ufl
Its now official kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games is now banned. Players who “do not stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.” will be fined. On Wednesday NFL owners have unanimously voted to approve a new national anthem policy that means that all players to must stand during the national anthem if they are on the field. Players who do not want to stand should remain off the field and in the locker room during the national anthem instead of kneeling.
It is thought that this new policy is a reaction to the 10% fall in NFL ratings during last season that many argue was a direct result of footballer players being disrespectful and not being patriotic. President Trump who was repeatedly criticize NFL footballers during the 2017 season for kneeling during the protest has in an interview expressed his delight for the new policy telling journalists in an interview on Thursday “I think that’s good. I don’t think people should be staying in the locker rooms, but still, I think it’s good. You have to stand proudly for the national anthem,” also adding that he thought players who can’t “stand proudly” for the anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.”
Should players be allowed to kneel?
It would be interesting to see if any players continue to kneel regardless of the fines… is money worth more to them than what they are protesting about (something tells me they won’t)?
I think that the 10% fall in ratings is more to do with the fact that football is now impossible to watch because of the all the ads!!!
Patriotism is somewhat gauche, forced patriotism even more so.
Hmm… weird isn’t it. You can love your home, your hometown even your home county. If you’re a from some undeveloped country patriotism seems entirely laudable, honourable even.
But an American, professing a love for America? Must be a bit thick, or a bigot or even a racist.
Maybe because the most vocal ‘patriots’ do tend to be thick racist bigots?
Bollocks. Far right morons get all shouty about patriotism because it’s the only thing they can grab onto to bolster their claims of racial superiority and attempt to mask their own social inadequacy .
Most patriots just feel at home in the place they reside and don’t see why they should be ashamed of preferring their own country to France or pakistan or where ever.
Freedom of expression. The right to peaceful protest.
Not being protected in this case.
Those rights are as a private individual. You do not have them while at work for an employer. Your employer can legitimately limit your expression in work time.
“the land of the free” – it’s in the anthem
Terrible decision.
Though it has been pointed out in many media how support (or lack thereof) for this decision is often at odds with support/lack-of-support in the Google Memo case.
That lack of consistency in application shines a light on the hypocrisy at both sides of the political spectrum with regards to free speech.
Rather different since Google has set up forums for discussing ideas and actively encouraged employees to do so.
That’s very different from regulating conduct while in a visible, customer-facing role. No-one would expect that, say, an air stewardess could say whatever they liked in front of customers.
You could argue that google only sets up those forums to find out who is’nt a “liberal” and then sack them.
I’m definitely on that side of the argument.
But the cases are only subtly different. Cabin-crew-like jobs, despite assurances that they are there for safety, really are more akin to hotel or restaurant staff – the more polite and polished the appearance the more likely passengers are to return. Plus they have direct contact with the customer. The athlete is almost expected to be a bit of an a-hole at times, and is nothing more than a distant icon. But so long as they keep scoring its pretty much forgiven.
Seems like it would be good practice to allow these relatively minor sins to be tolerated in both the Google and NFL cases. Or at least, if the “lost business” case is going to be made it could probably be applied to both cases too. To support one and not the other just seems a little tenuous to me.
My understanding was that it was the teams who would be fined or have points deducted rather than individual players.
NFL is a business. Talk to any NFL fan and there is a definite lack of sympathy for kneeling during the national anthem so people have started turning away. So it’s an attempt to sort it out.