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Hockey Scores a Goal for America
Townhall.com ^ | August 2, 2020 | Jeff Crouere

Posted on 08/02/2020 5:33:03 AM PDT by Kaslin

It might be time for patriotic Americans to discover a new favorite sport, professional hockey. Unlike other professional athletes, hockey players have refused to show disrespect toward the National Anthem. At exhibition games this week, all players with the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers stood for the National Anthem.

Likewise, for Thursday night’s start of the season, all the players with the Dallas Stars and the Nashville Predators stood for the National Anthem. After the game, a few of the Dallas players displayed their clothing featuring the slogan, #WeSkateforEquality.

The NHL is allowing players to support whatever cause they want for the upcoming season. Such advocacy is fine, part of our 1stAmendment rights of free speech. However, it is respectful for NHL players to advocate their causes on their own time and not during the playing of the National Anthem.

Unfortunately, such a message is anathema to the National Basketball Association. This league has won the title for being the most “woke.” In their Orlando “bubble,” the NBA painted “Black Lives Matter” next to the basketball court.

At Thursday night’s opening game between the Utah Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, every single player, coach, and referee knelt during the National Anthem. For good measure, all the players wore a “Black Lives Matter” shirt. Some raised their fist in a “Black Power” salute. Almost all the players wore social justice messages on their jerseys.

The NBA is fully onboard with the organization Black Lives Matter, despite the well-known Marxist training of the group’s founders. The leaders of the organization have also expressed support for policies which are both anti-family and anti-Semitic. Clearly, it does not matter to the NBA.

In the first three games of the NBA’s renewed season, only one player, Jonathan Isaac of the Orlando Magic, refused to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem. In addition, he did not wear a “Black Lives Matter” shirt. According to Isaac, “I felt like I wanted to take a stand. I feel like we all make mistakes but I think that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is grace for us and that Jesus came and died for our sins…and that when we understand this, we can get past skin color.”

Isaac should be commended for his courageous stand. Unfortunately, he plays basketball for a league that is complicit with human rights abuses occurring in communist China. Why would the NBA care about the radical ideology of Black Lives Matter when it refuses to condemn the brutal communist regime in China?

A new ESPN report asserts that players as young as 13 are being physically abused and denied adequate education by coaches at NBA training academies in China. The anonymous coaches who were interviewed for the report claim that the NBA told them to cover-up the abusive behavior.

This communist dictatorship is very influential within the NBA, which profits handsomely from the relationship. Thus, no criticism of communist China is allowed. In October, when Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted a message of support to the young people fighting oppression in Hong Kong, the NBA forced him to apologize.

The leading star of the NBA, LeBron James, stated that Morey was “misinformed or not really educated on the situation.” Of course, Morey knows much more about “the situation” than James, who has never issued one negative comment toward China, a country that represses ethnic and religious minorities and is engaged in outright hostile and belligerent behavior toward the United States.

The NBA considers itself to be an international league and is not concerned if it affiliates with the country posing the greatest threat to the national security and health of the United States. It is well known that communist China lied about the origins and spread of Covid-19, which has become a worldwide pandemic.

While other professional sports leagues do not share the NBA’s disgusting position toward communist China, they do share a commitment to showcasing their social justice credentials. In the opening games of the new Major League Baseball season, players knelt before and during the playing of the National Anthem. In addition, when the NFL starts their season in September, fans can expect almost all the players to kneel during the National Anthem as well.

This type of behavior certainly upsets traditional Americans. In a recent CBS News poll, a majority of Americans over the age of 65 opposed kneeling during the National Anthem. Nonetheless, in other age groups, there was more approval of the controversial gesture. Overall, 58 percent of Americans supported the right of athletes to kneel during the National Anthem.

This behavior is not acceptable to President Trump. Last week, he tweeted, “Looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!” This view was also expressed by Mike Ditka, former NFL broadcaster, coach, and Hall of Fame player with the Chicago Bears. He said that players who kneel during the National Anthem should “get the hell out of the country.”

