Demanding that football players stand up for the national anthem or get fired is absolutely creepy. This is the chance for all people in every stadium this NFL Sunday to proudly sit down and keep their hats on and show this (and I don’t use this hackneyed word often) fascist sicko Trump that he does not dictate the lives of NFL players.
How about this idea: Stop singing the banner song at all sporting events! You want to keep politics out of sports, just ban the song! Here’s some historical context before we all get our panties in a bunch about how that is sacrilege.
If I were an NFL player I would definitely sit down, as I sit down for the prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel. I implore all NFL players not to stand this week, just to spite that son of a bitch.
If Trump is widely disobeyed here it would be a very healthy thing for the country. America is not some Mussolini dictatorship just yet. It’s getting there but there is still some liberty left in the place. This is the time to prove it. People have the right to express themselves even if, especially if, their opinions are wrong, or right, or in between, or total non sequiturs.
Trump should be impeached for threatening first amendment rights.
Here are the two national anthem renditions I’d cheer and stand for, proudly!
The Jewish Libertarian 
Dear rafifarber,
In light of the NFL controversies, do you think there are perspectives on race outside the scope of Colin Kaepernick and BLM? Can he be part in the right and part in the wrong?
Of course he can protest at work as all Americans can. But here’s what he may be missing; protest may cost you something if you do it “on the clock”. I think there is a huge gap in players failing to understand the lives of their fans. I think there is a major lack of humility in many youth movements, and that is why they may be successful in short-term, revolutionary gains, but fail to establish lasting consensus and long-term change. Why?
It’s easier to break someone or something down, than persuade and change the heart of your opponent.
Do you know that Democrats and Progressives are responsible for:
a. the Trail of Tears ?
b. 100% of slave owners at the time of the Civil War?
c. 100% of the leadership of slave states at the time of the Civil War?
d. Eugenics that led to abortion and sterilization on the basis of race in US that was an example to Nazi’s for Holocaust?
e. Japanese interment camps in WWII?
All parties, people, and individuals are guilty of ignorance. Check out these questions and see what you find? Thanks!
I agree with you here.
Rafi, this is a cultural war, and symbolism matters. People on the right get disemployed all the time for expressing mild, and I may add, far more popular views. The NFL itself wouldn’t allow Dallas Cowboys to put a decal on the back of their helmets honoring the police officers slain by BLM last year.
Insulting your fans (who are largely right-leaning) matters. You may be right about the history of inserting the national anthem into sporting events. But it’s irrelevant today. The players (ie employees) do not have the right to protest on their employers’ dime. In any case, football attendance ratings have been declining for a while and are now looking to be in freefall. Trump may be “disobeyed” by the league itself, but the fans are largely with Trump, and the league will eventually be brought to heel, or become another casualty of the Law of SJW Convergence.
I’m kind of surprised at your level of investment in this, especially considering that the NFL (and by extension the players too) is a classic example of extreme rent-seeking. You should egg the players on, but only to further the destruction of the NFL, not to defy Trump.
If the prayer for the state bothers you, instead of sitting down and insulting your neighbors and friends, join a charedi minyan, where it is never said.
I don’t cater to my fans. I don’t cater to anybody. I cater to the truth. I don’t except your position on cultural matters at all. You are totally Absolutely wrong on this issue. I will go to whatever minyan I want to and I have not been deemed offensive yet. They can kick me out if they choose to. They have not
The response by the NFL commissioner and the coach of the Eagles was a rebuke to Trump. One former NFL player (sorry, don’t remember his name…I’m not a big fan of spectator sports) called for all players to take a knee during the Anthem to show their support for personal independence. Most of the comments I read after the Yahoo article were in support of the idea of personal expression.
If that is really the feeling of most Americans, I’m heartened. What happens at the games today may be indicative. I might have to actually watch a game, or at least the start of it.