Trump’s Knee Jerk Reaction

President Trump has managed to breathe new life into the sputtering assault on the American flag, the NFL, the National Anthem and patriotism by a group of disaffected players. The President sent out a Tweet aimed at NFL team owners early Tuesday morning: “Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!” 3:13 AM 10/10/17

That was preceded by the Vice President’s carefully-staged retreat from the Colt’s vs. Forty-Niners game last Sunday: “The trip by @VP Pence was long planned. He is receiving great praise for leaving game after the players showed such disrespect for country!” 4:05 AM 10/9/17

Now, with Donald Trump’s skin in the game everything has changed. The debate over proper comportment during playing of the National Anthem at NFL games began over a year ago as a vague but well-intended statement against “racial injustice” in America by one-time San Francisco Forty-Niner quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. He chose the wrong venue. Still, the 29-year old, who wears his religion on his well-inked throwing arm, ignited a movement that by season’s end had grown to something powerful enough to re-shape the third House of Congress – the National Football League. A flash poll conducted by The Winston Group released October 9^th, shows a stunning 31-percent decline in support for the NFL by core fans in the first four weeks of the season attributable almost entirely to the “take a knee” demonstrations by some players at NFL games. The fact that President Trump has insinuated himself into the controversy with one of his cunning tweets has clarified battle lines and extended the game.

The kneel-down caper was not original – other players have quietly opted out of honoring the flag at other times in other cities. Indeed, Jackie Robinson never saluted the flag and got away with it for his whole career, “I cannot stand and sing the anthem;” he said in his 1972 autobiography, “I know that I am a black man in a white world.” Kaepernick’s gesture of rebellion to draw attention to the treatment of African Americans and other people of color in America seemed to strike a chord with some people, while alienating others, many others, who resent being painted as bigots or racists, or white supremacists simply because they were taught as schoolchildren to honor their flag. By custom and tradition Americans have only three rules for honoring the flag when the National Anthem is played: 1-stand-up, 2-shut-up. 3-hats off.   Taking a knee during that two-and-a-half minute patriotic time out was simply too audacious to comprehend so it’s no wonder The League was flummoxed when the young 49er chose to kneel. Fans, however, were not flummoxed, many hold high regard for the history and significance of Old Glory. They began to vote with their feet. Attendance at NFL games fell off, television ratings declined, ticket prices (which have risen every year since Prohibition) are down 20-to-40-percent this year. Monday Night Football (Sept. 9) achieved a season low rating.

Worse, on one occasion Kaepernick naively wore strictly non-NFL-approved socks, which depicted police officers as pigs and decried the recent shootings of black young men by police officers. A bold statement but, again, entirely out of place. Nevertheless, other players joined during the course of the year. They brought their own somewhat vague baggage, until, by season’s end, the kneelers’ list of woes was considerable. Again, Americans love their football and seem to like it best without politics. The league is seventy-percent comprised of African-American players – all extremely well compensated, all immensely talented, all viewed by many fans as worthy of hero status, therefore (when seen dishonoring the flag), hypocritical and unappreciative of the many blessings offered to everyone in a free society.

The soap opera known as the National Football League is painfully deciding who is in charge of this $13-billion a year rowdy farm; yes, the one that charges an average of $93 for a single regular season ticket and dictates exactly what color of shoelaces each player shall wear. Until Tuesday, when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell timidly suggested that football players should (not must) stand during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, The League couldn’t summon the courage to tell a few of its players that the editorial page or the public sidewalk was the proper venue for their grievances, not the sidelines.

Once upon a time kneeling on the field of play was limited to some very specific occasions such as listening as a team to a head coach explain the significance of “The Gipper,” the occasional “Tebow,” the impromptu post-game faith circle barely tolerated by League officials, the last-play-of-the-game surrender knee. And, on rare occasions, when a player absorbs a nuclear strike to the kidney delivered by a genetically manufactured linebacker and requiring a moment to recalibrate his threshold for pain, occasionally, that player can be allowed to take a knee until the current commercial break is over. But that’s it!

By the time the League Office releases mid-season attendance and revenue figures it will be too late to do much more than wonder: “How did we get out-played so badly by that kid? He’s not even on a team and he burned down the house.” However well-intentioned Kap’s show of defiance was, it had the effect of alienating vast hordes of Americans who just don’t like anybody fooling around with their symbols.

So, it looks like this might be a rebuilding year for the NFL. The damage done to the League’s jealously defended brand is immense. All those teams that didn’t sign Kap have been vindicated because of his antics last season and re-antics during the first four weeks of the current season. He’s not a bad quarterback. Perhaps he’ll get a job after some of his radioactivity wears off. Maybe the Raiders will sign him to back up the injured Derek Carr. Maybe he’ll move with the team in 2018 to Las Vegas. Maybe, with the Mandalay Bay Massacre fresh in mind, we’ll all stand the next time The Fat Lady sings.