Stephen Nulty 6:34 pm on May 23, 2018
Tags: american football, Colin Kaepernick, , freedom of expression, nfl, stars and stripes   

Wednesday 23 May 2018 – NFL impose new rules to prevent kneeling during the National Anthem

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In an appalling attack on free speech, freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest in the United States, the National Football League (NFL) have kowtowed to pressure from Donald Trump and others and have said they will penalise NFL teams who allow their players or staff to kneel during the National Anthem.  The NFL have effectively said that everyone in the 32  teams WILL stand and RESPECT the flag and anthem of the United States.  This is outrageous in a so-called free country, and isn’t respect earned not mandated? The NFL vowed to “impose appropriate discipline on league personnel who do not stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.”


The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued a statement in which he said: “It was unfortunate that on-field protests created a false perception among many that thousands of NFL players were unpatriotic. This is not and was never the case. This season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem. Personnel who choose not to stand for the Anthem may stay in the locker room until after the Anthem has been performed.”  This last point about staying in the locker room may backfire as players who wish to protest may now do so by not coming out of the locker room until the Anthem is over. Some, indeed, have already been doing this.  What will the NFL do then?  Force them to come out onto the field and force them to respect the flag and Anthem?  The teams will be allowed to adjust the rules to some extent in regards to staying in the locker room, but those variants on the rule must conform to the rule that anyone on the field must stand during the Anthem.


The protests by mostly black players drew the anger of President Trump who railed against their lack of patriotism and respect for the United States.  The protests, which began  in 2016 when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the Anthem,  are a protest against police brutality against the black community across America, which has included some high-profile killings of unarmed or non-threatening black men by police officers.


During the crisis of the Puerto Rico hurricane in September 2017, President Trump seemed more interested in condemning NFL players for their kneeling protests, insinuating that the players were unpatriotic and were disrespecting US veterans whom he said were “fighting for our National Anthem.”  Speaking at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center where he was meeting injured veterans, the President said he was “ashamed” of the protests, adding: “They [the veterans] were fighting for our country, they were fighting for our flag, they were fighting for our national anthem. For people to disrespect that by kneeling during the playing of our national anthem, I think, is disgraceful.”  Mr Trump had earlier called for players who protest to be suspended or even fired.  The President’s comments only served to intensify the protests as more players exerted their right to political convictions and their right to express them.

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Colin Kaepernick (above centre), speaking after Mr Trump’s September outburst, said: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour.”  Mr Kaepernick has been “blackballed” by the NFL for expressing his views and remains a free agent this year with teams fearful of a backlash if they hire him.  Whether the NFL will allow him back into the game now that they have banned kneeling remains to be seen. He is not the only player to have been “blackballed.”


Vice-President Mike Pence also took a stand against kneeling when he walked out of a game in which Mr Kaepernick was playing in protest against the protests. The irony is probably lost on Mr Pence that he was expressing his right to peaceful protest while at the same time saying that Mr Kaepernick and others could not do the same.


Speaking today,  the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) said: “NFL players have shown their patriotism through their social activism, their community service, in support of our military and law enforcement and yes, through their protests to raise awareness about the issues they care about. The vote by NFL club CEOs today contradicts the statements made to our player leadership by Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Chairman of the NFL’s Management Council John Mara about the principles, values and patriotism of our League.”  The NFLPA also said the new ruling goes against the NFL’s collective bargaining policies.

David Doel of the YouTube channel The Rational National, pointed out that the playing of the national anthem before NFL games is a relatively recent development and that it emerged out of a government-funded marketing campaign in 2009.  He quoted a report by the news website Think Progress, which is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.  It said:

“As recently as 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) was doling out millions to the NFL for such things as military flyovers, flag unfurlings, emotional colour guard ceremonies, enlistment campaigns, and – interestingly enough – national anthem performances. Additionally, according to Vice, the NFL’s policy on players standing for the national anthem also changed in 2009, with athletes ‘encouraged’ thereafter to participate. Prior to that, teams were not given any specific instructions on the matter, some chose to remain in the locker room until after opening ceremonies were completed.


“In 2015, Arizona Senators Jeff Flake (R) and John McCain (R) revealed in a joint statement that nearly $5.4 million in taxpayer dollars had been paid out to 14 NFL teams between 2011 and 2014 to honour service members and put on elaborate, ‘patriotic salutes’ to the military. Overall, they reported, ‘these displays of paid patriotism [were] included within the $6.8 million that the DOD [had] had spent on sports marketing contracts since fiscal year 2012.”

No doubt, Donald Trump will be happy this evening at the NFL ruling.  It is, however, a travesty in a free country that the democratic voice of its people is being suppressed in order to placate the ramblings of its racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic President.  Instead of calling for the suppression of protest against him, the censoring of media who dare to criticise him, and the firing of people who don’t kowtow to him and his administration, the President should be addressing the issue of police brutality in the United States which is at the heart of the NFL protests.  For the NFL to give in to the pressure from the White House and its rabid supporters who have I believe objected to these protests not because they are unpatriotic, but because the protesters are black, is scandalous.  The NFL ruling will only encourage Mr Trump.  His megalomania and ego will be boosted by getting his own way and will encourage him to believe that he can make further demands for censorship and repression.

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Mr Trump said he was “ashamed”  of the protesters.  If I were an American citizen tonight I’d be ashamed of the NFL and its attack on the First Amendment.  Your flag and your Anthem do represent your country and those who have fought for it.  Neither, however, would still exist had it not been for the millions of people over the generations who have protested – both peacefully and violently – to acquire and protect the rights that are enshrined in your Constitution.   The United States can rightly be proud of the Constitution, nothing like it existed before or since.  When you begin to erode the protections offered by the Constitution as is happening today with the NFL’s decision, you will quickly find that those protections are no longer sacred and when you allow reactionary politicians like Donald Trump attack the principles of your Constitution and get away with it, you will quickly find that its protections are gone.


You may not like NFL players kneeling during the Anthem.  That is your right to do so and your can protest against it.  However, it is also their right to protest in any peaceful means they see fit, whether you like it or not.  Just remember – when you deny them their rights who is going to stand up for your rights when someone denies them to you?  The rights to free speech, free expression and peaceful protest are rights for everyone and as a country where it is Constitutionally guaranteed you perhaps don’t always realise just how precious a right that is.

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