Denver7 reports, President Donald Trump’s latest slam on National Football League players–which occurred even after the NFL announced a new highly controversial policy regarding the national anthem at games intended to mollify Trump–is too much for Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall:
The NFL decided that players and league personnel on the sideline must stand for the anthem, while permitting those uncomfortable with this rule to remain in the locker room. President Donald Trump, who galvanized NFL players last September when he called for owners to “fire” those who disrespect the anthem, applauded the league’s new policy. Trump suggested players who protest “shouldn’t be in the country.”
Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall called Trump’s comments “disgusting.”
“I say disgusting because of our First Amendment rights. We have freedom of speech, freedom to protest. So if somebody protests something, now we get someone kicked out of the country? That’s not how things should work in my opinion,” Marshall said. “We are supposed to have a conversation about things, talk about things, work things through. Everybody is not going to agree. Everybody is not going to have the same opinion. Just because somebody has an issue with something going on in this country they should pack up and leave? That’s absurd.” [Pols emphasis]
Marshall and All-Pro cornerback Chris Harris admitted they understood why the league adopted the policy, with Marshall explaining, “I don’t like it, but they are trying to protect the shield.” However, both believe the players should have been consulted before revisions were made…
The NFL’s new policy requiring players to either stand respectfully for the national anthem or stay in the locker room until the anthem is over comes as a direct response to Trump’s wild demagoguery on the issue, which is asserted to have in turn caused conservative football fans to slacken their attendance and viewership of NFL games. The players, for their part, deny that their protest is meant to be unpatriotic–merely calling attention to a critical issue leveraging the camera time they are given.
So, you have all of that. Then, despite the fact that the NFL has essentially surrendered to Trump on the issue over the free speech rights of its players, Trump still can’t leave well enough alone. The President keeps going, ridiculously suggesting that NFL players, American citizens, be kicked out of the country if they don’t stand for the national anthem.
Is there anyone out there willing to defend this? We just don’t see how you can.
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Is there anyone out there willing to defend this?
Gerbils or Fluffy should be along any minute now to do so.
There is a difference between a right and an obligation as a leader in society. Everyone has the right to protest, but you don't have the right to make a scene when I've paid $100 to be there and advertisers are spending millions to pay for your platform. If Brandon Marshall wants the perks that go with being an American football star he should respect the nation he lives in and gives him the opportunity to be successful.
My two cents.
What took you so long?
So fining the players is okay with you? But how do you feel about Trump's suggestion that they be deported? And considering most if not all of them were born here, to precise where would he send them back?
Cry me a river for the advertisers and their lost millions.
He doesn't know. He's a clueless sheep. He'll repeat whatever he hears on the fucking radio.
People like Moderanus will truly be the death of America.
Every time
a bell ringsModdy postsan angel gets its wings#RightWingJesus gets wood.How does the players' quiet protest take anything away from you? They're kneeling…the national anthem is still playing. Most people are still standing. The opening game ritual is intact. Your $100/ seat fee has not been taken away or devalued.
As far as obligation, the players feel that they are obligated to use their unique prominence as famous athletes to draw attention to the disproportionate jailing, beating and killing of people of color in police custody. Away from the context of the game, they rightfully fear that police would just treat them as if they are thugs, as if their lives “do not matter”. Sterling Brown, NBA Bucks player, was tased by police for a parking violation just last week.
From Vox, using FBI statistics :
I'm not certain what is the problem with a few people kneeling.
But imagine the reaction if a Democratic government leader told other companies they had to have their employees act in a certain fashion, such as mandatory jumping jacks because it is the national responsibility to be healthy. Or that in addition to singing the National Anthem, everyone needs to sing a verse and chorus of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the Black National Anthem.
Some might object ….
So, kneeling players ruins the whole thing? Sensitive much?
If you are so pissy about this, give away your tickets and all your Broncos gear to some poor kid who can’t afford it
Because, he has no heart, just like he has no brain.
lol
The only people "making a scene" are the drunken hillbilly shitheads who boo and throw things at protesting players. So then, what you're advocating here amounts to a heckler's veto.
Moderapist, even you aren't that stupid.
That's way more than the market will bear.
Yes. He is that stupid.
Grammy always told him, she was putting his name on his things . . .
You might be 5% right, Fluffy . . .
. . . but, then, you’d be tying your personal record,
. . . and it’d be twice in a row.
Not likely!
Let’s just play ball . . .
. . . I’m fucking tired of being marketed everything — America, politicians and religion especially, like it was a pair oftennis shoes, or underarm deodorant.
How Did Our Sports Get So Divisive?
https://nyti.ms/2GaEyBs?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Agreed. But it is beyond marketing. People telling other people who they have to be and who they can't be and what they can and can't do. I hate that even more than run-of-th-mill marketing.
It’s all marketing . . .
They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
Jackson Brown —Lives in the Balance
I LOVE that song. He wrote it during the Reagan administration while living in Spain and watching our politics from the vantage point of an ex-pat. The wars he spoke of were Reagan's Central American Contra wars. Somehow, every time it seems dated, some warmongering Republican S.O.B, ends up in the White House and makes it timely again
Makes me want to Black Sabbath's War Pigs all over again.
Ditto, skinny.
I have been singing that song for years..
Along with "Soldier of Plenty"…another great song by JB.