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Greenfield: Break Up the NFL’s Corrupt Dem Monopoly
FrontPage ^ | 9/26/17 | Greenfield

Posted on 09/26/2017 5:35:24 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell

Break Up the NFL’s Corrupt Dem Monopoly Why it’s high time for the NFL to take a knee. September 26, 2017 Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism.

An Army recruit starts off with a salary under $20,000. Thousands of active duty military personnel are on food stamps. Millions of veterans rely on them to feed their families and themselves.

That’s how we treat the best of us. Here’s how we treat the worst of us.

An NFL rookie’s minimum salary is $465,000. And the majority of NFL players are usually bankrupt a few years after retirement because they blew through most of their money. Dozens of NFL players are arrested every year on charges ranging from murder to rape to animal abuse.

2017 was a banner year for the NFL with three times as many arrests as last year.

Along with the usual drunk driving and disorderly conduct arrests, there were 7 arrests for assault/battery, 6 for drugs and 5 for domestic violence.

The Seattle Seahawks announced that they weren’t going to “participate in the national anthem” because of the “injustice that has plagued people of color in this country”. While they lost that game, they are one of the top ranked teams in arrests. Alongside the Los Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, all of whom showed some solidarity with the anti-American protests, these top NFL criminal teams have racked up arrests for domestic violence, drugs, DUI and assault and battery.

Is it any wonder they think the justice system is unfair? They’re criminals.

Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall was one of the early players to reject the Anthem. The Broncos supported his actions. As his teams have supported him during nine domestic violence accusations.

Did any of the women he stabbed, punched or choked have any choice about taking a knee?

It’s no wonder that so many of the NFL’s millionaire scumbags are eager to join Colin Kaepernick’s protests against the justice system by degrading our anthem.

It’s because they’re criminals.

And it’s no wonder that the NFL stands behind its thugs. If a team can shrug at a 6’4 man beating a woman, what’s a little anti-American tantrum by a prize property that makes them millions of dollars?

The only question is why are the rest of us subsidizing it?

NFL teams loot millions from taxpayers to fund their stadiums. The Seahawks have a point about injustice. And the injustice is that taxpayers had to spend $390 million on their stadium.

Who will let Washington taxpayers take a knee and opt out of being exploited by the Seahawks?

Ten New Orleans Saints players sat out the anthem. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton expressed pride in the players who rejected the United States of America. The Saints not only enjoy a stadium paid for by a billion in taxpayer money in a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the country, but are exempt from sales tax. And receive millions every year in “inducement payments” to stay put.

Sweetheart deals like these are not uncommon. The NFL comes with a pass on property taxes (those are for little people) and taxes in general. Until 2015, the NFL was a non-profit. "Professional football leagues" was actually inserted into the Internal Revenue Code to provide a special non-profit status. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell got paid $44 million in one year. That made him the highest paid non-profit exec in the country.

The entire NFL is an illegal trust. It’s a monopoly that was illegally legalized by Congress.

That monopoly allows the NFL and its teams to cash in on television licensing and team gear. After the NFL uses its illegal monopoly to rip off broadcasters, ESPN rips off cable subscribers.

ESPN pays the NFL almost $2 billion a year. Even if you don’t watch ESPN, you’re paying $9 a month for it because of yet another illegal monopoly. If you subscribe to cable or live in a major city, the odds are good that your pocket is being picked by the millionaire racists “taking a knee” against America.

But the monopolies are dying.

ESPN is bleeding subscribers. The NFL’s anti-American turn is alienating fans. And cable is collapsing.

The NFL is built on government taking money from people and giving it to the industry. Its leftward tilt isn’t an accident. It’s a calculated move. Who are the folks most likely to bail out an industry? They’re on the left. Not the right. If your monopoly is dying, it’s time to go left and hate America.

Anthem bashing is popular with the left. And it’s very popular with the social justice bloggers who increasingly dominate sports journalism, and not just on ESPN. Hating America will score points with the left. It’ll buy the NFL more protectionism from the media and the 2020 Democrats.

The only question is why do we need the NFL?

