How the NFL lost to Trump

The Keene Sentinel ^ | October 15, 2017 | Rich Lowry

[2ndDivisionVet]

Donald Trump isn’t exactly on a winning streak, but he is beating the NFL in a rout.

The league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, signaled the beginning of a messy, divisive retreat with a memo stating, “Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the National Anthem.” Now he tells us.

The climbdown comes only weeks after a clueless bout of self-congratulation by the NFL and the media over widespread anthem protests. Donald Trump doesn’t play three-dimensional chess, as his supporters insist. But he does have an instinctive cunning and a grasp of a nationalistic cultural politics that shouldn’t be underestimated by his opponents, even though it almost always is.

It’d obviously be better if a president of the United States weren’t waging war on a major sports league. Trump’s intervention has been inflammatory from the beginning. He shouldn’t have called protesting players “sons of bitches” and mused about firing them like the loudest guy down at the end of the bar.

The very outrageousness of Trump’s initial riff, though, served his purposes. Trump’s lurid overstatement acted as a neon advertisement for his commonsensical underlying point, namely that players should stand during the national anthem. And it baited the NFL into fighting him on indefensible ground.

There were all sorts of unobjectionable means available for players to defy Trump, but they allowed themselves to, in effect, get double-dared into disrespecting the flag.

The perils here should have been obvious. David Frum, an incisive and unrelenting anti-Trump voice, wrote a piece for The Atlantic at the outset of the controversy, urging players not to cede the flag to Trump. They went ahead and ceded the flag to Trump. Why?

It was, in part, a classic bubble phenomenon. Sports journalists are, if anything, more left than political journalists. They were excited about being at the center of a national political debate and sticking it to Trump. Much of the media piled right behind them. On CNN and MSNBC it was rare to hear a commentator say a discouraging word about the protests, let alone warn that the NFL was stumbling into Trump’s political kill box.

It is true that, after Trump got involved, the polling on the protests showed the public more evenly divided. This doesn’t have equal significance: If you’re Donald Trump and at 40 percent or below in the polls, a 50/50 issue works for you; if you are the NFL and trying to appeal to a broad audience, a 50/50 issue is a disaster for you.

The NFL misunderstood its own nature. It’s not just that it is a game that should be a respite from political and social contention; as a quasi-national festival, it should be identified with a certain baseline of patriotism (the national anthem, the enormous American flags on the field before games, the military flyovers, etc.). Colin Kaepernick cracked this image, and Donald Trump drove a wedge through it.

It is much too early to know what the 2020 landscape will look like, but if Trump wins again, it will surely have something to do with a dynamic like the one that played out with the NFL. Trump will cause an unthinking overreaction by Democrats on a culture issue or issues, and the party will be wrong-footed by the insularity of its own political and media ecosystem.

What most repulses Democrats about Trump — his status as a nationalistic culture warrior — is what they most need to take heed of. If Hillary Clinton during the campaign had said, politely, that Colin Kaepernick should stand during the anthem, it might have been enough of a signal of old-school patriotism to working-class voters to put her over the top. Three more years of Trump will presumably make it even harder for the next Democratic nominee to tack to the center on a few cultural hot buttons.

The NFL’s agony is the Democrats’ peril.

[hawkaw]

Paragraphs.

[MortMan]

They lost to Trump because the President spoke the words already formed in the minds of millions of American patriots, many of which were avid football fans.

And then the NFL quadrupled down on stupid.

[uncbob]

I don’t think Trump was laying out a trap etc for the NFL

He honestly loves this country and said what was in his heart PERIOD

No other reason

[Disestablishmentarian]

>>sonsabitches<

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It hurt because it is true, for so many of them ... absent fathers, unmarried baby-momma mothers dependent on welfare ...

[SaxxonWoods]

“Donald Trump isn’t exactly on a winning streak...”

Bwahahahaha.

Tell it to the Democrats.

[Techster]

Good answer 1.
Good answer 2.

Also “Find a need and fill it”
Political protest is NOT a customer need in this case!

[right way right]

You win the tread.
All Trump did was lance a boil.

[Vince Ferrer]

Donald Trump doesn’t play three-dimensional chess, as his supporters insist.

Question for Rick Lowery, who is trump fighting? It isn't the NFL. Its the media companies that have been broadcasting their games.

The media has attacked Trump without stopping since 2015. So far they have lost about $200 million of advertising related to the ratings slump in the NFL this season. With one tweet, Trump throws gasoline onto the fire, which will cost them hundreds of millions more, just as they gear up for the 2018 elections.

If he isn't playing 3D chess, he certainly can target their vulnerabilities like a Womp rat back home on Tattoine.

[LS]

Donald Trump isn’t on a winning streak?

*Paris Accord dead
*Obamacare zhredded
*ISIS annihilated
*No TPP
*Iran deal killed
*Judges confirmed at record pace
*GOP 4-0 in Zpecial Elegions & proTrumper Moore in position to win a 5th
*WV gov switches parties
*Economic optimism at all time high
*Stocks skyrocketing
*Uenployment at 20 year lows
*Black unemployment at ALL TIME low

This guy is pathetic

[eyedigress]

One of the first things one of my dumbass co-workers said last year was regarding the market. He is Libtard 101.

“My 401 will tank if Trump is elected”.

I push his nose in it every chance I get. He is set to retire now.

[Tucker39]

Very well said. IMO, Lowery is a quitessential, east coast, brie sucking pantywaist.

[BobL]

“There were all sorts of unobjectionable means available for players to defy Trump, but they allowed themselves to, in effect, get double-dared into disrespecting the flag.”

Bush Sr. was down by 10 POINTS to The Loser in the 1988 campaign. But then a gift dropped out of the sky...the SUPREME COURT ruled that burning the American Flag is somehow ‘free speech...and The Loser immediately AGREED with the decision.

Of course Bush had no clue as to do with that gift, but the late Lee Atwater (think Steve Bannon of the 1980s) knew EXACTLY what to do. Bush Sr. actually visited an AMERICAN FLAG FACTORY (in New Jersey, if you can believe it) and went on to blow out The Loser in November.

Nice of the NFL to do Trump the same favor.

[Caipirabob]

Our entire fantasy pool collapsed. Poor after the first mass kneeling. Disgusting bastards! I won’t be waistline my time of the trash again.

[Cobra64]

No one can read your sea of words.

Try learning how to use paragraph breaks like those used in post 29.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I went to eat at a local steakhouse today. They have 12 TVs in the place. No NFL, it was all Golf, NASCAR, baseball, Red Bull mountain bike jumping, stuff like that. The place was hopping, it didn’t hurt business a bit. It probably helped them! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

He shouldn’t have called protesting players “sons of bitches...”

I've called them worse than that under my breath.

[victim soul]

You are right. He spoke his true feelings as a football fan and an American that doesn’t abide people disrespecting our flag and country.

I am so grateful he is our President.

[Maverick68]

Bottom line: The NFL is a billion-dollar business due to the patronage of 21-50 year old white guys and the NFL took the side of people that HATE 21-50 year old white guys, period, end of story.