Just the vice president of the United States celebrating the loss of free speech rights for pro athletes. https://t.co/YYuKnAsr6Z
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) May 23, 2018
Today’s decision by the @NFL is a win for the fans, a win for @POTUS, and a win for America. Americans can once again come together around what unites us – our flag, our military, and our National Anthem. Thank you NFL. #ProudToStand pic.twitter.com/zNwxhYGNaN
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) May 23, 2018
Just here to remind all those loud, frothing patriots out there that kneeling during the National Anthem before NFL games was a compromise brokered by a Green Beret.
— Matt Gallagher (@MattGallagher0) May 23, 2018
If I were Trump I'd be nervous about Pence playing more and more openly as a MAGA chud instead of his usual role as the team's wire-hanger selling rapture prepper. Like he's getting ready to inherit the fanbase. https://t.co/MRyt4u2uuS
— zeddy (@Zeddary) May 23, 2018
I’ve written before about “extinction bursts”, where an organism that stops getting the expected response to an action will redouble its efforts in attempt to get its reward. The NFL seems to be in the middle of such an extinction burst — its TV revenues are dropping, and as a result, they’ve just doubled down on their worst authoritarian impulses. And Mike Pence is the GOP Extinction Burst made flesh, applauding the jingoism for the hardcore Deplorables…
Political correctness is ruining free speech in America. To fight it, we insist that professional athletes participate in nationalist rituals in the proscribed fashion without expressing any views, to avoid offense. To do otherwise would endorse snowflakes and their safe spaces.
— HerebyDemandHat (@Popehat) May 23, 2018
In case you forgot, the reason the NFL, patriotism and the military are so closely aligned is because the NFL is paid millions by the Dept Of Defense https://t.co/5t2KyI6lrN pic.twitter.com/97CUMrSjMg
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) May 23, 2018
Reading some corners of conservative Twitter about the NFL rules decision today, it's hard not to picture them as smug assholes with a real race issue.
Don't know if that's the look that they're going for, but that's the look they're giving off.
— Steve Singiser (@stevesingiser) May 23, 2018
And this is what people are taking offense to: They believe the country HAS lived up to its ideals and they are offended that someone else says otherwise. It's not about a misconception that someone is against the anthem.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 23, 2018
jl
I believe a kind commenter posted a link to a history of national anthem at US sporting events last year. IIRC, way back in the day, home team would play a few bars to get fans’ attention and maybe cheer the home team after they quieted down, stop fights, and other useful and sundry things. Then when PA systems came in, to get them quiet for commercials following the anthem.
Then it became patriotic gesture during two world wars. I think that was also time the weird tradition of baseball managers wearing a players uniform came in, but not sure. Anyone know?
Now, it is a big deal because of a corrupt deal from about ten years ago for teams to fluff military to boost recruitment. Team owners were very patriotic as long as they could make a (yet another) buck of US taxpayers and get a military show to draw bigger crowd sometimes as a bonus. No one bothered what the players did, and IIRC Kaepernick was protesting forsome time and no one noticed until someone happened to ask him about it.
All in all, a very proud and absurd history of a total non-issue, until our lawless unfit president went apeshit over it in order to demagogue.
Please correct me if I got any of that wrong.
I’m not sure how first amendment is related to the owners’ current bullshit, since owners can set work rules, I guess. But the cynicism, and cowardice of it stinks. But, maybe a collusion angle that plays into black list of Kaepernick, and now I read other players?
Jerzy Russian
Been on the road all day, and I have no idea what this is all about. I plan to keep it that way for another 8 hours or so.
SectionH
I’d say Impeach Pense First, but I’m struggling to imagine what the Dolt would appoint thereafter. I’m sadly sure he could find some RWNJ who wasn’t actually involved closely enough to be indictable.
hellslittlestangel
Could pro sports go extinct? If so, I demand an additional 50 years of life to appreciate the absence of the noise, shitty food and cheap, tacky merchandise.
