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What Is Wrong With the NFL?
Townhall.com ^ | February 3, 2018 | Steve Sherman

Posted on 02/03/2018 7:22:56 AM PST by Kaslin

I love pro-football. From the plains of Iowa, I became a Cowboys fan. Most of my friends like the Packers, Bears, Vikings, or Chiefs, but not me. I loved those Dallas Cowboys. Why? First, Iowa doesn’t have a professional football team and secondly in the late 70s the Cowboys were awesome.

The days of Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett gave way to Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. As a boy those guys were larger than life…real life sports heroes. I suffered through two-a-days as a seventh grader because football was the greatest game I’d ever seen. I wasn’t too fast and at the time I was way too skinny, but I wore my #12 jersey with pride learning about great victories and sorrowful defeats.

Sports are great that way. They have the ability to put a Democrat and a Republican firmly and passionately on the same team. That special bond between fan and team seemed unbreakable. Until this year.

I didn’t boycott the entire season, but I can count the number of games I watched this year on one hand. That is unheard of for me. The reason was 100 percent because of the players kneeling for the national anthem. It hurt me so deeply that these sports heroes would so callously turn their backs on the greatest country that ever existed. The very country that allowed them to make millions of dollars playing a game. My father-in-law would stand from his wheel chair and remove his cap for the anthem. He took some shrapnel in Korea and old age had won its war on his body, but he stood till the end. And when they handed that triangle folded flag to his wife, we all wept.

That is what the protesters spit on for me when they knelt, and I am still not over it.

The NFL doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. They dig their hole a little deeper with the American public every day. As if the kneeling controversy spinning out of control wasn’t bad enough. They took it another step and banned a veterans’ group from running an ad in the Super Bowl asking people to “Please Stand” for the American flag. Now they’ve banned a digital currency from running a video advertisement because it mocks North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, insinuating that even his best hackers couldn’t hack this new cryptocurrency.

Of all the horrible commercials that have been allowed to run during the Super Bowl, outlawing these two smacks of a political agenda.

The NFL has not gotten the memo that Americans like to stand for the anthem. President Donald J. Trump received a huge applause during the State of the Union when he pointed out a young man, Preston Sharp, who was putting flags on the graves of 40,000 unmarked veterans graves when he said, “Preston’s reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.”  The NFL is doing its part in dividing America by getting involved in a controversy over disrespecting the flag. The flag is a unifying symbol for Americans of all heritage. In the flag, we are all red, white, and blue.

The fact that the NFL rejected not one, but two ads, because of political considerations simply shows their true colors. Rejecting an advertisement from Veterans is outrageous when they merely wanted to ask people to stand for the American flag. Rejecting a video advertisement from a new digital currency because it pokes fun at Kim Jong-Un is a head scratcher. Who doesn’t think Kim Jong-Un is funny? The ad uses humor to make a point and to encourage people to buy their product.

I suspect the NFL would have gladly run a commercial that made fun of President Trump, yet they are selectively infringing on the spirit of the First Amendment to the Constitution when they politically screen ads. If the NFL has proven anything this year, it’s that they don’t care one bit about what their consumers/fans want. The NFL trouble smells like politics and most of us have enough politics in our lives without it taking over our sports too.

If anything, the NFL has done a great job of making me a baseball fan.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: anthem; football; nfl; sports
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To: DJ Taylor

Excellent post detailing the recent decline of the NFL.


21 posted on 02/03/2018 7:46:15 AM PST by kosciusko51
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To: Kaslin

Tivo is offering a modification (or whatever you would call it) for the Superbowl. If you record the game, you can hit the skip button and skip the game in between commercials.


22 posted on 02/03/2018 7:46:30 AM PST by Yogafist
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To: mountainlion

Aren’t those players already getting millions of dollars?
They sold out, for a little bag of silver!
Funny how that never got publicized.


23 posted on 02/03/2018 7:48:05 AM PST by lee martell
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To: Bryanw92
But your long list of offenses with dates shows that they still have a place in your head and you wish they would reform so you can come back.

Bryan, go tear down some Confederate monuments while you go about erasing the past.

24 posted on 02/03/2018 7:51:14 AM PST by henkster (YA - russkiy bot)
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To: anton

‘he NFL has evolved to become a tribute to large black men with poor self control.’

actually, nothing more needs to be said; this is why the NFL has lost its mojo...


