[Beren]

Totally agree!

[Drlee]

Wow. So all of a sudden the National Anthem is about the military? I get the words. Have sung them many times.

Of course the words to our national anthem are about war. In a way that is sad. But here is the thing Colonel. Did you know that the Army paid the NFL for their touching hometown heroes bullshit? About 4 million dollars. You do know Marine Colonel that these are not spontaneous outpourings of love and adoration but rather staged commercials with a very specific purpose. You do know that when the jet flies over it is not a nice thing done by the local Air Force Base but rather a paid advert. You did know that colonel. You didn't?

They make minimum wage and spend months and years away from their families. They don’t do it for an hour on Sunday. They do it 24/7 often with lead, not footballs, coming in their direction. They watch their brothers carted off in pieces not on a gurney to get their knee iced. They don’t even have ice! Many don’t have legs or arms.

Well it is irrelevant but none of them "make minimum wage". They make far more. I get your overheated rhetoric. But colonel. Did you ask yourself why we are there? Why are out soldiers and marines getting shot up? Do the reasons pass muster with you? Do you believe that what we are doing over there is worth the sacrifice of our service men and women not to mention their families? Do they have the best leadership? Did YOU vote for the best commander and chief? I am not expressing my opinion colonel, I am asking yours.

Every time a right winger gets behind the 8 ball they bring up veterans. I was one for 20 years and three days. Here is my side of it Colonel.

I did not stand for my country to see its citizens abused by the police in violation of their civil rights. I took this oath several times:

I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

When someone denies my fellow citizen his/her civil rights through brutality whether under the cover of authority or not they are an insult to our troops and the sacrifice they make. When an unarmed veteran is shot by the police it is an affront to everyone who served. So Colonel, try taking care of your troops for a change. Make certain that when they are home they do not need to fear the local police.

There is a side of this that does not get enough emphasis. Bad cops are really rare. Really rare. Bad training is less rare. I have known a shit ton of cops in my day and I can honestly say that I have never heard a racist word from any of them. So I do not think this is often about deliberate racism. I think it is about poor training and poor leadership. Any veteran knows that when you arm yourself the rules change. Any veteran knows what the rules of engagement are and that they are not to be violated. Any veteran knows that they are responsible for training their subordinates and for their actions in combat.

Then when they get home after serving honorably. Do they have equal opportunity to succeed? Are they treated with respect by their communities? Or are they just dumped back into the "enhanced enforcement areas" from whence they came?

The NFL needs to get its collective head out of its ass. It needs to keep these pituitary cases off of the field until after the anthem, when it is time for them to go to work. They can say whatever they want on their own time. So stop staging bullshit veteran events, stop trying to cash in on the sacrifice of our service people with your PR campaigns and tell your employees to go to work and play the football game. If they want to be politicians they can do it off of the clock.

[Stormsmith]

Waiting patiently for Maz, Hindsite, and Other “free-speech” advocates to strongly condemn Trump for trying to end freedom of speech in the NFL.

When they do show, remind them that the Supreme Court gave folks the right to burn the flag. This included Antonio Scalia. I hardly think this situation is anything other than a respectful appeal for justice for all, and that would include any visible minority service persons.


[url]en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Johnson[/url]

[Kaiserschmarrn]

It's probably one of the most stupid ideas for players, clubs or sports organisations to politicise sports.

Trump vs. Tattooed Millionaires

The president has baited professional athletes into throwing a tantrum.

Social media exploded this weekend after President Trump, at a rally in Alabama, urged NFL owners to “fire” players who refuse to stand for the national anthem before games. He later exhorted fans to boycott the league until players stopped “disrespecting Flag and Country.” NFL running back LeSean “Shady” McCoy called Trump an “asshole,” and NBA superstar LeBron James called the president a “bum.” After Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry said that he was considering not attending an event at the White House, Trump disinvited the whole team.

Though players, sportswriters, and even NFL owners seemed shocked that Trump would respond so bluntly to criticism of him and to the increasing politicization of sports, the president’s remarks were predictable, something that those who elected him last November would expect of the man who has already broken more conventions than most of his recent predecessors combined. You don’t have to be living in flyover country to know, moreover, that to some fans of the NFL and NBA who are also Trump voters, it’s McCoy and other players who are the a-holes.