Once upon a time there was a football free market. Multiple leagues competed with each other. And the NFL was just one of many. The NFL-AFL merger created a monster monopoly that has worked to crush any independent league through its control over broadcasting and venues.

That's what happened with the United States Football League which won an anti-trust court case against the NFL, but was forced under anyway.

The man at the center of the fight against the NFL was New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump.

The illegal monopoly that created the NFL was the work of Senator Russell Long, the son of radical criminal Dem kingpin Huey Long, who illegally took over his father’s Senate seat (previously held by his mother) and spent almost four decades in the Senate with no qualification except his last name.

The NFL got a monopoly in exchange for New Orleans getting a franchise.

Congressman Hale Boggs, the corrupt Louisiana Dem boss who went to war with the FBI, got it through in the House by appealing, “The Republicans are out to get me. I need this to save me."

And Boggs held things up until he got assurances from the NFL commissioner that the franchise was in.

That’s the corrupt Democrat deal that created the NFL monopoly. Of course the NFL thinks the justice system is unfair. It was created by a crime and it’s full of criminals.

Before the anthem protests, the NFL was just one of the corrupt legacies of Democrat rule. It’s a reminder of the fact that social justice politics, whether it’s Obama’s “You Didn’t Build That” or Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth”, is nothing more than organized thievery from the working class.

But the NFL is no longer just a corrupt monopoly. Instead it’s becoming a radical anti-American organization that uses its taxpayer-subsidized stadiums and monopoly broadcasting rights to spread hatred toward this country and disrespect to the soldiers who fought and died for it.

America could have tolerated the NFL’s corrupt thievery. But there’s no way Americans should be subsidizing this diseased leftover of Democrat corruption when it spews hate at the United States.

It’s time for the NFL’s anti-trust exemption to go the way of Ma Bell.

Break up the corrupt Democrat monopoly of the NFL and demolish the barriers to the formation of independent leagues by taking on the NFL, ESPN and its broadcasting partners in crime.

It’s time for the NFL to take a knee and for the free market to rise.

Football must become an American sport again.


TOPICS: Government; History; Politics
KEYWORDS: breakupnfl; greenfield; greenfieldnfl; nflprotest; nflstadiums; nflsubsidy; nfltaxpayers; sultanknish
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To: DaveA37
I wish everyone would please stop the idiocy about the "non-profit" status of the NFL. Ignorance runs rampant about that topic.

For one thing, the NFL gave up its non-profit status a couple of years ago.

Secondly, the whole thing is a pointless discussion because the NFL doesn't generate any of its own profits anyway. The NFL is an organization set up to administer league affairs, while the league's profits are reported by the individual teams.

21 posted on 09/26/2017 6:32:11 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Louis Foxwell

The ultimate insult to the average NFL season ticket holder is the Super Bowl. Yearly few get the chance to purchase a ticket to a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Most of the tickets are reserved for the elite fans who are chosen by NFL management. What an insult it must be to pay for a ticket to every home game and then be told you weren’t on the ticket list for the Super Bowl game because you aren’t a celebrity, CEO or a politician with a private jet.


22 posted on 09/26/2017 6:33:55 AM PDT by Saltmeat
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To: Alberta's Child

The television contracts are with the NFL and not the owners. This is where the big bucks are.


23 posted on 09/26/2017 6:36:36 AM PDT by Saltmeat
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To: laconic

Its not a game. Its a racket run by grifters and played by thugs.


24 posted on 09/26/2017 6:37:06 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: RideForever
"NFL = Non-American Football League"

Why hold back; tell it like it really is:

