NFL Football

[a25rjr]

There it is... "feasting on UNPATRIOTIC people." People died to protect the American right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, but when some people exercise that right they immediately get branded unpatriotic for doing so.

Since when does loving your country have anything to do with your right to protest what you don't agree with in a peaceful manner? He isn't doing anything violent, he isn't inciting violence, he isn't saying he hates America or the police or anything like that. He takes a knee during the national anthem and explained the reason he does it is because he believes the violence against people of color by the authorities put in place to protect people needs to be addressed.

Excuse me for thinking so, but that is way more patriotic than trying to shut him up by bullying and name calling and accusing him of treason.

Like I said before, if some of you on here had your way, America would be a dictatorship dominated by your oppression and punishment of anyone who dares disagree with you.

Old Glory stands for the 1.2 million men and women who gave their life defending our freedom. I don't see any where this "spoiled punk" gave his life or any of his millions of dollars for this country. The flag stands for every American so when you disrespect it you disrespect everyone.

I don't have a problem with him protesting anything as long as it is respectful. One sports announcer stated he should stay in the lockerroom until after the anthem is played. I believe that would be ok to most people.

[t.nie]

If you start introducing additional standards to protest, where do you stop? Respectful is a subjective term. What one person finds disrespectful, another one may not.

I would counter by saying it's disrespectful to the people he is protesting on behalf of to tell him not to be on the field taking a knee but to stay in the locker room where no one can see him as his protest. Because some people might be offended if they see him taking a knee, and goodness me, we can't let that happen!

The point of protest IS to make people uncomfortable or confront something they would rather not address. There is only one standard, and that is peaceful. So he is within his rights to do exactly what he is doing without being branded unpatriotic for it. It's ridiculous to talk about freedom and our rights and those who died for it, then criticize someone when they exercise that right.

And by the way, just to correct you on something, when we stand before games we are standing for the National Anthem, not to honor the flag. There are other flag ceremonies to honor the flag and our fallen. The ceremony before the game is for the playing of the national anthem. And his reasoning is if this is truly a National anthem, then it should be a country that treats all citizens equally, and he does not believe that all citizens are being treated equally under the law. So he is protesting to spark a debate and bring attention to the injustices he see.

Everyone can have an opinion on this, but I just think he is honoring the fallen by exercising his freedom they died for. Regardless of whether some other people like it or not. If a lot of people didn't like it, it would hardly be much of a protest, would it?

[old fan]

your right he should stay in the locker room for the whole game so what do we even stand for why is the flag their either , when honoring the country and flag leave your petty differences at the door there are times to protest and there is time we do not , by the way some kid might be looking up to him as a role model

[t.nie]

I see a guy exercising his right to protest his government. It's funny how you guys all just love Donald Trump because he is leading the revolution against the government elites with his campaign for President and all his big anti-government talk, but when you see a football player protesting government, he's a traitor and unpatriotic.

Both are just exercising their right to freedom of speech and to protest their government.

[50j]

Disrespecting the country or flag and protesting the government and their actions seems like two different things to me. I believe it's possible to love the country, flag, and Constitution and dislike the people who try to trample on it. That goes for people in either party.

[Clayton_Wetter]

There it is... "feasting on UNPATRIOTIC people." People died to protect the American right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, but when some people exercise that right they immediately get branded unpatriotic for doing so.

Since when does loving your country have anything to do with your right to protest what you don't agree with in a peaceful manner? He isn't doing anything violent, he isn't inciting violence, he isn't saying he hates America or the police or anything like that. He takes a knee during the national anthem and explained the reason he does it is because he believes the violence against people of color by the authorities put in place to protect people needs to be addressed.

Excuse me for thinking so, but that is way more patriotic than trying to shut him up by bullying and name calling and accusing him of treason.

Like I said before, if some of you on here had your way, America would be a dictatorship dominated by your oppression and punishment of anyone who dares disagree with you.

So just go ahead and let Marxism abuse our freedom of speech rules and let them say America was never great and has always been unjust? Okay but when people quit going to the stadiums to watch these crybabies insult the nation while becoming millionaires and the TV channels start turning to something else, who wins? You see where this is going, don't you, high school teams are starting to mimic these fools. And the Republic gets undermined as well. Just because of left abusing the constitution for it's own gain and goal of dismantling THE CONSTITUTION.