Viva BrisVegas
@jl:
IANAL, but ….
I would imagine that it would go to the motivation of the owners in playing the national anthem. If they are playing it to express patriotism, then preventing certain players from expressing that patriotism in their own way would surely not be enforceable. Otherwise it is the owners who are defining what does and does not constitute patriotism.
Anyway, the obvious way around it is for the players to declare that they are bending the knee for religious reasons. They would then become untouchable.
Duane
@jl: The NFL rarely bothered to televise the National Anthem till they could profit from it. They could have done the right thing today. Instead they chose the stupid thing.
JPL
Sports related. The Milwaukee police department released a video today that showed NBA player, Sterling Brown, being tasered because he parked illegally in an empty parking lot.
NobodySpecial
The key point is that teams can elect not to come out for the anthem. I will be highly surprised if more than a handful do.
NotMax
I have living relatives who predate the U.S. having a national anthem.
Just sayin’.
lowtechcyclist
Congrats, NFL! Your games will once again be a ‘safe space’ for conservatives. You’ve saved those snowflakes from countless incidents of emotional anguish!
akryan
I’m guessing that the reasons that the ratings for the NFL are down don’t have as much to do with kneeling as they do with the simple change in tastes among viewers. There are just a lot of other things to watch than football. Football itself is losing popularity as more information is coming out about CTE. More parents just don’t want their kids to have anything to do with it. The NFL is still the king of sports in this country, but it’s losing ground.
Peale
Whatever, Barro. They know full well the country hasn’t lived up to its ideals. They just believe it’s sinful for someone to point that out during the obligatory military worship liturgy that’s been going on for the past fifty years. Thank Himler for the glorious Death Machine we’ve created and will continue to create forever and ever Amen. Every freedom we have, every pleasure we enjoy comes from the Death Machine. Everyone rise for the first responders. Now rise some more for the flag which is surrounded by the flags of each of the branches of the military. Now rise some more for some schmuck who is missing an arm…don’t you feel badly that you have both arms because god didn’t choose you to make the sacrifice? In case we haven’t reached you, let’s make you stand some more and sing.
I knew Kapernick wasn’t going to win this one. If he did, we’d have to question the whole idea that everything we have comes from the military, and a good chunk of the country isn’t about to do that.
SFAW
On the plus side (so to speak), whoever translated Pence’s [sic] statement from the original German had enough presence of mind to translate Fuehrer into
LMOTUSPOTUSETA: “LM” == Lyingest Motherfucker
Victor Matheson
The statement that tv revenues are down is simply false. Ratings took a small dip last season, but the contract between the NFL and the networks has been negotiated years in advance and does not depend on the ratings. Furthermore, since sports are one of the last things on television we watch live, they are becoming more and more coveted by advertisers who have been paying more and more for each eyeball watching. So, this talk of the decline of the NFL is absurdly premature.
That being said, changing preferences due to kids not playing football due to health concerns or other changes in taste may be a long term issue (that we have little data on). But it is true that if you had observed the American sports scene as late as the 1930s, you would have said the big three sports were boxing, baseball, and horse racing. Only one of those can claim any real hold on society today. Still, that’s 80 years of decline and the sports are still around, so don’t look to the nfl to disappear any time soon.
Steeplejack
@Bark Bark Woof Woof:
Surely you mean “NFL owners,” not players?
BC in Illinois
The Police Chief’s statement on the Sterling Brown encounter includes this statement:
Sterling Brown was decentralized. Decentralized? . . . “transferred from central to local authority?” “redistributed from urban centers to outlying areas?” . . . Decentralized?
He wasn’t decentralized. The word they were looking for was “THROWN TO THE GROUND.”
The police union also issues a statement. It never mentions the name of Sterling Brown.
It speaks only of the ‘use of force,” and talks about understaffing. (Six cars pulled up for a parking violation.) The statement never raises the question of the “use of force” when force is not necessary.
