losing battle with cultural marxism. Sunday, Professor Jacobson wrote an excellent piece explaining how the NFL must live with the consequences of the side they've chosen in the culture wars.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 24, 2017 66 Comments
Eyes turned to the NFL on Sunday to see which players would take a knee during the anthem after President Donald Trump called those who kneel a son of bitch and asked the audience if they wouldn't like to see the NFL fire them. He reiterated this thoughts on Twitter with his catchphrase YOU'RE FIRED. Well, some NFL players chose to kneel while others locked arms together. A few teams chose to stay in the locker room, like the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, one player on the Steelers decided to stand for the anthem...a veteran who served three tours in Afghanistan.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 24, 2017 236 Comments
Over time, I've lost interest in professional sports for many of the same reasons I've lost interested in the professional music, film, and other entertainment industries. They have become thoroughly politicized by the left as part of the culture war. So for me, the lastest public fight over NFL players protesting on the sidelines is just the latest straw, and in many ways, the last straw.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 23, 2017 49 Comments
Twitter has been afire today with the controversy about Stephen Curry going to the White House and reactions to President Trump's speech in Alabama. During President Trump's speech at a rally for Luther Strange (R-AL), he addressed the growing trend among NFL players to kneel disrespectfully during the national anthem.  Trump asked, "“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘get that son of a b***h off the field right now – he’s fired’?”. Most people hearing or reading this comment recognize that the president is referring to the disrespectful kneeling "protest" that involves football (and other sports) players deliberately taking a knee during the national anthem.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 28, 2017 37 Comments
We've had several discussions on how the over politicalization of sports is killing viewership, putting channels like ESPN in jeopardy. No one wants political toxicity infiltrating America's favorite past times. And Americans especially tend not to appreciate when anti-patriotic garbage becomes widely accepted in professional sports, like oh, say, NFL players protesting the national anthem.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 19, 2016 37 Comments
Elizabeth Warren is not Native American, but she played one for the law professor directory used for hiring in the 1980s as she was climbing the ladder to Harvard Law School. After she got tenure at HLS, she stopped filling out her forms that way. In 2014, Warren signed a letter to the NFL Commissions, along with dozens of other Democratic Senators, calling on the league to take action against the Washington Redskins for using the name "Redskins":
The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur. We urge the NFL to formally support and push for a name change for the Washington football team.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/225634644/Letter-to-NFL-commissioner I understand why some people may view the name as offensive. But according to a Washington Post poll just released, almost all actual Native Americans don't oppose the use of the name:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 11, 2015 47 Comments
Following a lengthy investigation, the 'Deflategate' verdict was handed down by the NFL early this evening. Boy is it tough. New England Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2015-2016 season, the team incurred a $1 million fine, and the Patriots will lose their first round draft pick in 2016 and fourth round pick in 2017. Two employees who handle footballs for the club were also implicated. "Patriots employees John Jastremski and James McNally have been indefinitely suspended without pay by the club, effective May 6. They aren't allowed to be reinstated without the NFL's permission," reports Yahoo News. Multiple sources including Yahoo Sports claim there's no evidence that Brady, coach Bill Belichick, or Patriots owners were directly involved in the Deflategate scandal. According to Yahoo Sports, the NFL handed down the unprecedented punishments, "for violating playing rules and not cooperating fully in the investigation." Is the finding that Brady was most probably aware befitting of a four-game suspension though? CNN reports, "The Wells report found that "it is more probable than not" that Brady was "at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities" of locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski. Jastremski has been with the team for 14 years, the past three as the staffer in charge of preparation of the game-day footballs." Yahoo Sports has the breakdown:
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