But it's all okay, sure it is.

[old fan]

you have a right to protest tnie but many time its at the wrong time people go toa not to be badgerd abo sport to get rid all the garbage in the world for a couple hours not to be badgered all their life

[Clayton_Wetter]

The NFL Had Better Straighten Out–Or Else
By Steve Berman | October 5, 2016, 01:22pm | @stevengberman
BoycottNFLfootballNFL

#BoycottNFL is not just a Twitter trend. It’s a thing.

Both Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football are seeing steep drops in viewership. It’s not just competition from presidential debates, either.

NBC’s Sunday Night Football was down yet again in viewership, drawing in 16.68 million viewers and scoring a 6.19/19 rating in the advertiser friendly 18-49 demo. The numbers mark a season low for SNF and the show’s 11.0 overnight rating is the lowest total since 2007 (ouch). While the NFL still won the night in total viewers, those numbers mark a steep drop from last week’s 18.62 million/6.8 ratings and the week before’s 20.6 million/7.4 rating.

MNF isn’t faring any better, with a year-over-year 8 percent drop in week 4. Throw in the debate, and you get the worst ratings in MNF history.

The 5.7 is likely the lowest in the history of Monday Night Football. Complete overnight records were unavailable, but the lowest final rating in franchise history is a 5.1. No other MNF telecast has gone lower than 5.7 in the final nationals.

Coverage aired opposite the first presidential debate, which had a combined 46.2 rating across nine broadcast and cable networks. The last time MNF faced a presidential debate, Week 7 in 2012, Lions/Bears scored a 7.3 overnight. That game faced both a presidential debate and Game 7 of the MLB National League Championship Series.

Forbes entertainment reporter Brandon Katz asks “how does the NFL fix the problem?” The answer is obvious, isn’t it?

Play fricking football, not politics, money, and media deals.

Outside the U.S., football means soccer. Actual football is called “American football” everywhere else. Americans like our football without a side dish of bullcrap political correctness. Even liberals turn off that junk for the gridiron. We can handle politics in football precisely once a year: for the Super Bowl, and that’s mostly because we have to put up with it, and at least some of the advertisements are entertaining.

Week by week, injecting protests, national anthem sit-downs, kneel-downs and hand-holding, while the league flip-flops over fining Tennessee Titans’ Avery Williamson for wearing cleats honoring 9/11 turns the NFL into a very unfunny joke. Two things need to happen at a football game: play the national anthem while everyone stands, and then play football.

We can stand ESPN and other announcers going gaga over Michael Sam, who couldn’t hack it in the NFL, and then ditched the CFL, walking off the practice field of the Montreal Alouettes for “personal reasons.” We can laugh at that because Sams never made it onto the field. If we don’t like what the announcers say, we can watch with the sound down, and listen to the AM radio broadcast.

But with the NFL increasingly pushing for its own media deals–the NFL channel, Thursday Night Football–and games in London and Mexico–if the league wants to cave to political correctness, it better go overseas for new fans. London wants a franchise.

In a perverse turn, perhaps politics might have a way of fixing the NFL if it doesn’t clean up its act. (League commissioner Roger Goodell is such a jackass that he’s been called “the devil” by former players.) Remember back in the 80’s, when a much younger Donald Trump challenged the NFL’s monopoly with the USFL? Trump and the USFL won its antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in 1986–a jury awared triple damages–for $3 dollars total.

That could be the most valuable $3 the bankrupt league ever collected, if someone like Trump decides a less politically correct option, less dependent on billionaire owners getting new stadium deals every week, every-growing media, and less prima donna idiots like Colin Kaepernick might be worth a gamble. There’s no shortage of cities, stadiums and players.

What such a league lacks is fans.

The way the NFL is going, in the near future there may be plenty of those who are sick of a football league that focuses on everything else except football.

[old fan]

got a email l could watch it on twitter really my tv provider can do just fine but football does nothing for me

[mudslinger47]

I quit watching pro sports (stick and ball and ball) when they went into strike mode many years ago.. I maybe catch the Super Bowl, maybe and never any baseball...