Elephants and Jackasses...

That's the risk he was willing to take by doing this. I don't think the fact that someone's career was ended because they took a stance against police brutality is something to gloat about. But to each his own.

 

I think you and Toytoy are on the wrong side of history. I'm sure sports and entertainment in politics go back further than I know but I think about Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics and I think about the Hollywood blacklisting and McCarthy and the fear of Communism. I believe it's hard to disagree that both of those occasions were positive events with regard to the respective political climates.

There's no guarantee every event will have such influence but we can't predict history though I feel pretty safe in saying Trump will go down as one of (if not The) worst presidents in the history of this country.

 

Looks who's jersey is the #1 seller at nflshop.com: http://www.nflshop.com/Jerseys/pg/1/ps/84/so/top_sellers

 

By that measurement then there will never be anything to protest again.

Do athletes need to stick to sports if they were protesting to bring attention to the genocide going on in Africa currently? What meets your standard of interrupting your viewing of football?

The bigger problem now is instead of discussing what they are actually trying to bring attention to we now have to debate how they are bringing attention to it.

 

Put it this way:

Say you go to McDonalds wearing a Bernie shirt and the employee taking your order tells you "He's a Communist. Make America Great Again." How would you feel about the place with whom you are trying to simply do business telling you about how your political stance is wrong? Would you continue to go there to have a dose of politics rammed down your throat with your Big Mac? Or would you just take your money to Burger King instead?

Everyone is free to protest on their own time. When you do it at your companies place of business, then it's a whole different game.

 

I wonder why people who are only in it “for the game” don’t just turn it on at kickoff time.

 

I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the players, coaches and owners probably don't even want to get involved much politically, but now they are forced to give an opinion because it's suddenly something we care about from them. These days, when it comes to absolutely anything, silence = acceptance. I would agree with that when it comes to actual politicians, but I don't give a shit what athletes think. If someone wants to take a knee during the anthem, fine. But not everyone needs to be asked how they feel about it. Kaepernick's cause is just and the national anthem is a great time to be seen doing something out of the ordinary. Why must all of the NFL now be required to make a statement? Because Trump is trying to distract from ever increasing pressure from the Russia investigation. And everyone took the bait.

It's the same reason I don't watch award shows anymore.(not that I ever really did) I don't want to spend 4 hours being told what to think by people that are largely unaffected by politics. The most global warming will affect a bunch of a-listers will be their Aspen ski resort had an unseasonably warm winter. The Hollywood culture requires them to be super liberal or they get black balled. The whole thing is fucked.

 

I don't disagree with Almost anything you're saying.

I think that the forum they are choosing to use is fine with me. But that's a personal preference.

For those who disagree and think it should stay out then stop watching. If enough people do that then owners will make a change, or they will say they are okay with losing money for something they believe in. As is their right, same as it is yours to stop watching.

The league itself is a hypocritical organization with fake principles it uses for publicity. I don't think the players should be painted with the same brush. But yes when they feel it in their pockets they will have to make a decision. That's how a free society works. We agree on everything there but just have a different line for where we feel these protests should occur. In my opinion if it's a cause they feel is worthy then sure stand, sit, do some jumping jacks. That's their right.

 

To be fair (and speaking as a Redskins fan) I would think a Falcons/Packers game would have much better ratings than a Skins/Raiders game. Because my team sucks.

 

I can deal with politics coming up every once in awhile, but I'm just sick of people's need to make a statement nonstop. I can see why some people were pissed off about players kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner, but then standing for God Save the Queen. I don't care that much about that incident, or this whole thing in general, with two exceptions:

- I'm fucking sick of politics in everything.
- This whole thing was started by Kaepernick, and he's not a hero, he's an idiot.

For you guys applauding him, do you think he actually accomplished anything? Because all I think he did is piss people off, ruin his career, damage the NFL brand, and make people more likely to dismiss the cause he did it for. Was I supposed to be impressed when he showed up wearing Castro shirts and had socks with pigs dressed like cops? Oh, and he would have been playing for the ravens if his girlfriend didn't start tweeting about how the team owner was like a slave owner. The guy and the people he associates with are clowns. This isn't some great martyr being sacrificed on the alter of justice. It's a guy whose career is all but finished because he's an insufferable shit head.

All I'm saying is don't compare him to MLK, or other great civil rights icons because he definitely doesn't deserve it.

 

The answer to your first part - they are citizens of this nation and are trying to bring attention to things in their own house that can make us better. But, they also want to show respect to the country they are in. (You yell at your own kids, you don't go into someone else's house and yell at theirs. Not a perfect parallel but close enough in my opinion)

Yeah those were bad, he's not perfect. But, him doing those things doesn't cancel out everything else he has brought up and is discussing. And the thing from Ray Lewis is questionable at best about the Ravens wanting to sign Kapernick. There was a lot of convenient timing and covering for his old team/boss on him saying that and others have come out to refute the validity of what he said.

Also, while out of the league all Kapernick has been doing is donating his own money and doing charity work. So all those people he's doing it with are clowns?

 

There are plenty of other examples of Kaepernick's clownishness I'm not going to get into. They're not exactly isolated incidents. Yes, he did some good work. Good for him. Doesn't change that I can't stand him for good reason and in all likelihood the only effects of his protests were those I listed.

I just don't like the constant bombardment of political expression, but as an extension of a point Toytoy made earlier, imagine if conservatives were as in your face with their activism as liberals are right now. They occasionally are so it shouldn't be too hard to imagine. Consider if espn was constantly babbling conservative talking points and if the players were all doing this for a cause in a manner you found distasteful. Think about that for a moment and perhaps you'll grasp how annoying and inappropriate it is.

Again, for me I just think it's done in the wrong way more than anything, but I can hardly blame people for turning away.

 

http://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Gas-station-responds-to-flag-removal-controversy-447778173.html

This just showed up in my news feed. You also must not know many trump fans.

Or remember Charlottesville.

 

Read the sentence I wrote right after the one you quoted.