Milwaukee authorities are trying to talk about how what happened to Sterling Brown shouldn’t have happened and how steps are being taken to see that it won’t happen again. But nothing will change until the people in authority can actually speak of what actually happened.
Use your words.
The Pale Scot
@akryan:
I’ll watch my team, but watching the other game on Sunday is just unbearable because of the commercials, that goes for the rest of American Tv too. Not going to stay up to 12:30 on a weeknight either.
Gex mobile
Notable things about the rule to me:
The only specific act they’ve mentioned is banned is kneeling. Yet the commissioner himself admits it is not disrespectful, people are just misinterpreting it.
They’ve not enumerated what acts are banned.
They’ve indicated player intent/attitude is irrelevant, though that is the only person who can make an act disrespectful or not.
This is just a “we’re your masters you’ll follow our unwritten, arbitrary, and conflicting rules as we see fit. You have no way to know if you are in compliance so we can punish you at anytime for anything” rule.
The Other Chuck
I’m no longer standing for any playing of the National Anthem. Anywhere. All the symbols are obscenities now.
No Drought No More
I’ve got to weigh in on this one. Five or six years ago, I wrote in a Balloon Juice thread that the NFL was headed for a fall. I’d been a die hard fan for a half a century by that time, and I’d just woken up as a result the the suicide of Junior Seau. In other words, I knew what I was talking about. But, as is typical of BJ’s commentariat, I was gratuitously attacked for it by B&L regulars that didn’t know the score, but nonetheless saw fit to rise to the D-fence of the NFL future prospects. I admire much about this blog, obviously. But that tendency on the part of some regulars that post here still exists, i.e., to stupidly gang up, on cue, over the same comment, is not one of them. So it’s with some gratification I tell those erstwhile critics of mine: I told you so.
Skepticat
As with almost everything else in their fevered world.
Bing-freaking-o.
JPL
@No Drought No More: The result of concussions is horrifying, and parents are paying attention.
kindness
The NFL would be a far better organization if all the teams were owned by the locality, like Green Bay’s. As it is the billionaires who own the teams are like spoiled little children who aren’t used to hearing no. Fox & Republicans like it that way. The rest of us, not so much.
Honestly making the issue into something it isn’t (ie – instead of the kneeling being a protest about how blacks are killed by police where whites wouldn’t be and instead act as if it was a protest about America/the flag), shows the reach of Fox. Look at all the goobers who swill the shit.
Victor Matheson
@No Drought No More: I am not trying to be a dick here, but this comment will come off as pretty dickish. You state that 5-6 years ago you predicted the NFL was heading for a fall. Others here said you were out of your mind. Now you gloat that you were right. “I told you so.”
Since 2013, roughly the time that you claimed to make your statement, NFL revenues are up 43%. Even after adjusting for inflation that comes out to be about 34% higher. And the average franchise value has grown from $1.2 billion to roughly $2.5 billion. Yup, you sure were right. The NFL is in free fall. In fact, if franchise values fall 40% (which they show no sign of doing) they will only be 20% higher than they were when you claimed the NFL was heading for a fall.
This quote from Forbes sums it up pretty nicely. “The NFL and its players are butting heads at seemingly every turn regarding player discipline on and off the field. TV ratings declined 8% last season and dropped again during the NFL’s opening weekend. The league’s image is taking a hit from the long-term health problems of players, and some fans are getting turned off by the gladiatorial nature of the sport. Yet for all the bad press surrounding the NFL, the league remains a financial juggernaut.”
All in all, to say, “I told you so!” is ridiculously premature.
Victor Matheson
@JPL: The data show a clear drop in youth football participation, but depending on the data you look at, there are similar or even larger drops in tons of other sports, so it is hard to tell if this is football itself or some other factor.
BTW, I am not an NFL or football apologist here, just a simple sports economist. I think what they are doing to Kaepernick is terrible. But it is not clear at all that this sort of heavy-handed authoritarianism will be significantly detrimental to the sport.