It’s often said that trends in professional sports mirror the larger society, and certainly the growing distance between increasingly rich players—“tattooed millionaires,” to some—and their fans reflects the same kind of division that drove millions of blue-collar voters to Trump. Once upon a time, professional athletes not only came out of working-class, scrappy neighborhoods, but they also pretty much stayed working class their entire lives. Until as recently as the late 1960s, NFL lineman worked construction or loaded trucks in the offseason to pay their bills. Players with a college degree traded on their celebrity status to sell stocks or insurance. (The policy my mother cashed in when my father died was sold to him in the early 1960s by a retired New York Giants player). Many of today’s players, by contrast, live in a world of ostentatious homes, fast cars, and red-carpet celebrity appearances, far from the struggles of those whose support pays their salaries. These players have deemed themselves important enough to impose their political views on ordinary fans watching sports as a respite from life’s daily grind.

The NFL is the logical battleground for Trump’s latest counterattack. The league’s fans are more likely to lean conservative than fans of other leagues, and the sportswriter Jason Whitlock has described the league itself as a conservative institution, though one that has “made millionaires out of thousands of black men.” The anthem protests, started last season by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, came about at the same time that NFL ratings were declining. Though the league at first discounted any relationship between the ratings and the controversy, subsequent studies have confirmed that the protests have in fact in driven away viewers who find the posturing tasteless. That should be no surprise to Giants owner John Mara, who observed that when his team was considering signing Kaepernick, fans were vocally opposed: “All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about that issue: ‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game,’” Mara said. Over the weekend, Mara called Trump’s remarks “divisive,” but given what Mara himself has seen and heard over the last year, what did he expect?

Until just a few years ago, the NFL, a quasi-sacred institution upholding “America’s Game,” seemed invulnerable to criticism. Then health concerns concerning chronic traumatic encephalopathy emerged, making the league the target of doctors and trial lawyers, who see the rich league as an easy target. Every few months more troubling news emerges, including the recent revelation that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide while serving life in prison for murder, was suffering from an extreme case of neurodegenerative brain disease—likely caused by playing football—that might have contributed to his violent behavior. In the midst of this growing existential threat, with participation in youth football diminishing, the league’s players courted more controversy by responding to Trump with widespread demonstrations on Sunday—including whole teams protesting during the national anthem. (One notable exception was Steelers player Alejandro Villanueva, a former Army Ranger, who came out of the locker room and stood alone for the anthem.) If players and officials think Trump will retreat on this issue, they haven’t been paying attention. And if they believe that their world is impervious, they’ve forgotten that America has had, over the last 75 years, several different favorite sports—from boxing to baseball—that eventually gave way.

Players, sportswriters, and maybe even the owners seem to think that fans will find it impossible to give up football on Sundays in the fall. It’s not. A few years ago, I finally stopped buying the season tickets to the Giants that my father had first purchased 50 years ago and rebought every subsequent year. It was painless and a long time coming; I now spend fall weekends largely watching amateur youth sports from the sidelines. It’s an exhilarating experience, free from egotistical victory dances and other forms of inane exhibitionism, including juvenile posturing from adults that masquerades as deep social commentary.

[blackjack21]

Of course Trump is pro-head trauma. It's the only way he can get people stupid enough to support him.

You obviously completely missed the point. Many of the people with the head trauma are the ones protesting, or was that not obvious to you?

Trump is absolutely right, these players not respecting the flag and our country should be held accountable. The NFL is losing ratings, and the owners should really put the hammer down against these traitorous scum.

Well, it seems like some of the owners are behind this. Jimmy Jones took a knee with his players. That will be interesting to watch what happens. Some Texans take some of that stuff very personally, and they aren't going to like it. It's going to cost the NFL, not Trump.

As far as player safety, that is an absurd idea the game of football is about violence but Mommy culture needs to castrate all entertainment. whats next boxing where punching is illegal?

This is not about logic. This is evidence that Obama was a creation, and so are these controversies. Boxing is a sport in which the objective is to knock the other guy unconscious. Football is not. However, football is (and soon was) the most popular sport in the US. The thinking behind these political types is that we are a captive audience. However, that isn't proving to be the case. Watch what happens to Dallas Cowboys ratings. This will be interesting to see. I'm particularly interested if fans boycott the Thanksgiving Cowboys game.

Rush Limbaugh says there is no way Trump can lose this one. I think he's right. I don't think the NFL or people like Jerry Jones really get it.

Poor Donald got his panties all tied in a knot. When Steve Curry "hesitated" to make a trip to the White House (he said he wasn't going) to suck up to the Great Man, the Great Man "withdrew" his invitation. He may be a jerk but he sure is entertaining .

