This might actually be an indication of something else more intriguing.
Lockhart was hired as the NFL spokesman in February 2016 -- which coincided exactly with the start of the primary season for the 2016 presidential election campaign. This makes me wonder if the whole Colin Kaepernick stage act and the silly orc tantrums on the sidelines was intended to be part of a political campaign all along.
This would explain why the NFL, its owners and its players are in a state of obvious confusion and disarray right now -- and clearly don't know how to deal with the situation they're facing.
They never expected Donald Trump to be in the White House.
Trump must have some really bad dirt on Goodell and the NFL
yeah, maybe so.
I recall a few years ago that a PRC company started a gambling operation based on the NBA. Apparently, USA pro sports has a significant international following. I am in Mexico right now. Sunday I stopped in a random cafe for lunch. The flat TV screens were broadcasting a NFL game (in English, even) (chicago bears vs pittsburg steelers). The pro sports franchises are now apparently international corporations, or perhaps equivalently, corporations with international markets. So what we may be seeing is just another manifestation of the power struggle between nationalism and internationalism. In his position, Trump probably has considerable recon on where and when the next upcoming political attacks on him will come from. Pro sports may have been first on that list. Rather than let them the pro sports teams grab the headlines, trump took the initiative and called them out.
I don’t have anything against pro sports per se but using my cable subscription money to dump on the US flag and the US as a nation is wrong. If pro sports wants to use their franchises as anti-US propaganda it seems to me only fair to expect a public broadside response from the president of our nation. Let the pro sports franchises go to China and Mexico for more revenue, and cut off their taxpayer paid subsidies. It is counterproductive to the US for US taxpayers and customers to pay for anti-US propaganda.