Posted on 10/01/2017 8:55:00 AM PDT by Bigtigermike
"It certainly was my takeaway that the commissioner was looking for a way for the protests to end," Smith said Friday when asked about his 30-minute conversation with Goodell, while declining to offer specifics about what was discussed. Goodell declined to comment, but a league source did not dispute Smith's account. "Knowing the league the way I know the league, they are first and foremost concerned about the impact on their business," Smith said. "That's always their first concern. I mean, who are we kidding?"
Nobody was kidding when many of the NFL's highest-profile owners, including Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, expressed concerns last week that the optics of hundreds of players kneeling, sitting or remaining in the locker room during the playing of the national anthem had alienated many fans at a particularly perilous moment for the NFL. TV ratings for many of this year's games have continued a slide that began last season; some league sponsors have grown skittish about the backlash; and most surveys have shown that a majority of NFL fans are turned off by the politicization of the game.
To the commissioner's suggestion that the protests should end, Smith said, "My only response was, 'I don't have the power to tell our players what to do.' ... At the end of the day, this is a group of players who are exercising their freedom. There is no room for me to snap my fingers and tell our players, 'It's time for you to give up a freedom.' Just the idea offends me.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
I was thinking of another word...and pink, pointy-eared hats.
Fox Sports and CBS Sports are only a hairsbreadth different from ESPN. Wimpy commie claptrap all.
They have certainly been dominated by leftist sports journalists like any journalistic enterprise for a long time. This past three years they are targeting opportunities to stay political. And it isn’t just ESPN. FSN1 has a tirade by Shannon Sharpe with that gay guy that is his side-kick chiming in with support.
Don’t give them your attention or your money. Advise your state legislatures that higher education is harmed by Sports scholarships. Academic scholarships should be the only scholarships issued. Sports teams should be made up of degree seeking Sophomores and higher. Freshmen should study not play until they make two semesters of academic proof of their intent.
With our taxes and our kids’ tuition as a subsidy, we are creating a nation of thugs.
We know now. A lot of NFL players hate America and white people.
So, they and the league can go to hell no matter what they do from here on out.
It’s too late.
What attacks from Trump?
The owners let this get out of control by not enforcing the rules right from the start. Now it will never recover millions of fans that they feel they were taken on a political crap run by mostly the black players.
Any time Trump comments on any subject, it's an "attack."
Yup, Obama setting back “race relations” by 150 years.
Plus someone should get him the copy of the Constitution. No where in there does it promise “freedom” from employment requirements.
These sports and television people are the dumbest idiots on the block.
The hubris and lazy vapid thinking of all involve is making me despise the NFL.
They are making the same calculation the Democrats have.. . In the long run it will bring new fans to the game, trading one existing group of fans for future fans that might or might not exist.
In the long run the NFL is done - its corporate welfare is about to go away and good luck getting a new stadium anywhere.
When will they learn don't get in a fight with president Trump he will kick your ass.
Last time I looked NFL players are contracted employees...
Maybe the owners should stop being such wimps and start acting like they own the teams...
Try driving a coke truck and drinking a Pepsi...
You will terminated on the spot...
“You are a Pussy if you watch or go to the NFL.”
As much as I hate the whole idea of boycotts, how could I possibly enjoy watching the NFL now. Watch these people give me and our country the finger? Screw them!
They were never in control of their pets. It was an illusion that was sustained by "fans", who had illusions of their own.
Trump did not “attack”.
What BS.
Great observation. It was all a gigantic bubble economy, of ideas and concepts and loyalties, as well as of money.
I concur. Most of those still watching these sell out traitors in S. CA, are the leftist. Suddenly football is big with leftist!...lol
And it's so obvious, even on leftist radio, they're attempting to get people to watch/tune in to these overpaid celebrity AH's.
The sheeple are stupid enough that if the owners reduced tix prices by X%, the ‘bread and circuses’ would absolve any past transgressions.
Hell, just listen to most of the call-ins/etc. whom are *angry*, “Why, when they came out, I turned my back to ‘em! *Hrumph*”. No matter the $10 beers swilled, $7 hot-dogs, $100\seat, $20 parking.....Yeah, those guys are gonna be REAL sorry *Pffft*.
That would be awesome if they eliminated sports scholarships. After all, the majority of them are very discriminatory.
Trying to keep the site at least PG-13.
But I agree.
It may be time to put the players back on a combination of Prozac and Lidocaine when injured or tired. This may be a misunderstood way of saying this, but the natives are restless and the drums are heard. And the cavalry is no where in sight.
rwood
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