Posted on 02/02/2017 8:17:21 AM PST by HomerBohn
HOUSTON — N.F.L. officials pointed to the country’s obsession with the presidential campaign as a big reason the league’s television ratings fell during much of the regular season.
This week, those two cultural phenomena — politics and football — are coming together again in an extraordinary, and for the league, uncomfortable way on the country’s biggest sports stage.
The Super Bowl, scheduled for Sunday night in Houston, is infused with national politics like never before. Fox’s pregame telecast will include an interview of President Trump by Bill O’Reilly. The owner, coach and star player of one team, the highly successful New England Patriots, are friends of the president’s.
(Opponents of President Trump’s new immigration policies protested on Sunday near the Super Bowl LI fan zone in Houston.)
Last Sunday, hundreds of people opposed to the president’s immigration policy protested at the convention center where the N.F.L. is holding many of its events for fans. The next day, many players on the Falcons and Patriots — including Mohamed Sanu, who is Muslim — were peppered with questions about their thoughts on the president and his temporary ban on refugees from some Muslim-majority countries.
The political overlay made the league so uneasy, apparently, that it omitted any references to the president from the dozens of official transcripts of interviews with players on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I have cut WAY down on my NFL consumption the last few years. And that’s from someone who grew up loving football, played Div. I college ball, and helped coach little league football. I have been paying a lot more attention to hockey, MMA, and rugby.
I hope Brady wins but we ain’t watching
LSU and Bama will be back soon enough as well as my high school son who will play free safety for a top tier Tennessee 5A team near Franklin next season after middle school this year
It’s his own coach moving up which is just pure luck
Now that I will admit is when it gets exciting
Man when they throw long on him I’m like please be on your receiver ...it takes your breath
It’s a blast though
Isn’t ‘Lacy Gag Me’ supposed to be there?
That’s reason enough to boycott.
I wonder what kind of repulsive insult she plans to cast in our faces.
To be fair, the Bud commercial is about legal immigrants, not illegals. If liberals were willing to make that distinction honestly, most immigration problems would disappear. However, I agree with you on the likely reaction.
NFL: Negros, Felons, and Liberals. No one else welcome.
“Me, I’m taking a knee on watching the Super Bowl this year.”
Funny, but well said. We, too, won’t be watching. I have many friends saying the same thing.
In the past no one planned group activities, even children’s activities on Super Bowl Sunday. I notice this year many things are on Super Bowl Sunday and few even said anything when the date was picked.
I am having a family Super Bowl party, but we are not watching the game. We are going to have all the yummy food and going to visit and get some chores done that need doing.
I bet 0%. After the boob incident the league has very careful about the halftime show. Picking and instructing the artists to avoid offense. Gaga did a fine job on the anthem last year, she’s really running a vastly different image these days, it’ll be a clean to the point of boring show.
I hope she falls through the roof.
$50 bucks says "you're right as rain" on that one.
Budweiser, the king of beers, was once owned by the
Annheuser-Busch company, and is now owned by a Belgian
brewing company called In-Bev.
Which is the funny punchline to the immigrant story. German comes to America, starts a company, it becomes huge, family sells to Belgian company, could have saved a boat trip.
What a great idea!
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