25 posted on 02/03/2018 7:52:11 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: Bryanw92
"But your long list of offenses with dates shows that they still have a place in your head and you wish they would reform so you can come back."

Wrong; I haven't watched an NFL football game since they fired Tom Landry.

26 posted on 02/03/2018 7:55:51 AM PST by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: Kaslin

I really don’t give a felon what the NFL does.


27 posted on 02/03/2018 7:55:53 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Jmouse007

Yet they yearn for those WHITE MALE Father Figures, since 70% of them don’t have one

The reality is, black athletes look up to their Caucasian coaches because those are the MEN they wish they could be


28 posted on 02/03/2018 7:56:02 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Another Islamic terrorist event, and no “outrage” from the “Muslim community”. Again)
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To: Kaslin

The NFL refuses ads which “they say” could be political or offensive. Then why did they accept a Pepsi ad offering a tribute to Michael Jackson? I find Michael Jackson highly offensive and criminal.I’m certain a hundred young boys did too (first hand)

The NFL is so out of step and tone deaf. They don’t seem to understand why fewer people want to buy their product, particularly when they double down on force feeding us crap!


29 posted on 02/03/2018 7:56:46 AM PST by Fizzie
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To: Kaslin

Irrelevant to me. Don’t watch, don’t support, don’t care.

Actually I’m kind of glad that these twits have shown their real views. Makes it a lot more socially acceptable to simply note that you’re “taking a knee” on stupidbowl Sunday. Also, it makes it much less likely that a team, complete with tax subsidized stadium, will ever come to VA.


30 posted on 02/03/2018 7:57:21 AM PST by RKBA Democrat (Hope and redemption are to be found in the Lord. Not in politics.)
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To: DJ Taylor

Nothing (but) F’ing Liberals


31 posted on 02/03/2018 7:57:26 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust Sessions. The Great Awakening is at hand...MAGA!)
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To: Kaslin
The NFL, under the weak and wrong-headed leadership of Roger Goodell, has lost sight that they are a sports entity to provide entertainment to its fans.

Goodell has taken the NFL to full frontal SJW.

Last I heard the NFL is spending $200 million on SJW programs.

To their own detriment.

32 posted on 02/03/2018 7:58:02 AM PST by HotHunt
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To: Kaslin

The NFL has been committing slow suicide for several years........this is all their own fault.


33 posted on 02/03/2018 8:00:11 AM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell)
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To: Kaslin

Not interested in the NFL, thanks. I already have a religion.


34 posted on 02/03/2018 8:01:41 AM PST by Romulus
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To: Kaslin
The fact that Justin Timberlake is once again performing in the Super Bowl halftime show is another indicator the NFL is sick and dying.

After the little "wardrobe malfunction" stunt he pulled with Janet Jackson in the Super Bowl halftime a few years back, the NFL should have totally banned him from any future NFL productions. Instead, they welcome this cultural sewage Timberlake back with open arms.

It's because of the self-destructive behavior of the NFL that the upstart XFL might have a chance. I plan to watch.
35 posted on 02/03/2018 8:08:55 AM PST by Dan in Wichita
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To: Kaslin

They’re a bunch of pompous felons.


36 posted on 02/03/2018 8:11:51 AM PST by Retvet (Retvet)
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To: Kaslin

Unfortunately, it’s not complicated. The owners simply made a business decision. They chose to lose 10 or 20% of their audience instead of taking the very serious risk that the NFL thugs would go on strike and take all their profits away if they tried to force them to behave like normal Americans. It’s not Rocket Science.


37 posted on 02/03/2018 8:17:52 AM PST by Desparado
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To: henkster

>>Bryan, go tear down some Confederate monuments while you go about erasing the past.

LOL. The butthurt NFL idolator strikes back!

I never said a thing about erasing the past. I’m talking about the future.


38 posted on 02/03/2018 8:32:51 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Asking a pro athlete for political advice is like asking a cavalry horse for tactical advice.)
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To: Kaslin

39 posted on 02/03/2018 8:32:58 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneohttps://i.pinimg.com/736x/bc/4c/de/bc4cde57e11d78d1b95b34db505f015a--gestapo-two-faces)
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To: DJ Taylor

>>Wrong; I haven’t watched an NFL football game since they fired Tom Landry.

Yet you keep track of offenses and dates for something you haven’t watched in decades??


40 posted on 02/03/2018 8:33:46 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Asking a pro athlete for political advice is like asking a cavalry horse for tactical advice.)
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