I think this story is going to be around for awhile. Trump is taking a side with huge numbers of Americans who don't go along with media programming. There are Americans who believe whatever they believe, because somebody they like believes it. Trump is ripping the NFL fan base from the NFL and they are falling for it. This is a business.

Donald is obviously confusing jingoism for patriotism.

You guys missed that when he ran for president too. The point is that Donald Trump--like Rush Limbaugh--gets huge ratings for doing nothing more than saying what people already think, but are mostly prevented from saying on major media outlets due to political correctness. The NFL doubling down on this isn't going to stop Trump. It's going to cost them huge amounts of money and ratings.

There’s No Way Trump Loses NFL Battle

RUSH: Here’s the AP. The AP: “President’s Criticism Sparked More Protests at NFL Games.” This is how out of touch, the media and everybody in the NFL just went to town on this. They promoted this, because the objective — for those of you tuning in today who are not politically oriented and not steeped in a daily dose of political news, the objective in all of this, after Trump’s comments on Friday, the objective is to separate Trump’s voters from Trump.

See? You guys straight up don't get it again. Trump supporters know they are being manipulated. However, these protesters aren't defying Trump. They are defying the United States and the flag. This is not going to hurt Trump at all. They may try to sell you that idea with some jerry-rigged polls. However, they aren't going to win this round.

So Trump goes to his Alabama rally on Friday night and says what he says, and the media assumes as they always do and the left assumes as they always do that a vast majority of America is righteously offended, righteously indignant, and righteously will not tolerate what the president said. And they go to town reporting it gleefully as though this is it, the president’s done it now, he’s finally shot himself in the foot. And then they realize that the president’s supporters on backing him and agree with him.

And it happens over and over. People who are making high 6 and low 7 figure sums advising people are falling for this losing gambit every single time, and they are amazed that they lose.

THE PRESIDENT: The NFL ratings are town massively. Massively. The number one reason happens to be that they like watching what’s happening with yours truly. Because you know, today, if you hit too hard, right? They hit too hard, 15 yards, throw him out of the game. They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes, two guys just really, beautiful tackle, boom, 15 yards, the referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home, she’s so proud of him. They’re ruining the game! Right?

See? Trump was watching the game too, and had the same reaction I did. I even booed when they did the same thing to the Broncos, and I hate the Broncos. Trump is totally in sync with football fans..

The NFL has at least one player that loves his flag and the nation it represents and has the courage to stand for it: Alejandro Villanueva only Steelers player to appear for national anthem

It's awesome. Now the act of courage is being a patriot and not a shit bag.

Apparently the coach didn't reckon with an Army veteran. I checked out the Steelers Facebook page, and there are a lot of unhappy fans and now-former fans praising Villanueva and condemning the rest of the team and the NFL as a whole. It'll be interesting to see if our Daily Prophets make anything of this. I doubt it, though, Villanueva has the wrong name, it goes against their meme that only ignorant, bigoted rednecks still love the flag.

Trump got a bigger chunk of the Hispanic vote than Romney. I guarantee that they flat out do not understand the support of Villaneuva and the contempt for the rest of the Steelers organization. This is as amazing to me as the day Trump announced for president. It's amazing to me how hermetically sealed leftists are from the rest of the country.

The nation can be glad now that the issue has been elevated from colonel to commander in chief by Trump. A new high in American politics when the president deals with NFL issues.

It is so awesome that you don't get it. This is what made 2016 such an amazing political year. Some people don't like the commotion, but on substance they are with Trump.

Waiting patiently for Maz, Hindsite, and Other “free-speech” advocates to strongly condemn Trump for trying to end freedom of speech in the NFL.

Oh c'mon. You guys thought it was just great when James Damore was fired. You don't have political speech on the job. Many of you went to great lengths to argue that bourgeois people are so soft that they don't expect to be fired for fireable offenses. Freedom of speech doesn't apply in the workplace. It only applies to government action.

I might be wrong but I assume the majority of the spectators come from the deplorable part of society, the part that supports President Trump. Let's see how that works out.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Trying to preach something abhorent to a captive audience is a fool's errand. It's amazing to me that they take the bait. I guarantee you that Trump is enjoying this.

Did you know that the Army paid the NFL for their touching hometown heroes bullshit?

