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NFL approves new policy for National Anthem.

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http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/23593960/nfl-hold-formal-anthem-policy-vote

Sources: NFL didn't hold formal vote before passing anthem policy

The NFL did not hold an official vote when it passed the new anthem resolution taking effect this season, sources told ESPN's Seth Wickersham.

Sources said league executives polled owners and knew how they would vote but didn't hold an official tally, which is atypical for a major resolution.

The new national anthem policy requires players to stand if they are on the field during the performance but gives them the option to remain in the locker room if they prefer. The policy subjects teams to a fine if a player or other team personnel do not show respect for the anthem. That includes any attempt to sit or kneel, as dozens of players have done during the past two seasons to protest racial inequality and police brutality.

Teams will also have the option to fine any team personnel, including players.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the vote was "unanimous" among owners, although San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York said he abstained. Sources told Wickersham that Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis also abstained from voting.

Reached by ESPN, the NFL declined to comment on the voting process.

Wednesday's decision drew praise from President Donald Trump, who told "Fox & Friends" that the NFL was "doing the right thing."

The anthem policy will be part of the NFL's game operations manual and thus not subject to collective bargaining. The NFL Players Association said in a statement that it will review the policy and "challenge any aspect" that is inconsistent with the CBA.
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El-P: Run the Jewels Rejected NFL’s Super Bowl Song Placement Offer “Because Fuck Them”

Calls the NFL “a private, racist and for-profit company masquerading as a non-profit”

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Run the Jewels’ El-P has criticized the NFL, telling the story of how the organization approached the rap duo to ask for the rights to their song “Legend Has It” to play during the Super Bowl. “We said no because fuck them,” he wrote. “They operate like they're an indispensable public utility. They aren't. They are gone with the flip of a channel.”

El-P continued, “And just in case anyone is wondering how much the NFL wanted to pay us for using ‘Legend Has It,’ that would be zero dollars and the strong suggestion that we take them up on the opportunity to enrich a private, racist and for-profit company masquerading as a non profit. Blow me.”





Yesterday, it was announced that the league would fine players that kneeledduring the pre-game National Anthem, a policy move that won praise from Donald Trump.

https://pitchfork.com/news/el-p-run...-bowl-song-placement-offer-because-fuck-them/
 
dontdiedontkillanyone said:
El-P: Run the Jewels Rejected NFL’s Super Bowl Song Placement Offer “Because Fuck Them”

Calls the NFL “a private, racist and for-profit company masquerading as a non-profit”

El-P.png


Run the Jewels’ El-P has criticized the NFL, telling the story of how the organization approached the rap duo to ask for the rights to their song “Legend Has It” to play during the Super Bowl. “We said no because fuck them,” he wrote. “They operate like they're an indispensable public utility. They aren't. They are gone with the flip of a channel.”

El-P continued, “And just in case anyone is wondering how much the NFL wanted to pay us for using ‘Legend Has It,’ that would be zero dollars and the strong suggestion that we take them up on the opportunity to enrich a private, racist and for-profit company masquerading as a non profit. Blow me.”





Yesterday, it was announced that the league would fine players that kneeledduring the pre-game National Anthem, a policy move that won praise from Donald Trump.

https://pitchfork.com/news/el-p-run...-bowl-song-placement-offer-because-fuck-them/
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Good for RTJ.....also, due to the this year's Super Bowl being held in Atlanta, I wonder if any black entertainers take the same stance if approached by the NFL for performing at the halftime show, pregame shows, etc.
 
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...nald-trump-national-anthem-protest/642649002/

Seahawks' Doug Baldwin: President Trump is 'an idiot, plain and simple'

Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin ripped into President Trump for comments made earlier Thursday in which he said players who protest social inequality during the playing of the national anthem “maybe … shouldn’t be in the country.”

“He’s an idiot, plain and simple,” Baldwin said Thursday in a news conference. “I mean, listen, I respect the man because he’s a human being, first and foremost. But he’s being more divisive, which is not surprising. It is what it is.

"But for him to say anybody who doesn’t follow his viewpoints, or his constituent’s viewpoints should be kicked out of the country, it’s just not very empathetic. It’s not very American-like, to me. It’s not very patriotic. It’s not what this country was founded upon. So it’s kind of ironic to me that the President of the United States is contradicting what our country is really built on.”
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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2777523-scared-nfl-makes-epic-mistake-with-anthem-policy

Scared NFL Makes Epic Mistake with Anthem Policy

The NFL has gotten things wrong before, but in the recent history of this league, it has gotten fewer things more horribly, disgracefully, stupidly, terribly wrong than what it decided to do Wednesday in trying to half-heartedly stop players from protesting during the national anthem.

