Why you probably won't be seeing any kneeling players prior to this year's Super Bowl

American Thinker ^ | 01/16/2018 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

It looks as though NBC's plan to show NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem before the Super Bowl has been foiled.  You can blame random chance, player morale, or cosmic justice, but the defilement of our National Anthem before the biggest TV audience of the year is unlikely to happen.  Valerie Richardson reports in the Washington Times:

It appears that NFL players are no longer taking a knee during the [N]ational [A]nthem [–] namely[,] because none of the teams with still[] active protesters has qualified for the postseason.

By the end of the regular season, only five teams featured at least one player regularly sitting or kneeling on the sidelines for the anthem: the Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers, the Miami Dolphins, the New York Giants[,] and the Oakland Raiders.

None of those franchises made the playoffs, even though four of the five did so in the previous season, leading to speculation about whether the take-a-knee protests wound up dragging down team performance along with TV ratings.

"By their actions, the kneelers brought controversy into the locker rooms, and this kind of distraction is always going to be detrimental to team cohesiveness," said Robert Kuykendall, a spokesman for the conservative corporate watchdog 2ndVote.

I have long struggled to understand why wealthy owners of NFL teams tolerated this affront to the taxpayers who lavishly subsidize their new stadiums, and to their fans who skew male and patriotic.  The most plausible theories involve their fear of alienating black players and their desire for acceptance in politically correct high society.  But more than anything else – even money, apparently – they want to be winners (that is, owners of winning teams).

[jch10]

I thought some Saints stood. What happened there?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Because we are not watching the NFL.

[beergarden]

Just another butt hurt Freeper that I called out the hypocrites for saying one thing and do another thing. It’s simple:

DO NOT state you are going to boycott the NFL ..THEN I find you on Impy’s or Bender’s NFL thread. Man up, talk the talk and walk the walk. I meant what I state. Men do that..

[Alberta's Child]

I can guarantee you that the CBA covers obscene gestures.

I’m sure the lawyers for the forces of evil would argue that.

The most important job for the lawyers of an NFL team is to anticipate what arguments would be made in a dispute like this -- and to assess the prospects of how likely a court would buy those arguments.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Hockey is a game that should be watched live.

I can't afford to see the NHL but I go watch the farm teams every chance I get.

It is not ten seconds of play and stop for ten minutes. Even when switching players the game does not stop.

[ctdonath2]

If the rules extend to behavior 24/7, I’m sure “during game” rules include from moment player steps into the stadium to the moment of leaving it - the entire time they’re “on the job” in (at minimum) public view.

[dsc]

“I can guarantee you that the CBA covers obscene gestures.”

That’s an argument against the kneelers. If one posture can be wrongful, then so can another.

[TallahasseeConservative]

All NFL contracts have what amounts to a “moral turpitude” clause. If a player gets arrested or makes some social media comment that is detrimental to the team, they can cut him. If the owners had balls, they would have invoked it.

[discostu]

Nobody is going to issue a statement that they can’t do anything about it. That’s the worst of both worlds. If they did that then the people angry about the kneeling will still be angry because aren’t stopping it, and the people who support it will now be angry because the owners have said they’re against it. Ignoring it and hoping it goes away (which it mostly did, twice) was really they’re only path.

[dsc]

“If they did that then the people angry about the kneeling will still be angry because aren’t stopping it”

I don’t think so. Many people would understand why they weren’t stopping it.

Taking a side would have been better. As it is, both sides hate them.

[Alberta's Child]

1. Can you think of any other context where a player kneeling somehow constitutes "misconduct?"

2. Can you think of any context where a player flipping the bird is NOT "misconduct?"

[edzo4]

Maybe you should treat free republic like the NFL and boycott it. Then go around telling everyone, like they care.

[Alberta's Child]

You’d be hard pressed to find five people outside FreeRepublic who would consider kneeling to be “moral turpitude” in any sense of the term.

[kosciusko51]

Technically, you are correct. However, the implication is there, whether you meant it or not.

Also, on Impy’s threads, I’ve seen Impy, Bender2, and other Freepers call worse names than hypocrites. But at least it was said to their (figurative) face.

[editor-surveyor]

.
You do live in youer own little world!
.

[TallahasseeConservative]

Conduct detrimental?

[edzo4]

Collective bargaining is possible I think more likely is the collective hollering of racism that the media would have released.

[discostu]

No they wouldn’t. Just look at your own reaction. The players would still be doing it, and folks would be hammering the owners for allowing themselves to be powerless. From a business perspective taking a side, especially when you can’t ACT, is generally a huge mistake. Just look at Papa John, he took a side, then didn’t like who was agreeing with him, took another side, tanked sales, and got fired. When in doubt the best business move is shut up and let the news cycle do it work and move on to another subject. Really their plan was working great until Trump re-roused the rabble. Less than a dozen players took a knee in week one and nobody paid any attention to them, it was a dead topic until it wasn’t.

[NorthMountain]

I won’t see it, because I won’t be watching.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Why you probably won't be seeing any kneeling players prior to this year's Super Bowl

I don't follow bowling.