Yes. It's all propaganda. However, it was propaganda to a willing audience. Fans did not appreciate Suzan G. Komen foundation getting football players to wear pink. I flat out refused to give a dime to breast cancer research precisely because of that. Did you know that Budweiser paid to put their signs up in those stadiums too?

About 4 million dollars. You do know Marine Colonel that these are not spontaneous outpourings of love and adoration but rather staged commercials with a very specific purpose.

Yes. We know that Drlee. It was opening day for the Raiders home game. They had three retired special forces guys parachute into the stadium. They also had three F/A-18 Hornets fly over. That's probably about $60k right there. Fans ate it up. Now, the NFL is totally fucking over one of their main sponsors. That will piss off the military, but not Congressional Democrats who think this divisiveness is great.

Well it is irrelevant but none of them "make minimum wage". They make far more.

Between 11.75 and 13.25 per hour if you assume they are only working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hell, my buddy was a master seargeant for a propulsion section, and his crews worked 16 hour days to turn F-15s around at RAF Lakenheath for duty in Iraq--it was simply too hot to do the full engine rebuilds in Kuwait. If you factor in that some of these guys are putting in 12-16 hours a day, they are getting roughly minimum wage.

When they do show, remind them that the Supreme Court gave folks the right to burn the flag.

Not at work, they didn't. The NFL has the right to burn the flag at the beginning of every football game, if that's what they want to do. I'm fine to remind them of that. I suggest that instead of performing the national anthem, they burn a flag at the beginning of every game. I love feeding cultural marxists bad medicine. The owners will totally screw themselves over with this one. This is why I love having Trump as president.

It's probably one of the most stupid ideas for players, clubs or sports organisations to politicise sports.

It is. People watch sports to forget about day-to-day life. Throwing it back in their face makes their investment in sports a negative experience. That's why ratings are plummeting. I only got 3 games this year. I'll enjoy it FWIF, but the Raiders are going to move to Las Vegas. Everyone says that Mark Davis is going to get taken under the bleachers and won't be an owner within 5-10 years of moving to Las Vegas. Probably true. However, I think the blowback from fans on this is going to be huge. They'll stick with Trump to a significant degree.

[The Immortal Goon]

Oh c'mon. You guys thought it was just great when James Damore was fired. You don't have political speech on the job. Many of you went to great lengths to argue that bourgeois people are so soft that they don't expect to be fired for fireable offenses. Freedom of speech doesn't apply in the workplace. It only applies to government action.

I never argued that bourgeois conceptions of free speech were an actual thing. Your side did. I pointed out the absurdity of such a notion, your side spent hundreds of pages defending it. I accused all of ye of being hypocrites that selectively decided what merits were applied in what situations. Your side denied it.

So now here we are, your side whining that I mentioned your values were shit while at the same time, proclaiming them as shit.

[Stormsmith]

@blackjack21 Show me were it's illegal to mount a silent protest during a pregame ceremony.

[Drlee]

It is probably one of the most stupid ideas for players, clubs or sports organisations to politicise sports.

It sure is. There is absolutely no upside.

At the end of the day these teams are businesses. Toys for rich people certainly but they still have to pay the freight. Imagine the uproar if McDonald's people did these protests. I am all for the players using their notoriety to further their political beliefs. Nothing more American than that. But on their own time. And then only with a modicum of discretion.

A personal experience.

Some time ago I was contemplating hiring a consultant to work with me in my consulting business. I had my eye on one guy who seemed to fit the bill. But when I looked at his facebook page (he friended me) I was astonished. It does not matter which side of the political spectrum he was on but suffice it to say that I could not have someone posting such divisive and inflammatory ideas and opinions and then representing my company to people who would certainly disagree. So I passed on him.

What would I have done if I discovered his behavior after I hired him? Probably let him go. Is this counter to the notion of free speech? IT sure is. But here is the thing.

Once upon a time, one's political opinions had little scope. A few friends and family knew what we thought politically but that was about it. When I was young is was thought rude to talk politics, sex and money in polite society. Not today. A great many people feel compelled to post their deepest political and religious beliefs on social media. And under their real names. It is one thing to post more or less anonymously here but deliberately and publicly under one's own name? Outrageous. And not without consequences as witness my nearly employee.

So I am all for free speech. At appropriate times, appropriate places and in appropriate ways. But frankly when I turn on the golf tournament for a couple of hours of pastoral bliss I do not want to see some shit head foisting his political views on me between holes.

