Thursday night marked the first slate of NFL preseason games for the 2018 season — and the national anthem protests were as prevalent as ever.
For the third straight season, the league had players from an array of teams who opted to do things other than stand at attention with their hand over their heart during the anthem. Players knelt, they stayed in the locker room, and some raised their fists. Sure, these players may feel rebellious and like they are doing something positive for society, but all they are really doing is giving President Trump a nice political present.
These national anthem protests have been going on since Colin Kaepernick started the trend at the beginning of the 2016 NFL season, and where has it gotten anyone? Not much of anywhere, really. Not respecting the national anthem does not accomplish anything; it’s a vapid gesture that the public doesn’t really like.
Back in February, a Washington Post survey found that 53 percent of Americans believe it is “never appropriate” to kneel during the national anthem, compared to 42 percent who said under the right circumstances they’d be OK with it. Plus, Remington Research Group released a survey last September which found that 64 percent of Americans thought players should be standing for the national anthem under these circumstances.
That said, the majority of Americans are actually on Trump’s side on this one. While his rhetoric on the situation has been tough at times, he is speaking in a way that resonates with more people than not.
On Friday morning, Trump weighed in on the Thursday night kneeling via Twitter and wrote,
The NFL players are at it again – taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their “outrage” at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018
…..Be happy, be cool! A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018
The players certainly gave Trump a chance to express his nationalism and patriotism by siding against them. Not to mention their distaste for the president may look a bit hypocritical this week as he is pushing for prison reform, which would help the mass incarceration the players want to see eliminated. In fact, this is something NFL players have lobbied for (this year and last year). Maybe they should focus on more causes like that during their time off, and actually try to work with the president who has the same goal as them in this regard. Instead, they choose to kneel and irk millions, including Trump.
It’s still unclear what the official national anthem policy in the NFL will be this season as the NFLPA is currently negotiating with the league. However, what is clear is that if they continue to protest, the players will be handing Trump an easy winning issue just several weeks away from the November midterm elections.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelancer writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