In a statement released by the league, team owners decided that starting this season, players can stay in the locker room during the anthem. If players take a knee to protest, say, unarmed black and brown people being unjustly shot by law enforcement, commissioner Roger Goodell can potentially fine both teams and players.

Essentially, the league is trying to shove the protests out of sight by putting them in the locker room. And by fining players who want to publicly protest, it is also trying to make this a financial decision for players.

"We want people to be respectful of the national anthem," Goodell said in a press conference. "We want people to stand—that's all personnel—and make sure they treat this moment in a respectful fashion. That's something we think we owe. [But] we were also very sensitive to give players choices."

But as protesters like Colin Kaepernick (who, along with Eric Reid, started the protests) have said, they are not protesting the anthem or the military; they are using the anthem to bring attention to racial injustice and the issue of police abuse of black and brown citizens.

Now, because of the NFL's ineptitude, the anthem controversy will be around a long time, and it will be messy, and ugly, and divisive. The union and the league will likely go to war, and swaths of America will fight over it.

Within hours of the league's announcement, the NFLPA had fired back

Why is the NFL handling this so poorly, crafting a policy based on fear, not practicality? The answer remains clear, according to a variety of league sources: an intense fear of President Donald Trump.

This is a fact. This is the truth. This is the core basis for the NFL's decision. This has been told to me before, and it was reiterated by several people Wednesday.

"Our league," one team official said, "is f--king terrified of Trump. We're scared of him."

What does the NFL fear? It fears boycotts of games. It fears people not watching its product on television. It fears people not buying its products.

There is, however, no proof that any of this would happen.

In fact, the NFL recently signed a streaming deal with Verizon for $2 billion. The NFL's bottom line remains fat and happy.

The NFL's actions reflect something scary about America now. Everything is transactional. Social justice. The plight of civil rights of certain American citizens. All of it is secondary to money, and fear of a boorish president.

After all, most teams won't be shutting down their concession stands (aside from the Niners) as the anthem plays.

Yet that fear of losing money thanks to an angry fanbase, stirred up by the president and his supporters, clearly drove this decision.

And it didn't have to. Almost no one was talking about the protests any longer. Now, we will be, and we will continue to do so for months, if not longer.

In its statement on the new rules, the league said:In its statement on the new rules, the league said:



Pay close attention to No. 6. It seems the league not only can fine teams, but since players count as "league personnel," it can also fine individuals.

More troubling, who decides what constitutes disrespect of the anthem? Steelers owner Art Rooney told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that raising a fist, or even linking arms, during the anthem constitutes a lack of respect. That is patently absurd.

The NFL could have solved this issue by doing nothing. Again, the issue had died down.

Then, if players continued to kneel, the league could have used its incredible reach—and marketing ability—to launch a campaign fully explaining what the players were doing and why

If there's one thing I've learned about the NFL, it is this: The league is never shy about defending itself. But on this issue, it is, and it's because of Trump and the media entities that openly support him.

One thing all of us should try to remember is why, in the first place, players like Kaepernick and others decided to kneel or raise a fist.

It's because of people like Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown, who was tased during a seemingly minor parking problem. Or Stephon Clark, who was shot by Sacramento police in his backyard while only holding a cellphone. Or Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Or an unarmed man in Miami, hands up, comforting an autistic man, only to be shot by police. There is a legion of others.

In September, during a speech in Alabama, Trump called NFL players sons of bitches over their protests. This incensed players, but it frightened owners and the league office, according to multiple sources at the time. A feeling grew among owners that the attacks on the NFL from Trump would never subside.

Now, months later, the NFL has caved to fear and ugliness in what is now one of the lowest points in NFL history.
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ests-national-anthem-roger-goodell/647359002/

Harry Edwards: NFL's failure to learn from history on protests will prove costly


It would be a shock if Harry Edwards were not appalled by the revised national anthem policy that NFL owners pushed through this week with hopes of squashing player protests.

Of course, Edwards, with undoubtedly the most powerful voice for more than a half-century linking sports and society, is livid.

“This is the dumbest move possible,” Edwards told USA TODAY Sports of the policy, which mandates players who choose to be on the sideline stand during the anthem. “They put the protest movement on blast. They just created a bigger stage than ever.”

