# Trump Magically Turns NFL Games Into Anti-Trump Rallies **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 24, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216 "2017-09-24T20:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/121 "2017-09-25T15:47:00Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > In what way is genuflecting during the national anthem disrespectful? Staying silent is not disrespectful, either. Believe me, with my voice, I do the anthem more honor by \*not \*singing it. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/122 "2017-09-25T15:53:58Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > What’s to protest? These are grown men getting paid big bucks to play a children’s game and they want to thumb their noses at the country that makes it possible for that to happen? > > Can you say hypocrisy? The hypocrisy is how we, as a country, treat millionaries. If the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies were believed to be treated unfairly by police, politicians would step right in and fix it immediately. When athletes believe that they and their friends are treated unfairly by police, people like you tell them to shut up, play ball, and enjoy their money. > [@treis](#): > > The 49ers tried to trade Kaepernick before his protest and got no real interest from anyone. No doubt the protests have an impact, but he was not that well regarded around the league before they happened. There was the issue of salary when the trade discussions were underway. And it’s fairly logical that Kaep did what he did at the time: let’s say you were making 100 clams at your company, but they hated you and wanted to reassign you to another division paying 50 clams. Would you accept the reassignment for less pay, knowing that your other option was to continue to collect 100 clams and do no work for one year, at which point you would be laid off and you could try to get another job then? I think I would. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/123 "2017-09-25T16:04:02Z")
Was his contract guaranteed? Most in the NFL are not - you get cut, you don’t get paid no more. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/124 "2017-09-25T16:04:53Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Since the government isn’t restricting speech in this instance (although the President is certainly criticizing some form of speech) there’s no Constitutional conflict. Freedom of speech as written in the first amendment doesn’t come into play. > > But in common usage, free speech is often used when there are repercussions for speaking one’s mind from non-governmental agencies, such as NFL teams. Yup, hole in one. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/125 "2017-09-25T16:14:24Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > There was the issue of salary when the trade discussions were underway. And it’s fairly logical that Kaep did what he did at the time: let’s say you were making 100 clams at your company, but they hated you and wanted to reassign you to another division paying 50 clams. Would you accept the reassignment for less pay, knowing that your other option was to continue to collect 100 clams and do no work for one year, at which point you would be laid off and you could try to get another job then? I think I would. His 2016 salary was $12 million which would have more or less made him the lowest paid starting QB in the league not on a rookie deal. Any team in need of a QB would be thrilled to pick up a 28 year old starting QB for $12 million. If teams were asking him to restructure his deal to make less it means the teams didn’t see his value as a starting QB in the league. That’s more or less how Kaep’s free agency went. Teams were interested in him as a backup and he blew the two legit opportunities he had. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/126 "2017-09-25T16:14:57Z")
I cannot possibly imagining having enough free time that would allow me to worry about what someone else does during the National Anthem. If that is your biggest concern, you’ve got a pretty good life. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/127 "2017-09-25T16:15:33Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Still working on understanding the cognitive dissonance it takes to support Confederate statues while decrying Colin Kapernick… It’s not necessarily cognitive dissonance. NFL players are entertainers. By that I mean their salaries are so large because people watch them, and this creates a market for advertisers, who pay money to the teams for the ability to advertise during the games. So a team owner, or the league as a whole, would be well within their rights to say, “Cut it out — this behavior is losing us viewers and affecting our ad revenue. You’re here because you contribute to gaining viewers and ad revenue.” By the same token, an owner, or the league, can say, “Good for you – this gesture shows our team’s (or league’s) commitment to the norms of free speech, which helps our public image and thereby will in the long term increase out revenue.” Either way: the call is for the team owners to make, individually or collectively. The statues, by contrast – the ones on public land – must be managed consistent with First Amendment guidelines and responsive to public officials who are selected by voters. This is not quite the same as viewers, although cynics might argue there’s a reasonable correlation between the two sets. In any event, it’s possible to argue that as a member of the public, one may think Confederate statues should be retained as history, but that team owners should stifle protests as destructive to the entertainment mission. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/128 "2017-09-25T16:15:35Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I cannot possibly imagining having enough free time that would allow me to worry about what someone else does during the National Anthem. If that is your biggest concern, you’ve got a pretty good life. Thank god you had enough free time to tell us how little free time you have ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/129 "2017-09-25T16:17:55Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > What’s to protest? These are grown men getting paid big bucks to play a children’s game and they want to thumb their noses at the country that makes it possible for that to happen? “A children’s game”? American football under NFL rules is a difficult, physically demanding, even dangerous sport, that chews its players up. When I was a child, many people didn’t want kids even playing tackle football. Imagine these guys had grown up in India, where you can have a career as a professional cricket player. Now that might be something to be grateful for. