Good morning, all. I originally wrote this email on September 18, 2019, but I did not post on my blog until today.
We are approaching the start of the fourth NFL season since
then-backup 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first knelt for the “Star
Spangled Banner” before his team’s final preseason game of the 2016
season. Since Kaepernick first knelt, we
have seen many other NFL players, soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and even (in the
past few weeks) an American fencer kneel for the anthem. It bothers me that many people create a false
binary that there are only two options in viewing these protests: Either you
are in favor of the protest, or you are a racist. Well, I fall into neither category. I have disagreed with the protest from the
day Kaepernick first knelt, and I have six reasons why. I wish to share those with you now.
1)
I, like many, believe that kneeling for the anthem
is a sign that a) you are ashamed to live in the United States of America and
b) you do not respect the men and women who have fought to allow us to have the
freedoms that we have in the United States.
Kaepernick and others might claim that they are not ashamed of the
country and/or that they do respect veterans, but the kneeling makes me think
otherwise. This leads me to my second
reason to disagree with the protest.
2)
This is not the 1960s, when athletes had no
platform on which to speak after leaving the field. With social media, athletes have the ability
to make political statements 24/7 when they are off the field. In 2016, Kaepernick could have posted on
social media that he feels there is systemic racism in the police force and that
he felt it was a joke that our two presidential candidates were Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump, two beliefs that he has stated. In regard to the second part, most Americans
– myself included – would have agreed!
As for the first part, my personal belief is that, while there are a few
individually racist police officers in this large country (just as there are a
few bad apples in any profession), the police system itself is not racist. The burden of proof in any “systemic racism”
charge lies with the person who is making the claim, but I am happy to listen
to anyone who tries to show proof of systemic racism. Additionally, if I feel that a person has
truly shown me proof of systemic racism, I am happy to fight alongside that
person for change.
Let me next though note that we have seen
plenty of athletes make political statements and, unlike with Kaepernick, face
no public backlash. Lebron James has
spoken out against President Trump; the 2014 St. Louis Rams wore practice
shirts that said, “Hands up; don’t shoot” (even though the Department of
Justice report found that Michael Brown was killed after assaulting a police
officer and reaching for the officer’s gun); and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
regularly speaks out against President Donald Trump. Sure, there are plenty of people who do not
like any of these comments or actions, but that number is tiny compared to the
number of people who disapprove of kneeling.
Thus, given that players and coaches have
public forums where they may espouse political views, why would people like
Kaepernick kneel for the anthem? If he
had issues with the country in 2016 (or now), he could have (and can) use
social media to do so. This would have
allowed Kaepernick to avoid making people like me think that he is ashamed of
the country or does not respect those who have fought for the country.
3)
Kaepernick and the fencer have talked about
“wanting to start a conversation” with their kneeling. This is probably as preposterous as it gets
when it comes to a rationale for kneeling.
Do you remember the summer of 2016?
The big topic all summer (outside of the presidential election and the
antics of d-bag Ryan Lochte in Rio) was the relationship between police
officers and minority communities. That
summer saw the murder of Philando Castile by police and the murders of five
Dallas police officers. By the time
Kaepernick kneeled on September 1, the whole country had spent months having
the conversation Kaepernick was allegedly starting. The only conversation Kaepernick started was
about whether or not kneeling is an acceptable means of protest.
Granted, that ironic turn of events is not
as comical as a fencer trying to start a conversation in 2019. With social media being what it is and the
increasing polarization of Democrats and Republicans, what conversation is
there that we are not already having? Oh
wait, there is one, and that conversation is that we should try to seek common
ground with our political adversaries, but somehow I doubt that is the message
the fencer was seeking. Plus, with all
due respect to Paul Rudd’s great character in “I Love You, Man”; I do not think
a fencer really moves the needle on any social discussion. As for Megan Rapinoe, she has essentially
said that she wants to discuss politics with only those who agree with
her. Plus, her kneeling and that of the
fencer are worse than Kaepernick’s because the former two have done so while
playing for United States national teams.
If you are wearing a USA jersey, you should not be allowed to kneel for
the anthem. Period. Now, switching gears to Reason #4…
4)
As fans, sports are our escape. We can find political content 24/7 on TV, on
social media, or in conversations with our friends and family. Therefore, to have politics encroach on our
Sunday afternoons of watching football (in the form of kneeling) has been quite
bothersome. This also returns to my
premise on why people are more accepting of Lebron’s and Popovich’s political
commentary than they are of Kaepernick’s kneeling. When we watch a game involving Team LeBron
(whatever team that might be in a given year), we enjoy the great athlete who
is LeBron James. If we want to hear his
political commentary, we can tune in outside of game time for that. The analogous goes for Gregg Popovich, who
speaks out in post-game press conferences but is not making political speeches
mid-game. These people have allowed the
games themselves to be sanctuaries from politics, and it is annoying to me and
to others that kneelers have brought politics into the sanctuary.
