Free Republic

<p>"I was in the Navy for a year. Didn’t go anywhere. Didn’t do anything. But I have overwhelming respect and admiration for anyone who puts on a uniform and goes to war. So the only thing I can do in my little way is not to preach. I will never watch another NFL game."</p>

The New Orleans Saints have a wonderful 50 year relationship with long suffering fans that have supported the team through mostly losing seasons. Unfortunately, the team is putting that relationship in jeopardy with their asinine position on the National Anthem controversy. For some unknown reason, the team’s management and coaching staff have decided to support the right of disgruntled players to protest alleged social injustice during the National Anthem. In week 3 of the season, ten players sat for the Star-Spangled Banner and since that time multiple players have been kneeling prior to the anthem being played. These stunts have...

DALLAS -- Mark Cuban says he believes Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green "owes the NBA an apology" for criticizing the use of the term "owner" in sports. Green made the statement last week as part of an Instagram post reacting to Houston Texans owner Bob McNair's controversial comment that the NFL "can't have inmates running the prison."

Marketers have put NBCUniversal on notice: Stop covering NFL players' national-anthem protests, or we'll pull our ads. That's according to Linda Yaccarino, the chairman of advertising sales at NBCUniversal, who spoke during a keynote interview at an event held Friday in New York at the ad agency RGA. Yaccarino said no advertisers had pulled out of NFL games because of the protests, but that advertisers were telling the network that could change. "Marketers have said, 'We will not be part of the NFL if you continue covering it,'" Yaccarino said. Since last year, when Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers...

As soon as the Astros closed out a stirring seven-game World Series by bringing home the first title in franchise history, the questions began. Can they do it again next year and become the first repeat World Series winner since the Yankees did it in 1999 and 2000? And what about those Yanks, by the way? Will they be good enough next season to beat this Astros team, which eliminated them in the American League Championship Series? And what about those oh-so-close Dodgers? Will they get it done in 2018?

HOUSTON -- The World Series champion Houston Astros have not made the decision yet on whether they will visit the White House to meet with President Donald Trump if an invitation is extended. "We just won the first world championship in Houston Astros history," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said shortly before the team left for a celebratory parade through downtown Houston on Friday. "We're also in one of the most divided countries, polarizing countries in politics. I don't know that this is the best stage for everybody to declare one way or the other and try to comment on the...

ESPN distributed new social media guidelines to its employees Thursday, which reinforced some existing rules about not breaking news exclusively on social media, respecting colleagues, and—oh wait, here’s a new thing: “Do nothing that would undercut your colleagues’ work or embroil the company in unwanted controversy.” The “unwanted” there is doing a lot of work. Unwanted for whom? The employee who feels so strongly about an issue, perhaps the direction his or her employer is going, that they use Twitter to provide their insight? Of course not. The controversies are “unwanted” for ESPN executives, who want to keep advertisers happy,...

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr won two of his five championships as a player under San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, and Kerr has often spoken highly of his mentor. So it might not come as a surprise that Kerr believes Popovich would make a good U.S. president.

submit to reddit Given President Donald Trump‘s well-chronicled feud with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, it doesn’t seem the one athlete — indeed the one person — to be mentioned by name in a key explainer for the new GOP tax plan would be Golden State’s star player. But lo and behold, Trump nemesis Stephen Curry — one of the faces of the NBA — makes a cameo. In a portion of the document addressing concerns about small business taxes, Curry’s name was invoked to try to assuage fears that high wage earners like the basketball star will be taxed...

It looks like the left-leaning political bloviating has finally caught up to the troubled ESPN network. Not long ago, the sports channel was forced to admit that lecturing Americans about politics wasn’t exactly a smart business plan. With revenue dropping, ESPN had no choice but to drastically eliminate staff — but now it may be considering an even more dramatic cut. The Hollywood Reporter has suggested that there are signs the struggling sports company may be getting ready to walk away from the NFL. ESPN’s contract to air Monday Night Football games is expiring fairly soon… and some experts think...