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Or at the very least, stop having live singers. And if you do have live singers, you should be allowed to designate someone to walk out and smack them on the back of the head if they pull that Whitney Houston-esque noodling shit on it. It’s the National Anthem, not “I Will Always Love You”. Have a little dignity. Seriously, that shit pisses me off more than a couple of players kneeling during it. It’s a form of “To Anacreon in Heaven,” not “God Save the King.” A bit of noodling is quite in line with the nature of the composition. > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > You’re upsetting a Trump supporter by not assuming his position of choice when they play a song to your piece of cloth. Are you Canadian? Yeah, you’re too foreign not to sound ignorant and disrespectful here. I’ll put it differently. A lot of people have an idea that there is one! right! way! to salute Old Glory, and if you don’t join in, you deserve a smack. But that’s pretty much never been the case. Note how many people do military salutes during the anthem instead of the “proper” hand over the heart. Genuflecting isn’t a disrespectful pose in itself, nor is raising a fist in solidarity with the oppressed. But some people were taught that there is one way to do a thing, so if you “do it wrong,” that’s disrespectful. So they get angry, instead of understanding the nuance. And some do understand the nuance, but object to the deviance anyway for some other reason. And some just get annoyed at anybody they’re told to be annoyed at, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/130 "2017-09-25T16:42:56Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Thank god you had enough free time to tell us how little free time you have (voice from the clouds) You’re welcome. Life is too short to worry about shit like this. We’ve got a madman with access to nuclear weapons, not to mention that North Korean guy. We’ve got a political party hell bent on denying health care to tens of millions of people, we’ve got millions of Americans cleaning up after three major hurricanes, and we’ve got ever-mounting proof that the Russians have denied us a fair election. I don’t care if an athlete salutes the flag, flips it off, stands, kneels, lays down, or falls asleep during the anthem. It just isn’t important. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/131 "2017-09-25T16:49:29Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Its weird. > > Some of my liberal friends won’t watch football until Kaepernick gets a starting QB position and some of my conservative friends can’t seem to grokk that the reason we went from less than a dozen player5s sitting out the anthem to hundreds of players sitting out the anthem is because of Trump and not because of a new found disrespect for veterans, the military and people who died in combat. They’ve been told this by the right-leaning media, who have hit upon this dishonest way of peddling the story. It’s complete and utter bullshit, but your conservative friends just lap it up. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/132 "2017-09-25T17:19:12Z")
Trump. What an idiot. This NFL issue is so beneath the Presidency. This is Conduct Unbecoming. Trump has miscalculated badly and made this issue all about HIM. But he likes it that way. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/133 "2017-09-25T17:47:28Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > We’ve got a madman with access to nuclear weapons, not to mention that North Korean guy. Well put. ---
**Author:** ![SaneBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SaneBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaneBill)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/134 "2017-09-25T17:52:57Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > In what way is disrespecting the national anthem “making America great”? I don’t care if they’re standing on their head in a fish tank singing blues songs backwards or something. They’ve chosen to do this and it is perfectly legal, I’m sure the words of the anthem suggest that much. The point here is that they are trying to get attention to something that is unfair ( and you know how much Trump hates “unfair” ). They want this thing corrected and if it will be, America will be better. THAT is making America great. And if you have ever sat down during the anthem, even in the privacy of your home, you’re a damn hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/135 "2017-09-25T18:05:32Z")
> [@SaneBill](#): > > And if you have ever sat down during the anthem, even in the privacy of your home, you’re a damn hypocrite. Funny you should say that. The other day a 3rd cousin sent me a link…it was of their kids high school graduation…so I watched it while scratching my balls under the yellowish tighty whities covered in cheetos dust. So, from that one could assume that IF I could have attended said graduation, I would have done so just in above mentioned tighty whities…and I probably would have yellled “play some SKINNER” before I threw up and passed out. What a fucking stupid point. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/136 "2017-09-25T18:17:04Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s not necessarily cognitive dissonance. > > NFL players are entertainers. By that I mean their salaries are so large because people watch them, and this creates a market for advertisers, who pay money to the teams for the ability to advertise during the games. > > So a team owner, or the league as a whole, would be well within their rights to say, “Cut it out — this behavior is losing us viewers and affecting our ad revenue. You’re here because you contribute to gaining viewers and ad revenue.” > > By the same token, an owner, or the league, can say, “Good for you – this gesture shows our team’s (or league’s) commitment to the norms of free speech, which helps our public image and thereby will in the long term increase out revenue.” > > Either way: the call is for the team owners to make, individually or collectively. I don’t think this was your intent, but this explanation kind of glosses over the fact that they’ve already made that decision in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that they have with the players’ union. The CBA lays out the different punishments available to the owners and specifies what sins the players can be punished for. Players can be punished for a variety of off-the-field offenses and for in-game conduct, but there’s no agreed-upon punishment for pre-game on-field protests. That doesn’t necessarily mean the owners couldn’t try to punish it, but the league has been slapped down in court recently (see Ezekiel Elliot’s suspension and appeal) and I don’t think they’re too eager to put a case like this in front of a judge. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/137 "2017-09-25T18:20:21Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Trump. What an idiot. This NFL issue is so beneath the Presidency. This is Conduct Unbecoming. > > Trump has miscalculated badly and made this issue all about HIM. But he likes it that way. The NFL is beneath most presidencies. It is above Trump’s. Hell, roller derby is above Trump’s Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/138 "2017-09-25T18:21:28Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Trump has miscalculated badly. Again? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/139 "2017-09-25T18:23:03Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Again? Who got in the Whitehouse? Who did not? Crazy like a fox… ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216/140 "2017-09-25T18:27:20Z")
Upon reflection, I think the kneeling during the anthem is one of the most respectful protests I’ve ever seen. It’s not disruptive, it doesn’t interfere with anyone else’s desire to stand during the anthem and it’s not an inherently disrespectful act. The only reason it’s an issue is because Trump is a huge racist that hates protesters ( unless they’re Nazis) and has a bid giant bug up his ass about the NFL. So it’s a trifecta for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-magically-turns-nfl-games-into-anti-trump-rallies/797216.md?page=8)