@Blackjack21. I agree with Limbaugh on this. I think Trump is winning on points. The people he wishes to impress are impressed. The rest of them would hate him if he petted a puppy.

Between 11.75 and 13.25 per hour if you assume they are only working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hell, my buddy was a master seargeant for a propulsion section, and his crews worked 16 hour days to turn F-15s around at RAF Lakenheath for duty in Iraq--it was simply too hot to do the full engine rebuilds in Kuwait. If you factor in that some of these guys are putting in 12-16 hours a day, they are getting roughly minimum wage.

You are just absurdly off on this. Service people earn FAR more than that. How do I know? I was one. I am not buying the hours a day that SOME service people work argument. Most would be considered salary management in private industry. And even if they were not. They get free health care. Free dental care. Free retirement after 20 years. Your master sergeant's retirement alone is work over $150K per year if he had to fund his own retirement account to equal his 20 year retirement. Add to this his monthly pay and allowances of nearly $7K per month and he earns more than a physician does. Some new, single service people do not earn that much but career soldiers make a shitton of money. Most of them do not even know what they earn when you look at the whole package. Don't feel sorry for them when it comes to money.

Consider this. That brand new Private First Class hitting his first year in the service has the following:

Free housing. Free medical care. Free dental care. Tax free food allowance or free meals at the dining facility. (Including by the way snacks and cooked to order to-go food in most places.) He gets 30 days paid leave each year and can take it in pieces or all at once. He gets virtually free college while he is in and a boat load of money for school when he gets out. And I do mean a boat load. (Think $1857.00 per month for full time.) There are a bunch of other benefits that I will ignore. So on top of this he gets minimum wage right? Wrong. I will let you figure out what the food, medical and dental care, retirement and and other shit is worth in real dollars. But his base pay without allowance is 1855.00 per month and going up rapidly as he advances. Pretty good deal considering all he has to pay from that are haircuts, shoe polish, dry cleaning and booze. No Blackjack. These guys are loaded. Not you and me loaded but by normal standards well off.

[blackjack21]

I accused all of ye of being hypocrites that selectively decided what merits were applied in what situations. Your side denied it.

I didn't say Google didn't have the right to fire James Damore. I argued whether or not they were right to fire him. All they did was prove that Damore assertions about Google itself were right, and that his other conjecture was backed by peer-reviewed science. It showed them to be callow.

@blackjack21 Show me were it's illegal to mount a silent protest during a pregame ceremony.

It's not illegal. It's not illegal to be a McDonalds cashier, and when a customer says, "I would like a #1 combo meal with cheese and a coke" to say, "Look fat ass, why not try something with fewer calories, and save yourself some money too!" It's just that you might get fired for it, because it's not in the interest of your employer's business. What Google did was not in Google's interest, as people with technical skills may not want to work in an ideological mine field. What the NFL is doing is not in its interest, as people are tuning out the game after the national anthem if the players protest.

Imagine the uproar if McDonald's people did these protests.

It scares me a little when we think exactly the same thing.

Anyway, Alejandro Villanueva--the only Pittsburg Steelers player to come out for the national anthem--is now outselling every star in the NFL. It's only been one weekend. Trump made his remarks Friday. It's Tuesday. It's happening that fast. Mike Tomlin is disappointed in Villanueva, but the country now thinks of him as a hero.

Alejandro Villanueva Gear Becomes NFL Top-Seller Overnight
It didn't even take a few days for me to be proven right on this one. Supply chain management allows you to figure this stuff out very quickly.

ESPN takes on the politics of Trump

Earlier this month, ESPN was in the middle of a political firestorm after anchor Jemele Hill tweeted that "Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists."
Conservative media outlets, including Fox News, accused ESPN of political bias. Trump jumped in to trash talk ESPN on Twitter.

ESPN is getting crushed over this type of stuff. I find it fascinating. They just don't seem to be able to stop themselves.

NASCAR Owners Side With Trump, Say They’ll Fire Drivers Who Protest National Anthem

Response to Trump Made NFL’s Roger Goodell ‘Proud of Our League’
This is one of those "win the battle, but lose the war" moments. Getting people to protest Trump at a football game is like telling half of your customers to go fuck themselves. It's just so inane.

And of course, Trump is having fun with it.

Trump lauds ‘great anger’ after some booed Dallas Cowboys for taking a knee

But Trump wrote Tuesday that the fact that the Dallas team then stood up for the national anthem represented “big progress being made.”

