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<p>CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. women’s national team wants the U.S. Soccer Federation to repeal the anthem policy it instituted after Megan Rapinoe started kneeling during the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”</p> <p>The U.S. women’s team also wants the federation to state publicly that the policy was wrong and issue an apology to the team’s black players and supporters.</p>

With the George Floyd protests and riots, feelings and emotions have inevitably diverged with statistical fact more than ever. The narrative is rammed down our throats at a rapid rate, while the statistical data is inevitably more complex and requires part of an afternoon to digest. In the age of high-octane social media, part of an afternoon is no longer on the table. So as this battle over Floyd is fought — although in reality, it’s a unanimous agreement, not a battle at all — the sub-battles of the culture war ensue. One of these battles is our great national...

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has admitted that they were wrong in the way they handled Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality of black people, which ultimately led to the quarterback to be without a club. The NFL has been locked in an ongoing debate with players over kneeling protests during the national anthem before the start of games, a practice popularised by quarterback Kaepernick in 2016 to protest racial injustice and police brutality. Kaepernick filed a grievance against the league in 2017, claiming collusion as no teams signed him after he parted ways with the San Francisco 49ers. The NFL...

The National Football League has said players should be allowed to protest during the national anthem as rallies against racial discrimination continue. "We were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. The NFL had previously banned players from dropping to one knee, a practice started by Colin Kaepernick in 2016. In a video, Mr Goodell denounced racism in the US in comments that came shortly after a number of players urged the NFL to take a stronger stance on racism and police brutality in the...

Nearly four years ago Colin Kaepernick began sitting and later kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said in 2016. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Kaepernick’s protest rocked the league. The country too. Kneeling became a regular issue for then-candidate Donald Trump to...

The fight between the U.S. women’s national soccer team and U.S. Soccer – the federation that oversees the women’s team and their male counterparts – got uglier Wednesday night. It included strong words from a star player after the team hid their U.S. Soccer uniform logos during a national anthem protest prior to a 3-1 win over Japan in the final of the SheBelieves Cup in Frisco, Texas. Megan Rapinoe, who led last year’s U.S. triumph in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, tore into U.S. Soccer and boss Carlos Cordeiro after the game, just hours after Cordeiro apologized...

Jay-Z is clearing the air. The rapper and his wife, Beyoncé, drew criticism and praise for staying seated during the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV on Sunday. TMZ was able to obtain photos of the couple sitting with their daughter Blue Ivy during Demi Lovato's performance.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7959607/amp/Beyonce-Jay-Z-SIT-Super-Bowl-national-anthem.html

During a ceremony honoring the 2019 "Teachers of the Year," one in particular stood out. The honoree from Minnesota, Kelly Holstine, chose to kneel during the national anthem at the NCAA football championship game on Monday, where the ceremony took place, "to stand up for marginalized and oppressed people," according to a tweet she wrote, which included a photograph of her kneeling. "Like many before, I respectfully kneeled during Nat’l Anthem because, 'No one is free until we are all free,'" she wrote, referencing former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and citing a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King,...

Colin Kaepernick may not have an NFL job, but the social activist and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback is proving he's still marketable as his new $110 Nike sneaker bearing his image sold out within minutes of its release on Monday. Nike sold the shoes at its own stores, select retailers and via the SNKRS app. The sneakers can be acquired for resale, but one website, FlightClub.com, is asking as much as $950 for a pair. Some retailers have agreed to donate profits to charities supported by the outspoken Kaepernick. Nike has not released sales figures, but the Air Force...

↑ Click on the image above to see the video ↑ Original Italian Title English Translation   Mondiale donne, Allie Long getta a terra bandiera Usa: il gesto scatena polemiche   World women, Allie Long throws the US flag to the ground: the gesture provokes controversy

KENNESAW, Ga. -- Kennesaw State University's decision to remove its cheerleaders from the field after they protested police brutality during the national anthem has cost Georgia taxpayers $145,000 in a legal settlement. Former KSU cheerleader Tommia Dean settled her lawsuit and will get $93,000 of the award, with the rest going to her attorneys, The Marietta Daily Journal reported after obtaining the settlement through an Open Records Act request.

South Carolina hospitals are using a loophole in state law to scoop millions of dollars a year from the pockets of the poorest of patients. It mostly takes place outside the courts and the public eye. A law originally written to help state and local governments collect debts is being used to seize tax refunds from people with past-due medical bills. The S.C. Department of Revenue does the legwork, and the cash flows straight into the coffers of some of the region’s largest health care companies. The payoff is huge. Together, health organizations took at least $92.9 million in more...

September 13th and 14th mark the anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812, remembered primarily for the unsuccessful British bombardment of Fort McHenry and Francis Scott Key's penning the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" while interned on a British warship. President James Madison had declared war on Great Britain in June 1812 in response to interference with American shipping and the impressment of U.S. merchant seamen during the Napoleonic wars, as well as the British stirring up the Indians of the Ohio Valley to resist American settlement. Following an abortive American invasion of southern Canada, the...

RUSH: Jay-Z being hired by the NFL. We were going to get into this yesterday and of course time expired before I had a chance to get into it. And here’s what happened: Jay-Z’s real name is Shawn Carter. He’s the husband of Beyonce. And they’ve put together a massive musical empire. His net worth reportedly is a billion dollars. You should know that’s not enough to own an NFL team. You need more than that to be approved for ownership. It’s not enough anymore. So the NFL has hired Jay-Z essentially as music director for the Super Bowl halftime...

While America faces some turmoil at home, the nation is still being represented as a symbol of freedom across the globe. Protesters in Hong Kong are singing the U.S. national anthem and flying American flags as they protest oppression under China’s Communist Party. Specifically, protesters are outraged about China’s new extradition laws, which weaken Hong Kong’s sovereignty and gives the communist party more power over the people.

I heard this on Glenn Beck's show from yesterday & came to FR to see if I could find an article about it. Video at link. It brought a tear to my eye...

They risked everything for it, not for some idea or abstraction but for the piece of fabric itself. The American flag’s place in our culture is beginning to look less unassailable. The symbol itself is under attack, as we’ve seen with Nike dumping a shoe design featuring an early American flag, Megan Rapinoe defending her national-anthem protests (she says she will never sing the song again), and protesters storming an ICE facility in Aurora, Colo., and replacing the U.S. flag with a Mexican flag. U.S. soccer had a pretty good statement a while back setting out, in response to Rapinoe,...

The Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) called on Nike Thursday to end its relationship with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has a prominent endorsement deal with the athletic company. Rev. William Owens, president of CAAP, said his organization is responding to Nike’s decision to pull an athletic shoe celebrating the Betsy Ross flag after Kaepernick expressed objections to it. “It has been clear for a long time that Colin Kaepernick’s views represent hard Left anti-American politics,” said Owens, a civil rights movement activist who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “They don’t represent most Americans, and they...

The ladies won, and let's salute them.  The TV ratings were great, and everyone's happy. How does this translate to more people watching women play soccer in the U.S.?  I hope it does, but women's pro soccer has not been good at selling tickets. Actually, not everyone is happy.  I am not happy, and lots of people I've heard from are not happy. First, the tournament showed that international women's soccer is a total mismatch.  In other words, there aren't enough good women's soccer teams in the world.  The U.S. is obviously "the queen" of soccer and will only get better because our young women have...