Posted on 09/25/2017 4:09:33 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Donald Trump drove this bus, tweeting away at 100 mph. It blew straight past Crazy Town. His speech on Friday and subsequent posts about firing “SOBs” who kneel during the national anthem threw plutonium on a fire that has been smoldering for a year. That fire blew up on an increasingly beleaguered — and increasingly holier-than-thou — NFL.
The national media narrative heading into yesterday’s NFL play was simple: “You either support players who take a knee during the national anthem, or you are a racist.”
Condemnation of Trump was necessary, if not compulsory. Players tweeted it. Media types broke their ankles tripping over each other to reach the sanctimony summit. NFL team owners, following Roger Goodell’s lead, joined the echo chamber out of expediency and fear of social media backlash.
Left out of this equation — the metaphorical Joe and Jane Sixpack and their two kids, Brady and Tammy Lynn. They dropped $700 or so on four tickets, plus more on concessions, parking and swag at Gillette. Their reward: Tom Brady being Tom Brady. That was unfortunately preceded by a visual lecture on how they do not understand “the struggle” — delivered by athletes whose salaries average $1.9 million per year, supported by a group of owners whose balance sheet is in the billions.
The “1 Percent” on steroids. And that 1 percent just called Joe and Jane Sixpack racists. Not a winning play for a league that is already having a bad couple of years.
Brandin Cooks was among 16 or so Patriots booed for taking a knee. Fans cheered wildly when Cooks made the game-winning grab to ice Brady’s 50th career fourth-quarter comeback. The brutal math is simple: fans pay to see Cooks make catches, not political statements.
Every so-called Neanderthal fan who booed yesterday, along with the evil, greedy corporations who buy luxury suites, and the unwashed millions watching on TV, directly and indirectly pay the salaries of players. Fans are the reason why the Patriots are worth $3.7 billion. Many of these same fans are derided for wanting to simply watch a game. That disdain comes from self-righteous State Run Media hacks whose employment depends on having an audience of said fans. These cowards faithfully “stick to sports” — until it suits their personal views.
The marketplace will be the ultimate determinant of whether or not these anthem protests dent the NFL shield. The short-term benefits for owners is glowing press and a solid they can use on the players once talks begin on a new CBA.
The long-term prognosis, however, isn’t good.
NFL TV ratings are at a 19-year low. The national NFL TV audience in Week 2 had 10.6 million fewer viewers (96.6 million total) than in same week last year. Shares of the NFL’s biggest stakeholders — Comcast (NBC), Disney (ESPN), Fox and CBS — were down between 1 and 8 percent last week, despite an overall jump in the markets. Analysts cited lower ratings and concern over player protests. The chalk couldn’t be scrawled on the board more plainly than that. Yet, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Patriots owner Bob Kraft and hundreds of players went ahead. If they didn’t physically take a knee, Goodell and Kraft took sides with those who did, against their protest-weary fans.
Other signs of trouble: Week 1 in Los Angeles, the Rams and Chargers combined drew fewer fans than USC-Texas — even though the Rams played in the same venue. The Chargers could not fill a 27,000-seat soccer venue.
The scars of domestic violence and DUI remain. There have been 40 NFL player arrests in the past year — out of 1,700. That might be lower than the national average. Still, the average person does not make millions to play a game. Of those arrests, 14 were for DUI or drug possession, while 10 were for domestic violence and disorderly conduct.
The revelation that Aaron Hernandez suffered from CTE at age 27 has given Casey Anthony’s attorney a green light to sue the Patriots and NFL. It re-invigorated the “should my kid play football” debate. Football is losing that debate more often each year.
Yesterday’s boos, meanwhile, were a win for Trump — despite all the pious, hand-wringing condemnation by multimillionaires. One Twitter follower put it best: “Trump isn’t earning 30 more electoral votes. It’s the reaction to Trump that is earning him 30 more electoral votes.”
Bill Speros (aka Obnoxious Boston Fan) Tweets @RealOBF and can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com
I would argue that a fair amount of this revenue used to pay the $40 million yearly payroll on most clubs...is dependent on fan paraphernalia (especially true for the NBA). You are coming up on November soon....where parents would be buying their kids football jerseys and various paraphernalia for Xmas. If they fail to buy...the sport stores will be sitting there in January with tons of gear that wasn’t sold.
