Trump blasts NFL kneelers

Reminds me of when Jane Fonda swore she wouldn't do the tomahawk chop at the Braves games. Some people want it both ways. Jerry Jones wants to support the players and keep the fans. After classless way he got rid of Tom Landry I doubt he's got the people skills to pull it off.


JANE FONDA'S BIG CHOP-OUT

 

There was no way to win last night for Dallas. Seeing as they are getting flamed for not doing enough and at the same time disgracing themselves that tells me they probably handled it about as well as you could have.

 

Jerry must have ramrodded this through the team so he could save face, as he had said he would fire any player who does not stand for the Anthem. He found a way to let them, and join them, take part in this silly taking a knee and locking arms, but all stand for the flag and song. But this won't last... we'll see what they do at noon next Sunday.

 

He tried to please everyone. I would not have tried that.

 

Jerry Jones never said he would fire players for taking knee. That myth has been running through conservative media like wildfire though.

Be careful for booing teams doing things like the Cowboys did Monday. The whole outrage has been "don't disrespect the flag." Well they didn't and still got booed and flamed. Kind of makes me think that all the outrage had nothing to do with the flag. Yet everybody likes to use veterans as a safety blanket for discourse.

 

Players decided in a meeting and involved Jerry and leadership.

 

Right or wrong, you gotta do what the crowd wants or you don't have one.

 

Apropos of nothing, there's a sticker with Jane Fonda's face on it in the urinals in the men's room down at the American Legion where we hang out. Still waiting for the Obama sticker.

 

He didn't actually say that. That was an internet hoax and the quote was also attributed to Robert Kraft and another owner, depending on who was telling the story.

 

Ha ha ha ha! Steven Seagal, Russian citizen, lecturing us about US patriotism!

Hey Steve! Where's Natasha? Out looking for Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Sent from my Motorola Droid Turbo.

 

I'd heard it attributed to the owner of the Chiefs and Steven Seagal can't act, either.

Trump didn't just say the owners should fire the kneelers, he also complained about all the penalties in the NFL and said the fans should leave at first sight - those two statements are probably what got Kraft and them going, that's hitting them right in the pocketbook.

The thing they all forgot is that the fans are their ultimate customers and the customer is always right. If they see the kneeling as insulting to their core values, nothing the owners can say or do will change that. The NFL may think they are too big to fail but bigger things have been brought to their knees forever. Best thing they could do is to fire Roger (self-serving) and do a mea culpa if this doesn't blow over within days, little time left.

 

As a Christian I would find it very difficult to 'sacrifice to Caesar' in the way that so much of this 'honoring the flag/ national anthem' seems to resemble. And I don't think it's adequate to demand that someone violates their conscience as part of their employment contract. What if it was a Christian employed by a bakery who was required to bake one of these 'gay wedding cakes' we hear so much about? Or a Christian hospital nurse ordered to assist at an abortion? Would you be so quick to take the side of the boss and say they had to suck it up or get another job? Just object to gay marriage or abortion 'on their own time'?

 

I was thinking about this a couple days ago--What if some pro-life football players (or other sports figures) decided they were going to kneel for the unborn as the national anthem played? I wonder how many of us would be condemning them for being unpatriotic?

 

Except most employment contracts aren't that specific in the way you describe. Employees have rights: I can't force my secretary to wear a short skirt for example. A Muslim CEO can't force his employees to pray to Mecca five times and day and a Christian employed can't force a Muslim employee to not do so.

 

Yesterday I saw the same lengthy word-for-word statement on two separate facebook posts (by different posters, unless the person used two names), one attributing it to the Cowboys' owner, the other to the Chiefs'. Obvious fake news.

 

You're leaving the actual customer out of the equation - yes, you can enforce dress codes in some sectors and CEOs can be fired by the Board/stockholders but the NFL is unique.

The owners could have fired the players, or fined them but they didn't, and it doesn't matter now. The end customer is the fans, they will fire the whole lot if they are not pleased. The customer is always right, there are reasons for that saying.

Just awful PR, you'd think one of the billionaire NFL owners would have run this by a focus group or two before the fiasco last week.

 

For religious identity and practice, employers must make "reasonable accommodations." As far as I know, there is nothing comparable to that for patriotism or protest.

Since I do not wear pink, I would like to see some players in October refuse to wear it in support of breast cancer awareness, as they started a few years ago. make the 'protest' about being sissified or about only one type of cancer being recognized.