Colin Kaepernick Doesn’t Get Why His National Anthem Protests Would Hurt NFL Ratings

Boston.cbslocal.com ^ | Oct 25, 2016 | Matt Dolloff

[11th_VA]

BOSTON (CBS) — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick certainly believes in the cause he is ennobling by kneeling during the national anthem before games, but he doesn’t understand why his protests would turn fans away from their TVs.

The NFL’s sharp ratings decline has been one of the biggest hot-button issues in sports since the start of the 2016 season, and there is undoubtedly a myriad of reasons as to the causes. One of the major underlying factors across the league is the weakened on-field product and increasingly unwatchable broadcasts, bogged down by excessive commercials and penalty flags. But there is a vocal group of fans who took Kaepernick’s demonstrations as a sign of disrespect to the American flag, many of whom consider sacred. Many of these fans have turned away from the NFL, some of them permanently.

When asked about the NFL’s ratings decline and whether he feels his actions have been a cause of it, Kaepernick sounded incredulous – but admitted that he doesn’t understand how ratings work in the first place.

“I don’t know much about ratings and how they are affected and all of those things,” said Kaepernick, according to the Sacramento Bee. “But I don’t understand why ratings would go down, fighting for justice for people, to try to stop oppression, especially in a league that is predominantly black.”

owever noble the cause Kaepernick is attempting to promote, he should at least understand that such a prominent demonstration would be polarizing for NFL viewers, many of which would view protesting during the national anthem as at best counterproductive and at worst disrespectful or ungrateful toward his country.

A new poll conducted by Yahoo! surveyed 1,136 Americans who identified as NFL fans, 29 percent of which said they are watching fewer NFL games in 2016 than they did in 2015. Forty percent of those viewers cited Kaepernick’s national anthem protests as the reason they stopped watching, which shakes out to about 11.6 percent of all fans surveyed. The NFL’s collective ratings are down by about 11 percent in 2016 as compared to 2015, as of Week 7.

Thirty-one percent cited “lack of opportunity” to watch games while 29 percent cited “lack of interest,” which would go back to the league’s watered-down product. Seventeen percent of fans watching less football cited presidential election coverage as the reason why.

As much as Kaepernick has a right to demonstrate and express his beliefs, the fans who disagree with the way he has gone about his protests also have the right to change the channel or boycott the NFL and its sponsors entirely. Even if the effect his protests have had on the ratings is negligible, the NFL has nonetheless turned off a segment of Americans who once viewed Sundays as a day dominated by football. The anthem protests and the subsequent backlash may not be the primary cause of the ratings decline, but at this point, it’s hard to dismiss it as a total non-factor.

Between the politicizing of sports and the broadcasts themselves becoming less watchable every week, the league will need to make serious changes if it wants to get its ratings back to where they were last season, let alone make them continue to grow.

Kaepernick and the 49ers play the Patriots on Nov. 20 in Week 11. It’s highly likely that he will again kneel during the national anthem before that game, and that the NFL’s ratings will still be in a freefall.

[longfellow]

It’s good to see more people paying attention to what’s really important and what’s going on in the country and not the bread and circuses. And this clown.

[circlecity]

I can’t believe with the size of his contract and as bad as he plays he’s still on the roster. He started the season on the bench as third string. He became the starter two weeks ago as a matter of default. He’s played horribly the two games he’s be in and his team isn’t even competitive. Any other team he’d be out the door.

[LouAvul]

certainly believes in the cause he is ennobling

Whitey has given these people everything they've demanded. They've extorted trillions and, culturally, are worse off than ever.

But somebody mentioned a whole new scam. Bigger than affirmative action. Bigger than minority hiring quotas.

Reparations. They smell money in the wind. None of them care about black lives. Blacks kill more blacks than all other homicides combined.

No, they're raising this ruckus cause they want to make honky feel so guilty he'll do what he's always done, viz. fork over some cash.

I'd sure like to see this fifty year scam end.

[bestrongbpositive]

If the league is predominately black then just let the black’s support it. Wouldn’t bother me one bit since I gave up on those overpaid spoiled SOB’s a long time ago.

[Nifster]

Second or third tier quarterback...not a thinker

[48th SPS Crusader]

We get enough of the “America sucks” from our President, the MSM every evening news hour and of course Black Lives Matter.

