"He went on to say that the NFL owners have research “clearly showing the president is right” when he claims the national anthem protests are one factor in TV ratings dropping.
“Since the president weighed in, the owners are now dealing with a surge in ticket holder requests for refunds,” King said."
Well, in the first place, Kaeperneck, who started it all, has been clear in that the gesture is intended to show his intention not to respect a flag that represents what he thinks is a country that is just peachy with blacks being shot (without justification, I presume) by cops.
In the second place, just because something has one meaning in one context it doesn’t necessarily follow that it has the same meaning in every context. This is why thong bikinis are okay at the beach but not at a board meeting.
So Kaepernick has been very clear about choosing to combine protest with a respectful demeanor, so as not to distract from his message by offending people with what is conventionally considered a disrespectful attitude. He’s trying to draw attention to things about this country that he thinks are unjust and unworthy of it, but he’s not in fact trying to express an “intention not to respect [the] flag”.
Kaepernick has stated, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”
He obviously intended his protest to demonstrate a lack of pride in or respect for the U.S. because within it exists a certain wrongful behavior for which he has decided to ascribe to the country as a whole. Clearly a gesture intended to show lack of respect is by definition a gesture of disrespect. Further, as your own cite states, Kaepernick himself originally intended to sit but was talked out of it by a fellow player seeking to find a middle ground between respect and disrespect. So in a sense by kneeling he’s attempting to convey a certain respect that he doesn’t really hold.
This cite shows the amount ratings are down from last year but not how much they’ve gone down in the couple weeks since Trump’s comments and entire teams started to become involved. I’ve heard and read a lot more from people outraged by this and giving up/selling/asking for refunds of tickets than I ever did over Kaepernick’s protests.
It should be noted also that a 5% drop in ratings, if it correlates to a 5% drop in revenue, may well account for all or most of a team’s profit as most of its revenue is spent just operating. I wouldn’t be surprised but what a relatively sudden drop in viewership of only 12% to 15% would be enough to drive a team into insolvency, if it were to continue. (In other words, by injecting politics into their workplace, these players may well be cutting off their nose to spite their face.)
I wonder how that stacks up against the waiting list that many (most?) teams have to get season tickets?
And the owners do of course have the right to fire someone for pretty much any reason. But given the general competitiveness and narrow margins between winning games and losing games, I imagine they are loathe to do that.
Well, for one thing Kaepernick is wrong about the purpose of standing for the national anthem and saluting the flag, both of which are intended to honor and show respect for the country and those who’ve fallen in its service (which includes a lot of black guys, btw). So while he says pride, it’s really about respect, and most of those who objecting to him see it this way.