Trump Urges to Boycott NFL for Flag-Kneeling Protest

[Hunter Thompson]

At a recent rally in Alabama, President Trump said how he would love to see NFL team owners fire people who disrespected our countries flag.  This was just a small part of a 1 hour and 20-minute speech that he gave, and people have been making it a big deal.  Trump's base appreciates defending the flag, it was not telling owners to fire players to kneeled it was just him saying he wished that the players would respect the flag.  This Sunday when players kneeled during the national anthem they did it to protest Trump saying that, but that is still disrespectful to all the men and women who have fought and died for our country. 

Some players have said that they did not like how President Trump generalized all football players in his statement.  The irony of that is that the kneeling during the national anthem started as a protest against the treatment of black people by police officers which generalizes all police officers as treating black people poorly.  The fact that players have then chosen to kneel because of Trump generalizing all football players also helps his general statement become truer because now more are kneeling since they felt generalized by what he said.

Football players do have a right to freedom of speech but when they make watching football games political, they lose one of the main reasons people love to watch a football game, to forget about all the political arguments in our country.  People do not turn to ESPN to catch up on what is going on in our nation politically they turn to it to watch the players play the game.  When the players are making watching football political issue it also makes the announcers start talking about politics which is not their job and leads to misunderstanding why they are protesting and what is going on in our country to cause this protesting.

What makes me upset about players protesting is a lot of them do not know what they are actually protesting.  Also, the average rookie football player makes around $365,000 a year, while the average military soldier who fights for our country and what the flag stands for, with less than two years of service makes a base salary of  $1,467 per month.  While these players are making a lot of money they are protesting the very symbol of their country and the symbol that our soldiers fight and die for.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/24/trump-urges-fans-to-boyc...;

[Michaela Kirkland]

I disagree with your insinuation that making football political is a bad thing. These players are using the platform they have to express their opinion. Why not use a network that has millions of viewer at a time? They have every right to do this thanks to the men and women who gave their lives. It's great that they are reaching "the majority" of people who may otherwise not bother to even think about the injustices they are protesting. At the end of the day the flag is symbolic representation of the purity and innocence (white), hardiness and velour (red),vigilance, perseverance and justice (blue/size) of the United States. When people feel like these values are not being upheld, they have the right to respectfully disagree and take a knee. Taking a knee when someone is injured out on the field is common practice in sports. This is a great way to show that whether one decides to see/believe it or not, there are fellow Americans that are hurting because these American value are not being upheld.