I tune into Footbal to watch footbal. Not some over paid, over privileged fool, telling me how terrible it is to live in America.
Then factor in the childish temper tantrums on the field, the celebration to revival that for the second coming, simply for doing your job, the ridiculous and inept referres, calling silly fouls and completely missing assaults with intent

[joshua c]

“But I don’t understand why ratings would go down, fighting for justice for people, to try to stop oppression, especially in a league that is predominantly black.”

---

This statement calls into question his critical thinking skills. The league is predominantly black. The question was about ratings, the fan base.

Is the fan base predominately black?

[ETL]

________________________________________________

Kaepernick social media posts laud Black Lives Matter, Black Panthers, since dating activist DJ

August 30, 2016
FoxNews.com

“'History!' Kaepernick wrote on Instagram Oct. 15 [2015], when he marked 50 years since the Black Panther Party was founded.

Kaepernick has posted 170 photos or videos on his Instagram account in the four years since he created it. Most of his first 128 posts were pics of him in football gear, publicity photos or shots taken with friends.

But 31 of his last 42 posts have strong social justice connotations, often featuring quotes from radical Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, Black Panthers founder Huey Newton and cop killer Assata Shakur. [aka, JoAnne Chesimard]

During a Sunday news conference about the flag flap, Kaepernick dressed in a black hat with a large, white “X” and a T-shirt that featured photos of Cuban despot Fidel Castro and Malcolm X.”

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2016/08/30/kaepernick-social-media-posts-laud-black-lives-matter-black-panthers-since-dating-activist-dj.html
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From the Maoist Internationist Movement:
[1960s/original] Black Panther Party [BPP] Archives
From the article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROES

"On May 1st, May Day [1969], the day of the gigantic Free Huey rally, two of Alioto's top executioners vamped on the brothers from the Brown Community who were attending to their own affairs. These brothers, who are endowed with the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party defended themselves from the racist pig gestapo [the police].

Pig Joseph Brodnik received his just reward with a big hole in the chest. Pig Paul McGoran got his in the mouth which was not quite enough to off him.

The revolutionary brothers escaped the huge swarm of pigs with dogs, mace, tanks and helicopters, proving once again that "the spirit of the people is greater than the man's technology."

To these brothers the revolutionary people of racist America want to say, by your revolutionary deed you are heroes, and that you are always welcome to our camp."

Source: Maoist Internationist Movement
Article: REVOLUTIONARY HEROS (May 11, 1969)
http://web.archive.org/web/20060717050055/http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/index.html

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Beyonce's halftime performance was a tribute to cop killers and the 1960s Black Panthers

____________________________________________________________

Beyonce and JZ in Communist Cuba..

.

[ml/nj]

You only have channels that carry the nothing but the NFL? I find that hard to believe!

I don't watch anything that doesn't start with the National Anthem, FOX News included.

ML/NJ

[Will88]

Last year was a record year for NFL ratings. Now, all of a sudden, all sorts of factors that were also present last year are causing the ratings drop.

BS

[publius911]

Why is it okay to be "predominantly black" in the first place, when anything "predominantly white" is disallowed or at least harshly criticized? Just the fact that his multi-million dollar "job" is predominantly black proves he's got nothing to protest about.

Professional "sports" is just another "lottery" for the totally useless. Sort of like the criminal thug who is shot and killed by their victim or the police, and the "family" is awarded millions$...

It's not for nothing that that professional basketball was the original pro sort labeled

THUGBALL

And pro football the second.

Isn't progress wonderful?

[ETL]

From 2012...

HUFFINGTON POST - ENTERTAINMENT

Obama Says ‘Beyonce Could Not Be A Better Role Model For My Girls’ As Event With Jay-Z Nets $4 Million

Sept 19, 2012

Barack Obama was the guest of Beyonce and Jay-Z on Wednesday night. The foursome — joined by about 100 other people at Jay-Z’s 40/40 club in Manhattan — had a wildly successful evening, raising $4 million for the president’s reelection campaign. ...”

“To J and B, thank you so much for your friendship,” the president said.

“Beyoncé could not be a better role model for my girls because she carries herself with such class and poise and has so much talent,” he said.

The singer has taken an active role in promoting Obama’s bid, posting an open letter to Michelle Obama on her blog and later reading it an a web video released by the campaign. ...”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/obama-beyonce-role-model-jay-z-4-million_n_1896368.html

[ETL]

Who Is Doing the Community Organizing for Black Lives Matter Spectacle?

