Even a whole New Jersey high school football team and its coaches now refuse to stand during the playing of the National Anthem
BarkGrowlBite | September 12, 2016
Shame on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell! By supporting Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the playing of the National Anthem, Goodell has opened a Pandora’s box of disrespect for our country that has spread throughout the NFL and beyond to the colleges and even to high schools.
From the get-go Goodell supported Kaepernick’s right not to stand for the anthem in protest against the murder of blacks by cops and the oppression of people of color in America. He not only continues to support Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem, but he also now supports the other NFL players who refuse to do so likewise.
When, during an interview aired Sunday, NBC Today host Matt Lauer asked Goodell if he felt "proud" of Colin Kaepernick and his protest, Goodell replied:
“Listen, I support our players speaking out on issues that they think need to be changed in our society. We don't live in a perfect society, Matt. Our players have strong views about things. So I support our players speaking out against that. But that's what the focus should be on, the changes he wants to see in our society.”
OK, so Kaepernick has the right to stand up by sitting down or kneeling during the anthem. That’s a form of free speech and it’s protected by the Constitution. But Mr. Goodell also knows – or he should know - that free speech can have consequences. Goodell should have fined and/or suspended Kaepernick for projecting a bad image of the NFL by disrespecting our country. That would have been a righteous consequence of Kaepernick’s expression of free speech.
Instead, by supporting the 49ers quarterback instead of disciplining him, the consequence of Kaepernick’s disrespectful behavior has been that it has spread to the other NFL teams, to the colleges and even to high schools.
On Saturday, South Jersey’s Woodrow Wilson High School Played a football game in Camden, N.J. against Highland High School. Woodrow Wilson is almost exclusively black and Hispanic, as is its football team and its coaches. Before the game, coach Preston Brown told his players that he intended to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem in solidarity with Kaepernick. All but two of Woodrow Wilson’s football players then joined him in knelling during the anthem.
It is the duty of all American citizens to stand at attention whenever the National Anthem is played at a public event. Failure to do so is unbecoming of a citizen.
Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the anthem is not only unbecoming of a citizen, but it is also unbecoming of the image the NFL wants to project of its players. Accordingly, Goodell had every right to discipline the 49ers quarterback.
I blame Goodell’s failure to take any punitive action against Kaepernick for this proliferation of disrespectfulness for our country.
Mr. Goodell completely overlooked the fact that Kaepernick’s main beef is against the police whom he accuses of murdering blacks. He compounded that outrageous and libelous accusation by being pissed off because a cop is put on (administrative) leave when he ‘murders’ a black man and gets paid while on that leave.
Colin Kaerpernick could have made his protest on any street corner in the USA where he is free to spit on the flag, stomp the flag into the ground, tear up the flag, or burn the flag. But he should have been fined and/or suspended for disrespecting our country on the playing field!
Having said that, I realize there would have been an outpouring of support for the asshole had he been punished, but at least he would have suffered some consequences for his disrespectfulness and it probably would have prevented other NFL players from joining him.
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