I should also add that I have heard people
discuss another false binary of “How can fans think Kaepernick is a worse
person than the domestic abusers in the NFL?”
Truthfully, I do not know anyone who thinks that Greg Hardy or Tyreek
Hill (to name two such abusers) is a better person than Colin Kaepernick. However, people spend more time venting about
the kneeling than domestic abuse because we see the kneeling, not the bulk of
the domestic abuse, on TV. With the very
notable exceptions of Ray Rice and Kareem Hunt, we do not see what happens when
the athletes are out of the public eye.
Therefore, fans do not spend much time thinking about players’ personal
lives. That said, Kaepernick remains a
much better person than anyone who commits domestic abuse.
5)
In team sports, players do not like to see their
teammates doing things for selfish reasons.
Team sports are all about a bunch of people pushing together toward a
common goal. The athlete and former
coach in me do not like seeing a player distracting from the team’s efforts by
kneeling for the anthem. Not only did
Kaepernick’s kneeling draw attention away from his teammates and onto him, but
it also made his teammates have to spend time answering questions about the kneeling. That does not exactly bring a team
together. It is especially bad for a
team when a backup quarterback is the cause of all of the attention. I know that many people act like Kaepernick
strode directly from a tough Super Bowl loss to the Ravens into that preseason
game in which he started kneeling.
However, the truth is that Kaepernick was not good in his last two
pre-kneeling seasons, and he had lost his job to Blaine Gabbert in the season
before kneeling. Blaine Gabbert is a
terrible quarterback. Furthermore, in
the offseason prior to him kneeling, many had begun to question how much
Kaepernick still desired to play football.
Ultimately, once Gabbert had won the quarterback job in 2016, Kaepernick
began kneeling. Very interesting timing
there if you ask me….
This, of course, shows why the whole
collusion premise with Kaepernick was ridiculous. Kaepernick ended up playing some in 2016 and
did not play very well. Therefore, why
would any team want the next season to bring in a backup quarterback who had
played poorly for 2-3 seasons in a row and who would be a polarizing,
distracting figure? No coach or GM ever
wants his team to spend countless hours answering questions with the media
about a backup QB. Thus, 32 teams all
looked at the prospect of signing Kaep and decided that the cost far outweighs
the benefit.
I should add though that the NFL did mess
up by allowing Kaepernick’s kneeling in the first place. Many pundits misapply the concept of freedom
of speech and expression in the context of kneeling. When one works for a company, he/she agrees
to follow the requests of the boss, as long as those requests are legal. Most companies would not allow a worker to
make a political protest while representing the company, and those companies
can legally ensure of this. An NFL team
is no different in this regard….and no, Richard Sherman, it is not a
“slaveowner mentality” that leads owners to want to forbid kneeling. It is an “every boss ever” mentality that
allows a boss to impose rules of conduct on his employees. If a person voluntarily accepts a job and can
voluntarily resign from the job if he chooses, there should be no comparison to
slavery. Anyway, to our last reason we
go…
6)
A valid protest needs a defined goal. Unfortunately, we have seen other protests,
like “Occupy Wall Street”, with no defined goals, but that does not excuse the
lack of a goal with kneeling.
Kaepernick, Rapinoe, and others kneel because they generally think this
country is racist and because they do not like President Trump. However, a valid protest is one in which a
person says, “I will _______________ until ________________”. The kneelers have filled in the first blank
with “kneel” without filling in the second.
To be a valid protest, the protesters should have a defined goal such
that, when said goal is achieved, they will stop kneeling. “Eliminating racism” is not a valid goal,
because it is purely subjective. A protest needs defined goals.
Thus, in summary, athletes have plenty of
ways to spread sociopolitical messages these days, but fans would prefer that
they leave their messages off the field.
Coaches and many teammates feel the same way. Therefore, I would urge them all to stand for
the anthem and respect this country and its vets. Of course, this is not a perfect country, but
do not let the perfect be the enemy of the great. We are a great country, and we can always
look to improve. However, let the
athletic field remain just that.
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