It's been one insane weekend, gentle readers! I don't think that any of you have been living under a rock, so you probably couldn't help but hear about another thing that Donald Trump said.

This time, his target was the infallible rock that is the National Football League, or NFL. A little backstory, in case you don't know what happened. Trump was holding a rally in Alabama and said that NFL players that protest should be fired. Naturally, he used the colorful language and cadence that he's become quite known for. Oh, the rally was a big hit, and all the participants loved it when he called NFL players "son of a bitch" as he advocated that these men should lose their jobs. One might consider this a success for Trump, except it's not. All he managed to do was galvanize the NFL.

We got treated to one of the largest protests ever attempted by the NFL. On early Sunday morning, for the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Jacksonville Jaguars, being played in London, England, the NFL players themselves decided to protest in solidarity. All of them. The entire Ravens team knelt while the Jaguars locked arms with each other. If you had a keen eye, you would have seen Baltimore Ravens vet (basically the face of the franchise) Ray Lewis kneeling with two knees with the team. You might have also seen Jaguars owner Shahid Khan standing with his players. This was only the start. All day Sunday, players knelt during the anthem, team officials issued statements, and everyone praised the NFL players for protesting in solidarity. Let me tell you why it's all a bunch of crap.

But first, let's rewind a bit. A little over a year ago, a certain quarterback named Colin Kaepernick decided to sit during the national anthem that's played before the game. He did this three times before a reporter by the name of Steve Wyche decided to ask him about it. And did Kaepernick respond! He basically said what people of color have known to be true in this country for a long time: black and brown people being killed disproportionately more by police officers with no repercussions for said officers. It was quite the bombshell, and everyone kinda went crazy over it. Now, Kaepernick being a person who actually listens to constructive criticism to be a better person, met with a former player and former Green Beret by the name of Nate Boyer and compromised from sitting for the national anthem to kneeling. The crazy only got worse, so much so that Kaepernick is no longer employed with the NFL, even though he is easily better than half of the starting quarterbacks who are currently in the league, and the numbers say so. All caught up? Great.

Here's where the hypocrisy of the NFL and the NFL players shine brighter than looking up at the eclipsing sun without the special glasses. For the entire year of the 2016 season, Kaepernick knelt. Few other players knelt with him, regardless of team affiliation. Only Kaepernick is without a job. Those other players are still working. I do have to give a mention to the Seattle Seahawks who did show solidarity with Kaepernick last year, not by kneeling but by taking the field and locking arms with each other. Good for them. However, for the rest of the players, they were either silent or said that Kaepernick should stand for the flag and anthem. Whatever, that's their opinion, good for them. It was not until Donald Trump opened his pie hole and said something quite benign (for him anyway) that the entire league addressed the issue of protesting.

That is where my problem lies. Remember when I talked about Ray Lewis kneeling with the Ravens team? This is that picture, in case you were wondering.

Now, a mere two months ago, this man completely talked out of his neck about Colin Kaepernick, saying that he needs to cut his hair and quiet down with his social activism and concentrate on football and blah blah blah. So now, you feel compelled to kneel? What are you kneeling for, brother? Who are you kneeling for? Of course, he doesn't make things better when he says he wasn't kneeling. He was praying. Maybe he should take his own advice and pray on his own time, not his boss's time. Another player, LeSean McCoy, on Sunday could be seen stretching very visibly while his teammates stood for the anthem. Okay, fine. This is the same LeSean McCoy who, barely a month ago, said that Colin Kaepernick wasn't worth the "distraction" to sign him. Oh, but you want to stretch and "protest" the anthem because Trump said players should be fired for protesting. Ha!

Let's not forget the owners and team statements in this situation, my readers! Those owners aren't concerned with racial issues! They are concerned with one thing: money. And having their players unhappy affects their money. There were so many statements that came out on Sunday saying how they support their players protesting for "social issues" and so on and so forth. Do you want to read something that says absolutely nothing at all? Try this statement on for size. If teams truly supported their players, Colin Kaepernick would have a job in the NFL. If he were really supported, teams would have done this last year after he took the first knee. Instead, they waited until they felt they were attacked by Trump, and I got to tell you, readers, compared to all of the other incredibly insensitive things that Trump has said, this is nothing. In fact, all he did was remind me that he used to be on a reality TV show where he said "You're fired" at the end of every episode. So, as a player and an owner, you will ignore the plight of your communities, but you're going to pay attention to someone who is known to say things just because it'll give him a headline, President or no. Really?

I see this for what it is, and I implore you to do the same, readers. These players, these owners, they protest for nothing. They protest the ability to protest, nothing more. The kneeling is largely symbolic and has no meaning behind it. It rings hollow to me, and it should to you as well. I want you to remember why Colin Kaepernick sat and knelt in the first place. It was not to disrespect the armed forces and what they sacrifice for this country. It was not to protest against a problematic national anthem. It was to protest against the systemic racism that people of color have to fight against every day. It was to protest against the unlawful killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Tamir Rice, Zachary Hammond, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Philando Castile, Charleena Lyles, Keith Lamont Scott, Sam DuBose, and so many countless others.

Everything else is just a distraction.