Edwards should know. Fifty years ago, he was in the midst of organizing what was then considered a radical movement, the Olympic Project for Human Rights. That effort fell short of the initial goal of a boycott of the 1968 Olympics by African-American athletes, but it raised consciousness about societal injustices – much like Colin Kaepernick in 2016 when he kneeled during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner – and led to the iconic image from Mexico City when sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised black-gloved fists while on the podium during the anthem.

“It’s almost like ’68 has come back through the mirror, including the same issues, including police killings of African-Americans,” Edwards compared.

As Kaepernick contemplated and carried out his protests nearly two years ago – which led to him remaining unsigned since the end of the 2016 season and his subsequent pursuit of a pending collusion grievance against the NFL – Edwards consulted the quarterback. He has long been engaged with 49ers ownership that is clearly among the most progressive in the NFL (CEO Jed York declared that the team intended to pause concession stand operations and other money making ventures during the anthem). And as the crisis has escalated with the league embroiled in politics, he’s given advice to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The recommendations to Goodell, outlined in a letter that Edwards shared with USA TODAY Sports, involved three key themes that are boiled down as such:

• Work in collaboration with the players in addressing the issues that fuel the protests, rather than focusing on retribution and punishment.

• Take a long-term view, recognizing that the movement could coalesce into another wave of athlete activism.

• Realize that retaliation would turn protesting players into martyrs while positioning the league as an entity opposing the merits of the issues that are of concern to the players.

While the NFL has taken steps to back some of the efforts of players, most notably with a matching funds partnership with the Players Coalition, the anthem policy is anything but supportive. The new policy instead echoes themes espoused by President Trump, who has attacked the league with vitriolic rhetoric. After declaring last fall that the NFL should “get that son of a (expletive) off the field right now” as a means for dealing with players who engage in peaceful protests, Trump maintained to Fox & Friends on Thursday that protesting players maybe "shouldn’t even be in the country.”

It doesn’t surprise Edwards that in response to the NFL’s policy – and Trump’s latest salvo – players have pushed back, setting the stage for the return of the controversy the league wanted to go away.

“They took a movement that was in decline and have resurrected it, pumped it up with adrenaline and made it a front-page story,” Edwards said. “And you’ve got you-know-who talking about players ought to leave the country.”

Edwards is incensed that the narrative has been redirected from the original protest motivations – police brutality and social injustices challenging African-Americans and other people of color – to a debate about honoring the flag and respect for the U.S. Armed Forces.

“I don’t know of a single athlete who is trying to insult the soldiers or the flag,” Edwards said. “But because we’re perceived to not have the credibility to speak to our own motivations and interests, it has come to this.”

He went on to blast NFL owners for allowing Trump to define patriotism as it relates to the anthem.

“But that’s where we are as a country,” Edwards said.

Strikingly, Edwards remains supportive of Goodell. He maintains that the commissioner’s role inherently involves taking the heat for the decisions of his bosses – the owners of the 32 teams.

“I feel for Roger, because I know where his heart it,” Edwards said. “But I guess that’s where the $44 million (estimate for his peak of his annual earnings during his tenure) comes in.”

Edwards said it harms the “tremendous effort” that Goodell demonstrated in striking an ongoing agreement with the Players Coalition to pursue social justice and other initiatives, which he feels is the model for moving from “protests to progress.”

Now Edwards insists that with African-Americans representing the overwhelming majority of protesting players, the racial overtones of the policy positioned the NFL as an institution existing in what he calls a “white space” in America.

“You scratch your head and wonder: ‘Are they really this racist? This stupid? What’s driving this?’ “ Edwards said. “I think that at a very fundamental level, we are still battling the residuals of 400 years of slavery. A lot of the owners think they own the players. They own the franchise.”

And a league at the center of societal debate like never before.
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StringerBell said:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ests-national-anthem-roger-goodell/647359002/
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Eh. I do agree this new rule will end up makin the players martyrs. But will it "prove costly"? I doubt it. imo most white ppl believe players should stand for the anthem and they see kneeling as disrespect n they think players should "protest on their own time." and trump don't give a fuck, he gone keep talkin shit at rallies n on twitter. so he will keep fanning the flames. so if the paying customers want the players to stand, the potus thinks "they should stand or get out the country." the players are basically in a no win situation. But power to the ppl, fuck trump.
 
They could say fuck it and take a stance.. i disagree also i doubt there is going to be dire consequences because not enought of the player will give enough of a fuck,....kinda like last season
 
Fox News is steadily going hard in the paint about the NFL protests........ironically, if their viewers tuned out the NFL like Trump and other Fox News pundits have suggested, it would have a negative impact on the profits / ratings from Fox Sports
 
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