At least, their opinions should not be made public, at least according to one legislator. A local NFL player offered tickets to one of their home games as a fundraiser for a Marriage Equality fundraiser…an act which prompted a local politician to contact the team owner to complain. By letter, he asked the team owner to immediately stop the action and prohibit his players from entering into the public debate in their capacity as football players.
I’m surprised for a number of reasons by this. I expect there won’t be much debate here about the ultimate issue of support for marriage equality. But I thought the might be at least some good discussion here about the legislator’s demand.
Is there some good reason to ask NFL players to refrain from endorsing causes? Seems to me that if you give your players tickets, they can use or donate them as they see fit. I don’t see any good argument here for acceding to the legislator’s request.
I’ve heard lots of people express the opinion that actors shouldn’t use their fame to espouse their political views, which is a perfectly valid opinion to have. After all, they’re famous for pretending to be other people, not for their political experience. I don’t think anyone can or should stop them from doing so, but it’s perfectly legitimate to wish that they wouldn’t.
I’m also reminded of the situation a few weeks back where that executive mouthed off to a cashier at Chick-Fil-A and was promptly fired, since his actions reflected poorly on the company.
So if you told me that the NFL frowns upon its players doing anything controversial that might reflect poorly on the NFL, I’d say that’s a reasonable policy. If they didn’t have that policy but I felt that they should, I’d be perfectly within my rights to write them a letter suggesting that they adopt such a policy, even citing specific examples where one of their players did something I disagree with.
Now, if I happen to be a local politician, should I not be allowed to write that letter? If he’s writing the letter as a private individual who happens to be a politician, I see no harm. After all, his letter merely expresses an opinion, and as a public organization, the NFL may very well be concerned with the opinions of its fans.
On the other hand, if he wrote the letter on official municipal letterhead, and tried to pretend that he had some control over the franchise that he clearly didn’t have, then this seems like a textbook case of misuse of power and general asshattery. But I’d need more information to make that call.
Here’s the content of the letter the politician sent:
I’d categorize it as general asshattery, but not rising to the level of misuse of power. He uses his position (my constituents) to try to give the letter weight, but he doesn’t make any specific threats.
The politician should be allowed to write what he wants, as long as he makes it ever so clear that he’s acting as a regular fan, and not in any way as a politician, lawmaker, or other authority.
The football team should not be involved if the player went on his own time out of uniform. And the team should be allowed to “sponsor” the event by allowing their player to attend in uniform and act as a representative of the team if they so choose. (I misread and thought this was an event. Obviously the exact same applies for giving out game tickets, except that ultimately, the stadium owners decide who is allowed in the door.)
Every one in this scenario is a free adult, I’m surprised there is any argument here. It wouldn’t matter if it were a NAMBLA meeting instead of Marriage Equality, either.
Fuck no. Any business owner who is told by a government official to control an employee’s speech should tell the official to go fuck himself. And then forward the request to the media, which the official took care of himself.
A truly dickish and grossly inappropriate action on Burns’ part, and would be even if his views and Ayanbadejo’s were reversed with regards to SSM. The fact that Burns used official stationary and in his first sentence specifically identifies himself as a “Delegate to the Maryland General Assembly” betrays any attempt he might make to say he was expressing his views as a private citizen.
Fuck him. Unfortunately, while I bet this becoming public offers him some mild embarrassment, I’ll wager it improves his election chances come November.
It would be awfully nice if this letter spurs more NFL players into publicly supporting marriage equality. It’s not like you have to be gay to support it. And that letter is just BEGGING for a nice “don’t try to tell us what to do” slap in the face to Mr. Burns.
I would amend that to “male”. And not while they were still active, no. Several have come out after retirement (I was roughly 6 inches away from one of them in a hotel pool once).
I can see an argument for it. Were I a Baltimore Ravens fan (and thank all that is Holy that I am not) I wouldn’t want the team turned into another Chik-fil-a. I would watch the games on Sunday for an escape from the daily pressures of life from the outside world and watch football, not see sets of competing protesters, boycotts, counter-boycotts and the like, when all I want is football.
So I could see the owners telling the players that the team takes no position on issue X, and as representatives of the team, you are not to take a public position on issue X. These guys are high profile and their remarks are covered in the media. This is vastly different than if the local Family Dollar told the janitor that he couldn’t support the Sierra Club.
Okay…and we’ll just take away your special anti-trust exemption and return you to the level playing field of the free market. And everybody’s happy… No?