Not many Black Lives Matter morons would have the initiative to get a poster printed. But it's no mystery where they get the signs that they jab in the air as they chant "What do we want? Dead cops!" The supplier is printed right across the bottom: revcom.us .

'Rev' is for revolutionary.
'Com' is for communist.

Revcom.us bills itself as "the voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA." The explicit objective is to overthrow our constitutional republic and replace it with an oligarchical collectivist dictatorship along the lines of North Korea and the Soviet Union.

Why would advocates of a communist police state agitate against the police? Because as leftists used to admit openly, the issue is never the issue.. This isn't about the police, any more than it is about blacks. It is about destabilizing the system so as to create opportunities to weaken it and eventually overthrow it.

That's what community organizing boils down to. These people have taken over the executive branch of the federal government; why would they stop there?

The next hill they take will be federal control of local police. After that, things will start to get scary.

http://moonbattery.com/?p=54033
____________________________________________

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us):

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm

*********************************************************

The 1992 LA/Rodney King riots were instigated by the Revolutionary Communist Party...

From David Horowitz's FrontpageMag.com /DiscoverTheNetworks.org:

"Throughout its history, one of RCP's [Revolutionary Communist Party] principal objectives has been to foment civil unrest in the United States. The most notable example of such efforts occurred on April 29, 1992, when RCP members looted and trashed the downtown and government districts of Los Angeles, triggering the infamous Rodney King riots. During the days immediately preceding the violence, RCP -- which maintained close ties to the L.A. gangs known as the Crips and the Bloods -- had circulated throughout South Central Los Angeles a leaflet featuring a statement by RCP National Spokesman Carl Dix, titled 'It's Right To Rebel' -- a quote popularized by Mao Zedong.

Encouraged by Dix, RCP activists helped lead the riots that would leave 58 people dead, more than 2,300 people injured, some 5,300 buildings burned, and $1 billion in property damaged or destroyed. On the ten-year anniversary of the rioting, RCP member Joseph Veale fondly recalled the violence as 'the most beautiful, the most heroic civil action in the history of the United States.'"
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6197
__________________________________________

__________________________________________

REVOLUTION: Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
[Revolution] Interview with Bill Ayers, Revolution #63, October 1, 2006:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://web.archive.org/web/20110727113745/http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html

[ml/nj]

The NFL’s underlying problem is discrimination against white players.

I guess I'm strange. I don't pay any attention to the players' skin colors. Perhaps naively, I believe talent reigns supreme.

I do pay attention to the actors' skin colors on the commercials though. On commercials PC reigns supreme, and I suppose many people are also turned off by the commercials.

ML/NJ

[ETL]

Hillary, the Black Lives Matter Candidate

Where racist pandering and cop-hatred meet.

July 19, 2016

Matthew Vadum

CLEVELAND -- Hillary Clinton's appalling address to black activists yesterday suggests that she may be an even more fanatical supporter of the dangerous, violent Black Lives Matter movement than Barack Obama. ..."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263564/hillary-black-lives-matter-candidate-matthew-vadum
____________________________________________

For some historical background on where Hillary is coming from on radical groups and terrorism...

Hillary and the [Maoist, 1960s] Black Panthers: The Real Story [plus her internship for Stalinist lawyer and support of FALN Marxist terrorists]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3470345/posts

*********************************************************

For anyone who didn't know, the original Black Panthers were a communist-revolutionary domestic terrorist group like Bill Ayers' Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. All were Maoist to be precise.

[publius911]

I used to watch lots of different teams, now I only stomach the NFL for my one favorite team. Even that one is just barely hanging on.

You'd be luckier if your team were San Francisco!

Then you'd be rid of the thugs altogether.

[jaydubya2]

Miami Heat game National Anthem.

[polymuser]

A lot of black people do not understand a lot of things.

[polymuser]

Paying more for my beer, pizza and cars for the ‘privilege’ of watching grown men get filthy rich for playing with a ball, and other men getting filthy rich for talking about the men playing with balls.

Um, no, thanks. I have other enjoyable things to do with my family and friends.

[publius911]

Someone should educate him about the fall of the Dixie Chics.

What's the Dixie Chicks?