The president also claimed that ratings for the NFL were “way down except before game starts, when people tune in to see whether or not our country will be disrespected!”

Sure NFL. Try explaining that to your advertisers.

[Heisenberg]

Why must the national anthem be played before every single game, and why do Americans insist on making a great soppy display of devotion to "the flag" every five minutes? I'm surprised some Alabaman Baptist megapreacher hasn't gone on TV thundering about how idolatrous it all is.

[Drlee]

Why must the national anthem be played before every single game, and why do Americans insist on making a great soppy display of devotion to "the flag" every five minutes? I'm surprised some Alabaman Baptist megapreacher hasn't gone on TV thundering about how idolatrous it all is.

Oh oh. Now look what you did. Don't get them started.

The reason for the national anthem is to wrap the event in the cloak of patriotism. It begins the event with an emotional attractant that gives what is really just a game some gravitas. From an American perspective it is also the equivalent of "By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen".

The NFL has been playing its "American-ness" since realizing that it wanted to supplant Baseball as the American pastime. Think of the NFL focus grouping their mascots to see how lovable they are while still maintaining a bit of macho. Did we all know that the cheerleaders are paid little more than minimum wage? Then look at their body types and hair styling. They are aimed at a particular market segment and it is certainly not 35 year old Bryn Mawr Graduates.

These fools in the NFL have played right into Trump's hand. He is loving every minute of this. They have set their movement back years by this farce. The very people whose minds they seek to change are rallying behind the opposition all the while building Trump's cache with them.

I find it hysterically funny that somehow a bunch of NFL players have allowed President Trump to be seen as the macho man and them the cowering "liberals".

[Oxymoron]

A post that has nothing to do with the topic and is only a personal provocation is a bad look for you.

Please engage in political conversation.

-TIG Edit

[Beren]

It is so awesome that you don't get it. This is what made 2016 such an amazing political year. Some people don't like the commotion, but on substance they are with Trump.

Trump is a genius who concluded many NFL fans must be stupid monkeys and it's an ideal field to play patriot.

[Heisenberg]

Jealousy is not a good look for you.

[youtube]3gWxIfRUuhE[/youtube]
My advice: learn some real sports that are played by other countries, and you can have the national anthem when you play against them. You know, the way civilised people do it.

Calling the New England Patriots "world champions", when they play silly pretend-rugby that no one else in the world gives a damn about, is tragic.

[Oxymoron]

[youtube]3gWxIfRUuhE[/youtube]
My advice: learn some real sports that are played by other countries, and you can have the national anthem when you play against them. You know, the way civilised people do it.

Calling the New England Patriots "world champions", when they play silly pretend-rugby that no one else in the world gives a damn about, is tragic.

Why should we like your gay ass sports like Kick Ball flopping? As far as real football, New England Patriots are world champions; for the simple fact that America runs this shit and you are just along for the ride.

[Heisenberg]

Why should we like your gay ass sports like Kick Ball flopping?

Because "gay ass sports" like rugby adhere to the novel idea that the "ball-in-play" time should exceed the "advert break" time by at least an order of magnitude, and not the other way around.

[Beren]

Tuesday morning brought four more NFL-related tweets, including one in which President Donald Trump called for a “rule” forbidding players from kneeling during the anthem:

He's investing very much in it, I wonder if he means to transform into the country's chief sports bar guy or something.

[The Immortal Goon]

Why must the national anthem be played before every single game, and why do Americans insist on making a great soppy display of devotion to "the flag" every five minutes? I'm surprised some Alabaman Baptist megapreacher hasn't gone on TV thundering about how idolatrous it all is.

Becausethe Department of Defense pays for "a great soppy display of devotion to 'the flag' every five minutes?"

Some people find this offensive enough that last year the NFL returned some of the money it had been paid by the DOD. On the other hand, you have the profoundly ignorant clapping their hands because jets go WHOOOSH! and get sad if someone with a library card contextualizes their fee-fees.

Do you think Trump is a guy that likes jets go WHOOOSH!?

[Beren]

So kneeling during the anthem is just not what the government pays for.

[Finfinder]

The NFL drapes itself in the flag, just look at their logo, they are to blame for miss managing this. The divide in our county is because politics has become entertainment, and it has moved into sports. The NFL is to blame because they market themselves (football) as a patriotic television show. Made a huge mistake aligning themselves with the ultra left social justice warriors ESPN.

BTW rugby? what the hell is a scrum dumbest thing ever.