Thanks for sharing. This was not only well said, but needed to be said.
The Communist Football League brought this on themselves. Like many other “American” institutions they are dedicated to disrespecting and destroying the country. They have become the great dividers. All Trump is doing is calling them out on their perfidy.
As traitors they need to be destroyed. You can say all you care about is the football, but the civil war has long since started. You don’t have to take sides but then again you can change your gender because you lost your balls. Wear your dress and sit on the sidelines for all I care. Patriots need to start taking the thugs down hard.
Great article. “Breaking their ankles to reach the sanctimony summit”. Perfect. Those are the lead sheep.
Welcome to professional THUGBALL!
I sent this to my NFL ticket agent: “Since the NFL has become a political protest group will you be offering refunds to fans that just wanted to watch football?”
We suffered 8 years of Obama, during which despite all the other CRAP we had to put up with....at least we had our FOOTBALL. It was like the one place where two sides could come together.
Now they have even taken that away. So F ‘em. F ‘em all. Limbaugh was right, the NFL jumped the shark some time ago. This pains my heart a lot more than any of the stupid libtard rallies.
NASCAR owners issued a blanket statement there will be no taking of knees. The King Richard Petty had some strong words on that as did some of the other big owners.
Now we have a singer who sang the Anthem and took a Knee. Time to make sure they don’t do it again.
Singer Rico Lavelle took a knee after singing the national anthem at Sunday’s Detroit Lions game.
Poll: 72 Percent See Kaepernick’s National Anthem Antics As ‘Unpatriotic’
http://www.townhallmail.com/cqprtsngrrjftgrgfgtpnfkllmfllgmnqqpsztjmqctjjd_ozttqkmmmql.html?a=&b=
I’d like to see every National Anthem from now on sung by a group of COMBAT VETERANS, AMPUTEES, AND THOSE IN WHEELCHAIRS. They should publicly shame these multimillionaire brats who are kneelers and no showers. Shame on them all.
Nice article. This year, I’m not buying sports related items this Christmas.
I hope the next Super Bowl is telecast to empty barracks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, etc. Why would our troops, who so desperately want a little piece of home in the middle of those hell holes, want to sit and be insulted by these angry, spoiled brats?
The NFL will no doubt try to win fans back by amping up the patriotism thing —”salute to the military day”. They already are rerunning a feel-good ad:
>>The NFL is re-airing its “Unity” commercial in response to Donald Trump’s call for the firing of basketball and football players who choose to take a knee during the National Anthem.
“We will air this Unity spot in tonight’s game,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. “It reflects the unifying force of our great game, our players & clubs.”
Mike “Lily” Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Kneelers described the team’s move as a show of unity (one Army Ranger player defied it). Hey jagoff! How bout showing unity by having the team on the field all standing? Take note that yesterday’s game was in Chicago. What happens at the Steelers’ next home game, with stunts like this? People are burning Steelers’ gear, Chiefs gear, etc.
Bob Kraft of the Un-patriots ought to just rename the stadium after Aaron Hernandez at this point. Clueless.
Great article.Thanks:)
Great game? Maybe some enterprising player advocacy group can run an ad showing brain injuries to now dead great players. Show the months leading up to the deaths of those with ALS.
I agree. We need to pray these ‘take a knee’ players are without jobs within 2 years....giving God time to act. I prayed that very prayer for Kaepernick, and he has no job as of yet. I pray he never gets one! Time to fight this evil spiritually, as well as legally. Trump/Congress needs to make a law it is illegal to ‘take a knee’ and NOT respect Flag/Anthem!
As a VETERAN I believe this to be an insult to every soldier who fought and died for their freedom to play football or whatever sport and make millions of dollars. POLICE BRUTALITY RACISM, or any other protest should NEVER be tied to our FLAG OR NATIONAL ANTHEM!
I watched the Superbowl the last time I was on a combat outpost in NE Afghanistan. I guarantee you, next time we would have it turned off.
When these rich NFL brats disrespect America, our flag, the military, and all those wounded and killed in the line of duty - we common, American folk shake our heads in disgust, tune them out, and drive on.
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