Ohio Mom
As the mother of an autistic young man, I am well acquainted with extinction bursts when teaching/insisting upon new behaviors (I hate the word “behavior” almost as much as I hate the word “compliance” but that is the state of the art’s jargon).
They seem like “bursts” because of their sudden, big and loud starts, but experience has taught me that they usually don’t dissipate as quickly as the word “burst” might imply.
They have a tendency to turn into long slogs. Patience and persistence are key.
grandpa john
@Victor Matheson: One factor, the introduction of new sports that allow the participation of people without having to be freaks of nature. Here in the south for example , the tremendous growth of Soccer at all levels. Growing up in the 40’s and 50’s hardly anyone even knew what soccer was, Now it is played at all levels here even high school and recreational programs
Victor Matheson
@grandpa john: Yup, biggest (although biggest my be a stretch for a 5’7″ guy like me) soccer fan in the world here. Played since age 5, a rarity back in my day. And I refereed in MLS and continue to officiate games at the D1 college level. The two things I love about the game is its truly international appeal and the fact that the best players in the world can actually look like normal human beings. Where else would you see the US playing competitive matches against teams from every other continent? And what other sport would the best player on the planet be 5’7″? (I’m talking about Messi, not me…)
oaguabonita
@NobodySpecial:”If more than a handful do” come out? Or “If more than a handful do” “elect not to come out”?
J R in WV
@JPL:
It was good that it was a completely empty parking lot because it looked to me like 6 cruisers roared in, including two ranking officers, which was needed to tase the bro, who was arrested, taken to the police station, and written a single parking ticket. After all that abuse they couldn’t drum up any charges, because he just stood there, didn’t say anything “abusive” to the bigoted violent hateful cops.
gratuitous
If the NFL is losing revenue, I’d say it’s nearly as likely to be because some people have concluded that football is a blood sport, not because of any trumped-up nontroversy over flags or anthems or whatever.
I was a football fan for nearly 50 years, but when the study came out last summer, the post-mortems on player brains, and all but one of them showed signs of CTE, I couldn’t get past that. I’d overlooked for decades the players who had cut their lives short by juicing, or who had incinerated their post-career lives with uncontrollable rage and violence. I had let it slide, seeing players age while in excruciating pain, hobbling on destroyed knees or confined to wheelchairs. It was just the breaks of the game when a player was paralyzed or had some other career ending injury.
No more, though. That study came out, and I thought to myself (at long last), “I’m watching young men grind up their brains for my entertainment.” Yeah, I missed the game in September and October, but as the season wore on, I missed it less and less. I don’t think I’ll have any difficulty come autumn in avoiding football, despite its near ubiquity, which will doubtless be enhanced by legalized gambling.
I don’t think I’m alone in making a new choice to spend my leisure time or entertainment dollar on something other than football. I cordially invite the NFL to go the way of the dinosaur or boxing.
The Moar You Know
It’s a goddamn shame I already stopped watching the NFL when they signed dog murderer Michael Vick the day he got out of prison, because I’d like to be able to boycott them now.
artem1s
@SectionH:
Certainly possible. But it’s more likely the GOP lickspittles will eat their own grandmothers to get a shot at the number 2 seat. No more ‘next in line’ tradition for the deplorables. Whichever toady can cozy up to Dolt and make him feel like a real man, will get the job until he gets Scaramucchi’d. I could see it taking several nominees getting chosen and then ‘fired’ before they even got to confirmation hearings. And the biggest lickspittle of them all would be sitting in the Speaker’s seat ready to take over if Dolt keeled over of a Big Mac Attack before November or a new VP rolls around.
If Pence was impeached first, the chaos would multiply fractally.
artem1s
The Yooogest irony in all of this sports nationalism is that the thing the players are really terrified of is that the next war will result in a complete suspension of their particular game and they will all be subject to a draft into the military everyone pretends to honor, but has absolutely no intention of ever joining. Only mooks, the poors, and losers have to join the military to get by. Real men stay home and fight the good fight against herpes and bone spurs.