Jaguars players linked arms and took the knee while the the Star Spangled Banner played at Wembley Stadium
Daily Mail: BREAKING NEWS: American football stars drop to their knees during national anthem at Wembley in protest defying Donald Trump after he said sportsman who 'disrespect America' should be SACKED
* Players from Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens dropped to their knees as national anthem played
* No players were kneeling during the playing of 'God Save The Queen', which followed the US national anthem
* President Trump had stoked tensions by saying NFL players who protested should be sacked by their team
American football stars took a knee in defiance of Donald Trump at Wembley Stadium today after he said sportsmen who 'disrespect America' should be 'fired'.
Players from both Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens dropped to their knees as the national anthem was played prior to the match in London.
No players were kneeling during the playing of 'God Save The Queen', which followed the Star Spangled Banner.
Read more ....
Update #1: Ravens, Jaguars players kneel during national anthem after Trump's attacks on NFL (FOX News)
Update #2: NFL players, owners rebuff Trump's attacks as controversy continues for a second day (Los Angeles Times)
Update #3: Trump NFL row: Defiance after US president urges boycott (BBC)
WNU Editor: President Trump's responds ....
Trump urges fans to boycott NFL in ongoing criticism of flag-kneeling players (Fox News)
Donald Trump calls for NFL boycott over 'take a knee' protests (The Independent)
Here is an easy prediction .... this is going to get worse. And while I do believe that most fans will continue to watch their favorite players and teams (at a stadium or on TV) .... especially from those who support the players on what they are doing .... there is going to be a sizeable group who will lose their enthusiasm (if not already) for the sport that they enjoy watching and feeling that they are a part of. And this is why these protests are going to hurt the economics and the business of sports. Fans need to feel that they are a part of the team for them to spend their money and their time watching their favorite players. Take that away from them .... and pushing a brand of politics or a social agenda is a guarantee way of doing it .... you will kill the spirit of the game for these people because they will certainly no longer feel that they are part of the team. Many team owners are now condemning President Trump .... but I think with time they are going to realize that these protests (now in their second year) have seriously injured their bottom line, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. And while everyone in the sports business is going to blame President Trump for this mess, the truth is that these protests (and the backlash against it) first started when President Obama was in the White House .... the only difference now is that President Trump is only voicing what many sports fans have been feeling for the past two years.
16 comments:
WNU, couldn't have said it better. These people are protesting racism that just doesn't exist to the extent they say it does. If America was the racist haven they think it is then Obama wouldn't have ever been elected president and these athletes wouldn't have hundred of millions of fans willing to pay big money to watch them play.
*addition to my previous comment
"millions of fans that LOVE them and are willing to pay big money to watch them play."
I may be wrong but it is my belief that this country, beginning before The Great Society programs under Lyndon Johnson, has passed more legislation, and spent more uncountable billions of dollars, in an effort to open closed doors for this race, than any society in history. Apparently that's not enough for a great number of members of this race.
Decades ago one could see the positive changes in this country as a result of these expenditures and legislative and societal efforts. I've spent enough and so has the country. If you can't make it in what is now the third generation since these efforts began in the Eisenhower administration, you have a serious problem. If you will not acknowledge the impact the behavior of some members of your culture has on the country's perception of your race and the resulting blow back, go find your shadow and chase it.
Roger
aaa
not racist? you live in fantasy world...O. got elected for a variety of reasons, among them the Great Recession
"Fans need to feel that they are a part of the team for them to spend their money and their time watching their favorite players."
The movement is now building and when the white players start taking a knee the fans will follow. This will become more about being anti Trump than something that is simply racist. Relative to the game, standing for the national anthem is as superfluous as watching two seconds of jets flying overhead. The game will go on and people who love the sport will not stay away because of a two minute demonstration.
Roger, and yet blacks are still being executed regularly.
Bob,
I respectively disagree. For the foreseeable future .... the next 2 or 3 years .... many fans will go elsewhere.
Luckily my team left town last year and headed to their disastrous fate in LA. I announced my boycotting of the NFL at that moment and haven't watched a game this season.
As I mentioned earlier the NFL has a large conservative following, most hard core liberals relate football to Mediocrity, a bone headed sport for boneheaded fans. The talent level in football is definitely on the down turn, and this goes for college, high school, pop warner, the kids just aren't coming out like they used to. The NFL now has a big problem on their hands, and the owners know it, and probably aren't too happy with Trump for pointing it out, but it was bound to happen at some point. All I can say is good luck with your business, you are going to be in for a bumpy ride.
Obama was also elected because the GOP had their designated loser confidante in one John McCain. Whose job it was to lose we that election. A relentless, unanswered hammering by the MSM on Bush - who never defended himself or his policies. Let himself get pummeled to a 25% approval rating. It was as much the GOPe's fault as it was Obama's fllowery rhetoric that got him elected. And no, the US is not a racist country.
Pleas name the African leader of any "enlightened" nation of. Europe.
Yes, Roger, you are wrong...the hate, discrimination, has been in place for a long time, before and after Ike. In fact, in 1947-or 48, I was leaving a military base in Virgina and told I could not sit in the back of the bus! that area reserved for "colored." Our military was integrated in what year? and the South? what we politely call "inner city" is a nice phrase for housing for non whites, ie, ghetto. Every study done on jobs, health, redlining, arrests clearly reveal that we were, are, remain a racist society
The NFL if not all professional sports will have to cut their losses and just end national anthems at games. They will still lose part of their fan base, but really what other option do they have?
Good grief.
Fred, I would venture to say that most people that post on this board were not yet born in 1948, not to say what you experienced didn't happen, but is not very relevant to the discussion of NFL player protests. If old timers want to protest about how they were treated in the past, I think they have a pretty good axe to grind and should be heard, but these twenty something year old athletes haven't any clue how easy they have it.
I think it's disgusting they can't respect the countries anthem, we have the same problem here in Australia with the left wing scum bags
anon
I am old and yes went through what I had noted and yes it exists today by any metric you can cite or find: health, jobs, income, housing, etc etc
why do we call the ghetto the inner city? red lining? jail, traffic stops etc etc If you truly think we do not continue to live in a racist society then you live in a world that differs from mine, where I see it in various forms in one way or another...if a ball player can kneed and pray, then another can sit and protest
While the NFL is a private corporation, it is also one of the largest recipients of corporate welfare through publicly financed billion dollar stadiums. Alienating a significant portion of the population has a long term price when it comes to public funding. If you don't think this is the case, research the enrollment drop, state funding cuts, and sports attendance proceeds at the University of Missouri after the football team decided to boycott its bowlgame to protest alleged racism on campus. The NFL is on the same path. Profits will wither without the public subsidies.
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