The NFL has been hit hard with NFL boycotts, plummeting ratings, loss of ticket sales, and ultimately fans abandoning the league ever since President Donald Trump attacked those who chose to disrespect the flag. Despite all of this, Roger Goodell and the NFL have chosen to allow the protests to continue and haven't taken any disciplinary action on players. Now, NFL stadiums have appeared to be taking a hit as thousands of seats have been empty. Just look at the pictures from the first set of games on Sunday:

An NFL team owner’s recent “inmates running the prison” remark has prompted a group of the league’s players to call for a meeting Monday to clear the air. The Washington Post reported Saturday that a panel called the Players Coalition has requested a meeting Monday in Philadelphia with league Commissioner Roger Goodell, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, and free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick. It wasn’t immediately clear if all parties had agreed to attend. Meanwhile, ESPN reported Saturday that the Houston Texans players were planning to stage an unspecified protest against McNair's remarks prior to Sunday's game against the Seahawks...

Damontre Moore was in his first season with the Cowboys Cowboys place-kicker Dan Bailey injured his groin Sunday, and to make room for a temporary replacement, Dallas needed to release a player. Their decision to cut Damontre Moore, Coach Jason Garrett said Wednesday, had nothing to do with the defensive end’s protests during the national anthem. Moore and defensive tackle David Irving have been the only Dallas players to protest. Neither knelt or sat, but both had staged brief demonstrations while standing as pregame renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” ended. The timing appeared to be an effort to skirt an...

GRUNDY COUNTY, Tenn. - A Grundy County school official who has asked to remain anonymous said a recent attempted rape allegedly carried out by five football players against a fellow teammate is just the latest in a long line of assaults tied to hazing in the school district. The source provided NewsChannel5 with a detailed timeline of incidents that have occurred since 2015, and insists officials within the district have known about the hazing, but chosen to sweep it under the rug. In the timeline, he alleges students were beaten with belts and bats, had their heads dunked in toilets...

The NFL's once-golden network TV numbers continue to drop. NFL games averaged 15.1 million viewers through Week 7, according to Nielsen data obtained by Sporting News. That's down 5.1 percent from 15.87 million viewers during the same period last season and off 18.7 percent from 18.35 million viewers during the same period in 2015. Viewership numbers are lagging for a variety of reasons, not least the ongoing protests during the national anthem that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began in 2016. Fans are still angry about Kaepernick’s continued unemployment as well as what's seen as the growing politicization of the...

The White Sox continue to get little to no recognition from the national media for winning the 2005 World Series. In this case, it’s for how dominant they were in winning it. ESPN tweeted: “The Dodgers are 7-1 this postseason. The 1998 Yankees are the only team in the Wild Card Era to win the World Series with 2 losses or fewer.” Screengrab of deleted ESPN tweet. Of course, the Sox did that — swept Boston and the Astros, and beat the Angels in 5. ESPN deleted the tweet and apologized, but they’re repeat offenders. 24 Oct Chuck Baker @chuckbaker23...

At this rate, a whole bunch of millionaire thugs will be kneeling as the IRS prepossess their mansions. Last year, the NFL lost about a million regular-season viewers versus the 2013 and 2014 seasons. It represented about a 6% fall-off ― enough to be easily noticed and maybe even cause a little concern, but it could be written off as a one-year blip. Last year's seepage has turned into a major break in the dam. The league is now down about three million viewers per game from 2013 and 2014. When the specific teams appearing, the scope of the telecast...

RUSH: Some headlines: “NFL Losing Viewers at Alarming Rate But Faces Limits on its Response.” Colin Kaepernick just went out and hired a publisher. Hillary Clinton’s publisher just gave Kaepernick a book deal. I have some prospective titles but I better keep ’em to myself. (interruption) It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know how to write. Ghostwriters and what have you. This is half the thing. Now if he gets a Fox News gig, he will have achieved a career objective of many young conservatives. I’m teasing, folks. I’m just teasing here. In kinda one of these giddy moods today....

Rep. Matt Gaetz is the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district. He serves on the House Budget Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, and the House Armed Services Committee. NFL players have protested the national anthem for a little over a year now. First, they kneeled for Black Lives Matter, then against “police brutality.” Now, they’re kneeling to protest racial injustice. But has kneeling helped them raise awareness? Has their weekly spectacle changed any policies or laws? No. If anything, their protest has backfired spectacularly—it’s simply made a lot of Americans stop watching football. No one should be surprised—kneeling...

Dallas owner says he has heard from concerned sponsors The Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who this month said he would bench any of his players who “disrespect the flag” during the national anthem, says that the protest movement is damaging the NFL. This season dozens of NFL players have knelt during the anthem to highlight racial injustice in the United States. The movement has split the nation, with many perceiving it as disrespectful to military veterans. The NFL’s television ratings are also down, although it is not clear whether this is directly linked to the protests, as TV...