Posted on 08/23/2017 2:55:52 PM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32
The NAACP's interim president Derrick Johnson has officially requested a formal meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss NFL players and their ability to exercise their First Amendment rights.
According to a letter sent to the league by the NAACP, the meeting will specifically focus on Kaepernick's perceived "blackballing" by the league in light of his protests last season. It also questions the silencing of NFL players' platforms, citing Tommie Smith and John Carlos's black power salute at the 1968 Olympics, among other examples.
Kaepernick's lack of a job has raised many eyebrows throughout the offseason, particularly with the quarterbacks being signed ahead of him. Johnson penned a concern regarding Kaepernick's First Amendment rights and also strongly insinuated that his protest was the sole cause of him not being signed. An excerpt of the letter reads:
Last season, Mr. Kaepernick chose to exercise his First Amendment rights by protesting the inequitable treatment of people of color in America. By quietly taking a knee during the national anthem, he was able to shine a light on the many injustices, particularly, the disproportionate occurrences of police misconduct toward communities of color. As outlined in your office's public statement, this act of dissent is well within the National Football League's stated bylaws. Yet, as the NFL season quickly approaches, Mr. Kaepernick has spent an unprecedented amount of time as a free agent, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that this is no sheer coincidence.
"No player should be victimized and discriminated against because of his exercise of free speech -- to do so is in violation of his rights under the Constitution and the NFL's own regulations.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbssports.com ...
Local news is showing a protest of a “few hundred” people outside NFL headquarters in NYC. Apparently the protestors think that Kaepernick has a right to a job.
He got in trouble for using his position at work to shove his political position in the face of people who came for football. It would be a different matter if he were in trouble for participating in a political even outside of work. Or even expressing a political opinion in a respectable manner with others in the locker room. But he was not hired to get free advertising for his own causes by creating a special in front of the cameras that hurt his team and the NFL. Should other players be allowed to dance around with a sign that says "Eat at Joes" to earn a bit of extra cash during the National Anthem?
He could have requested that they trade him but instead requested he be released from his contract with the 49er’s.
“He got in trouble for using his position at work to shove his political position”
Which would get you canned in most businesses.
I’ve been expecting this. Depends on the team rules. If the rules say, “ Stand when the anthem is played”, then it’s like any other employee rule. Don’t like the rules, go somewhere else to work. You can’t call your boss an SOB, or refuse to take out the trash if it’s in your job description and get away with it; why should it be any different with a job in football? If the NFL decides to get rid of the anthem, they will get some serious backlash. Football fans may be a bunch of drunken bums (jk), but it’s un-American to have those games without it. It’s a well-ingrained tradition, and all but the crassist among the fans will not tolerate its removal, IMHO.
Maybe the NAACP shouldform their own league and draft him first. And pay him 10 million.
No team was going to take on his $13+ million contract, and the 49ers weren’t going to eat it. They would have released him anyway just before the season started when rosters would already be final. He opted out early to give himself a better chance to catch on with someone else. He wasn’t going to collect on his contract regardless.
“libertylover” believes that Kaepernick had a Constitutional right to do what he did, and indeed, he’s not in jail for it. But others have Constitutional rights too, and the owners simply don’t want to lose the revenue from thousands of lost ticket sales, and so they haven’t hired him.
“Mr. Pepper balls”......... Perfect!!!!!
If I get a job and then while on the job insult the customers repeatedly and so egregiously that they refuse to return, those insults may well be protected by my God-given and First Amendment protected rights. However, my workplace is my employer's property and responsibility. While Congress can make no law prohibiting my free speech, my employer has the right (and if he has partners/stockholders/investors may have the legal and moral responsibility) to remove a distraction that is costing the business money. Blackballing this traitor is not censorship; it's a natural consequence of bad behavior.
Kaeperdick’s performance cooked his goose. His behavior during the National Anthem sealed his fate. Now the NFL has to write in new rules and the words giving the fines for failing to give respect the the Flag. All would not be necessary had it not been for a meathead not even smart enough to be on the third string bench. But because of stupidity, the NFL must write rules for Flag disrespect and big fines of such disrespect. When you are on the job, you are under the company rules. The First Amendment does not exist within the work place doors.
This will end up like that player that was touted far and wide as being the first gay player. Eventually, IMO, the league pressured a team to take him.
I’m waiting to hear, after this meeting, that some team has suddenly changed their mind and is signing Kaepernick.
The rest of your post was spot on, but this part was incorrect in the context of a private employment situation.
No one’s deprived this fool of his 1st Amendment rights, it’s just that he’s exercised that right to such an extent that nobody wants him on their team anymore because they’d have a fan revolt on their hands.
The NAACP wants to deprive the teams and the fans of THEIR 1st Amendment rights in order to protect this dunce from the consequences of his actions.
An NFL team is a privately held asset worth several hundred million to one billion dollars. All these losers whining about 1A rights in this instance need to go away until they’ve signed the front of a paycheck instead of the back of one for several years.
I’m waiting for the NAACP to call for the nationalization of the NFL. Nobody destroys equity other people have created better than the NAACP.
For this goofy chia pet-headed glob of protoplasm, it should be the National Association of Half Colored People.
The countryside is littered with unemployed free agents with better records than 2W-14L, nothing unprecedented about it. Some guys keep showing up after 3 years or more hoping for a slot.
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