Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights have always been a dad’s night, grabbing a beer and watching the football game — but more recently a new kind of viewer has been attracted.
On September 23rd, President Trump made a very hostile tweet towards the NFL players about kneeling during the National Anthem. His tweet directly read “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL or any other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our great American flag (or country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”
The NFL took heavy offense to this and in protest, many more players began to kneel during the anthem and link arms showing they stood with one another. One team even wore Colin Kaepernick shirts during warm up to show support for the cause.
Coaches and players are saying they are not protesting their country just merely being divided by their president. The Steelers coach insisted on his players staying in the locker room so they wouldn’t have to choose a side during this debate.
Nearly every team in the NFL has players kneeling in support of one another and it has even moved on to the performers. Four performers of the National Anthem once finishing the song have taken a knee in support as well. Trump has yet to comment back.
Personally, I see both sides of the argument, I can see the disrespect in Trump’s eyes of kneeling during the National Anthem but he came at the NFL very aggressively and I think that was the wrong approach.
I would have taken an approach to email the teams before taking it publicly and speak to them about how poor this may reflect their respect for the country then he probably would have had a better response.
From the NFL players side when someone attacks your profession like that, it obviously is going to set off some personal emotions causing more of an emotional response rather than a thought out one.
But from Trump’s side, kneeling during your National Anthem is seen as very disrespectful to your country and when we have people fighting overseas for our freedom and so many families have lost loved ones or been affected by the war fighting for the players right to even play and be paid to do so yet they kneel when we are supposed to be honoring those soldiers it can be seen as very disrespectful.
So I can see both sides in retrospect and hope to have this issue resolved soon.
Others who are following this story are mostly outraged with what the players are doing.
Most agree Trump shouldn’t have taken his personal attack publicly on social media but they think the disrespect of the kneeling is a bigger deal than a tweet.
When players on the Chiefs sat nearly the entire stadium burst into a chant to “Stand up!” and booing.
So I would say that most of the support is behind Trump even if they don’t respect the way he handled the situation. It’s hard when so many individuals are somehow affected by the war to see some of your favorite sports players throwing shame on someone you may have lost fighting for them.
The NFL has gained a lot of press for this situation and some say “All press is good press” but in this situation, the press isn’t happy. I think everyone is ready for the NFL to stand up and realize that the situation they are currently in is bigger than themselves.
Respect the soldiers even if you don’t respect the leadership.