NFL: Negro Felons League

~~~~~~~~~~~~

(That is not racist -- merely an accurate description of overpaid genuine racists -- and I am not the originator, here on FR...)

25 posted on 09/26/2017 6:37:09 AM PDT by TXnMA (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! REPEAT San Jacinto!!!)
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To: Louis Foxwell

BTTT


26 posted on 09/26/2017 6:37:37 AM PDT by varon (There's always room for one more on the hanging tree.....)
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To: Louis Foxwell

An Army recruit starts off with a salary under $20,000.


Disingenuous. He also has free food and lodging. And recruit pay really isn’t designed for a guy who is married and has kids.


27 posted on 09/26/2017 6:45:59 AM PDT by sparklite2 (I'm less interested in the rights I have than the liberties I can take.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

The criminal mindset is inculcated in our athletes starting in high school where they are given passing grades they don’t earn and their indiscretions are overlooked as long as they perform at a given sport. It continues when they go to college. So that when they get to the professional level they expect “privileges” that normal people don’t even dream about.


28 posted on 09/26/2017 6:52:59 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: laconic

Wasn’t Rush turned down to own a team? Or was it to be an announcer? Either way they are screening out the normals.


29 posted on 09/26/2017 6:53:57 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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To: Saltmeat
The merchandising contracts are with the NFL, too. That doesn't mean the NFL keeps the revenue. The TV revenue is paid to the teams, not kept as revenue by the NFL. What team owner in his right mind would let a league commissioner keep all the TV revenue from the league?

The league has to be set up this way so that the NFL can control the TV contracts. Otherwise, you could have a team in a major market like the New York Giants going out and signing a separate TV deal with a different local network and collecting all that TV revenue for themselves.

I can pretty much guarantee you that the NFL as a separate corporate entity from the individual teams reports $0 in net income on its tax return.

30 posted on 09/26/2017 6:54:07 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Thanks for posting, good read!


31 posted on 09/26/2017 7:03:43 AM PDT by alicewonders
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To: Psalm 73

Why do we need the PBS, The Endowment of ARTS
The hard earned money of taxpayers is dished out by our congress ritters to pay for these as well. Do most enjoy that type of entertainment or enlightened by it? The targeted NFL, AMERICAs entertainment, yet considering the remaining groups paid for, we get very little entertainment for every dollar taken from US


32 posted on 09/26/2017 7:05:51 AM PDT by V K Lee (DJT: "Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war. ")
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To: sportutegrl

Rush was turned down to own a team; he was going in as an owner of one of the teams with a guy from Utah. Some radical heard about it and raised cain over his purported “racist” comments so he withdrew from the bid under pressure.


33 posted on 09/26/2017 7:11:22 AM PDT by laconic (thes)
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To: Louis Foxwell
Trump, as CINC, should tell the DoD: Absolute zero support for NFL/NBA until this stops: No flyovers, no JROTC, No ROTC, No Veteran awards, and all active, reserve, IRR, etc. personnel are allowed to wear uniform at these events since they don't support them.
34 posted on 09/26/2017 7:15:45 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!)
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To: Louis Foxwell

This article will open a lot of eyes to what the NFL really is. A haven for corruption, not only from its players, but from its sucking off the Government teat at everyone else’s expense.

This non-profit thievery needs to end!


35 posted on 09/26/2017 7:29:25 AM PDT by Darnright (NFL is not worth watching)
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To: ptsal

Wow. Always learn something reading the Sultan. So Trump knows the NFL better than perhaps anyone right now. Breads and Circuses for the masses while they are being robbed by the criminals. And the amazing part about tax payer funded stadiums, is they get tore down within a few decades. What a waste of money that could be spent rebuilding the corrupt levies of NOLA.


36 posted on 09/26/2017 7:48:15 AM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Crazy that a non profit can funnel millions to for profits companies. How do they claim the payouts as write offs ?


37 posted on 09/26/2017 7:56:22 AM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Saltmeat

Sounds like the DNC’s “Super-delegate” scam.

Birds of a feather ...


38 posted on 09/26/2017 8:03:03 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: justa-hairyape

I’m not sure I see the problem. I’m not even sure the financial transactions are set up exactly as I described. Surely the NFL and its teams hire the best lawyers and accountants to do it right.


39 posted on 09/26/2017 8:17:34 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Thanks for posting.

bttt


40 posted on 09/26/2017 8:41:46 AM PDT by pax_et_bonum (Never Forget the SEALs of Extortion 17 - and God Bless The United States of America.)
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