Trump and Ditka might not speak for a majority of Americans, but if the 42 percent who are disgusted by kneeling decide to no longer watch the NFL and other professional sports with such protests, it will negatively impact ratings, which will ultimately devastate the financial bottom line for the leagues. If this unpatriotic conduct continues, millions of Americans will not support such “great disrespect for our Country and our Flag” and these “woke” leagues will get their just deserts.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: americanflag; conservatives; hockey; nationalanthem; nhl; patriotism
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1 posted on 08/02/2020 5:33:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

NHL 4.....NFL,NBA,MLB,NASCAR 0


2 posted on 08/02/2020 5:40:50 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: Vinnie

Darn, now I have to figure out a new favorite team and learn about all the players, oh well...


3 posted on 08/02/2020 5:44:40 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag (Remember: >>>>> o b a M A G A t e <<<<<)
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To: Kaslin
The author spoke too soon. The episode last night in Edmonton with Matt Dumbass of the Minnesota Wild was the end of the road for the NHL as far as I’m concerned.

Even the optics were terrible. Three black players at center ice surrounded by a circle of all the white players? What the hell was that all about? The only thing missing was the burning cross and the Klan outfits.

4 posted on 08/02/2020 5:46:28 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
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To: Kaslin

Woe to the first player who breaks rank.

Hockey has a special way of providing payback.


5 posted on 08/02/2020 5:49:11 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: Kaslin

Whoopsie. Half the players turned their backs to the flag to pimp something. Looks like I’m moving on. It was fun while it lasted.

Blackhawks and Oilers form circle together during National Anthem before Game 1

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/blackhawks/blackhawks-and-oilers-form-circle-together-during-national-anthem-game-1


6 posted on 08/02/2020 5:56:42 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Kaslin

I watched Montreal Pittsburgh on NBC. Predictable BS from NBC at the beginning, an piece on A very inarticulate Duumba 2nd intermission. Nothing from the players on the ice. As soon as I see that I’m done


7 posted on 08/02/2020 6:05:36 AM PDT by wny
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To: Eccl 10:2

A Canadian Negro already did...


8 posted on 08/02/2020 6:05:47 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: wny
Here you go!


9 posted on 08/02/2020 6:07:12 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: EEGator

Are those THE black guys in the NHL?


10 posted on 08/02/2020 6:10:08 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: Vermont Lt

LOL, there’s more than that.
It states that the NHL is 97% White, and yet here’s Blacks F’ing things up again.
Every sport, ruined.
Every city, ruined.
See if you can find a common reason...


11 posted on 08/02/2020 6:13:09 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: Kaslin

No one asks any of these players what exactly the flag has to do with racism. I have heard no one explain this. No one presses them

It is horrible. The wimpiness.


12 posted on 08/02/2020 6:14:00 AM PDT by stanne
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To: Kaslin

Not so fast.

The NHL ‘End Racism’ in the pre-games on NBC yesterday was nothing but pandering.

And they intend to highlight it throughout The Cup play-offs.

==

Want to end racism? Cut up the Race Card. That would end about 90% of the racism.


13 posted on 08/02/2020 6:32:50 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: EEGator

Got some cultural appropriation going on with that jersey.


14 posted on 08/02/2020 6:35:53 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (There's a stairway to heaven, but there's also a highway to hell.)
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To: headstamp 2

I don’t know about you, but I’m extremely offended.


15 posted on 08/02/2020 6:38:30 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: TomGuy
Want to end racism? Cut up the Race Card. That would end about 90% of the racism

What needs to be done is to declare that there is only one Race, and that is the Human Race!!!

16 posted on 08/02/2020 6:40:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Why is the NHL concerned only with the race issue? Will they concern themselves with the evils of riots that destroy people? What about police who are killed while protecting people? I guess those things are not PC enough for these phonies.


17 posted on 08/02/2020 6:58:41 AM PDT by djpg
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To: Kaslin

What needs to be done is to declare that there is only one Race, and that is the Human Race!!!

But then the homo sapiens would protest/s


18 posted on 08/02/2020 7:09:21 AM PDT by sanjuanbob
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To: Kaslin

Oh hell no.
The NHL decided to get “woke” too.

Another sport I will not watch or give any money to.


19 posted on 08/02/2020 8:26:04 AM PDT by Kozak (DIVERSITY+PROXIMITY=CONFLICT)
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To: EEGator

But the shitbag stood for “O Canada”.


20 posted on 08/02/2020 8:27:00 AM PDT by Kozak (DIVERSITY+PROXIMITY=CONFLICT)
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