National Football League players protest injustice

This isn’t the first time players have taken a knee in IL high school football.

Ever since Trump issued those scathing remarks against Kaepernick, various National Football League players, NBA stars, and other prominent figures have criticized the president for using polarizing and divisive rhetoric against the player.

President Trump has stated that anyone who protests during the national anthem in the NFL should be fired, and that the NFL should make rules prohibiting any forms of demonstration during the anthem.

Advertising during the 2018 season will be considered at a later date, he said. Trump had, of course, called on owners to fire any “son of a bitch” who knelt during the anthem. The following day, teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys all had players kneeling or locking arms during the national anthem to show solidarity with their team and the NFL. After all, this is a free country and we have freedom of speech and the freedom to protest.

Most of Maine East’s varsity football players, but not all, took a knee during the anthem before Thursday’s game at Maine West.

Wake up America, the flag stands for America. We need to come together as a whole, across the nation, and address these issues head on, because that’s the only way we will ever see this country move forward.

Just last Sunday, I was sitting on my bed – chips and other assorted snacks at the ready – eagerly waiting for my Miami Dolphins to take on the New Orleans Saints in London. Everything he does, he does as the President of the United States.

“I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed”, Kapernick said in an article on SBNation.com.

It’s not a display of disrespect to veterans, those who now serve, or the symbol of the American flag. It should never be that way. They are well within their rights, therefore the President has no authority to tell them that they can not kneel. You can not logically frame this as a protest of systemic injustice and police misconduct. The American flag represents those who have fallen in our defense, but it also represents our history and all that our country stands for.

But, this past weekend, we saw a lot more go on around the NFL.

Trump and his supporters have argued that the protests are unpatriotic and disrespectful to those who have served in the military, while supporters of the movement have argued the protests are simply a way of peacefully expressing opinion and that players who kneel are exercising their First Amendment rights.

After attending 4-5 Constitution Week events in Grand Lake recently, my initial impressions from the past several years have been confirmed. He uses blanket statements like “respect our country” or “respect our flag” while deflecting the true intent of the protest. These players are not hurting anyone, nor are they forcing someone to do something that they don’t want, they are publically protesting something they believe in. We should assume Trump’s words and actions reflect what he truly believes.

Players want to be seen and heard as they protest for equality, but the stage on which they are doing so is not correct.

“Citizens have fought and died for, among other things, our right not to stand during the national anthem”.

The players are disrespecting the troops who have fought and now are fighting for that player’s right to peacefully protest.

And before you, dear readers, blow up my Facebook or Twitter with cries of anger, let me make something clear: I love protest.

Kneeling during the national anthem isn’t going to unite people for a cause.

“Today”, the 49ers said, “our team chose to publicly display our unity in a new way and, in turn, urge others [to] do the same”. Players can do that in their free time. In 1961, Russell and his black teammates were refused service in a Lexington, Kentucky restaurant, so they boycotted the game.

According to an National Football League memo from Brian Rolapp and Howard Katz, the NFL’s viewership through the first four weeks is down by 11 percent. For this reason, it seems that just as the Black Power protest was rooted in defending against racism, the response was rooted in racism itself.

Erasing Kaepernick’s image from media portrayals of this protest ignores that crucial point. “Any “rights” they have are based on their contracts and employment law”, she added, responding to a claim from future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady, who called the protests “part of our democracy”.