NFL Players Pissed Off at Trump

Fox Sports sideline reporter Pam Oliver predicted on MSNBC that NFL players will continue to Take the Knee throughout the regular season.  Oliver opined the protest is about President Trump, while others have pushed a Black Lives Matter motivation or even an anti-American animus.

Former President Clinton spokesman Joel Lockhart, reportedly advised the NFL to shift the symbolic protest to locking arms to show unity during the National Anthem.  Unfortunately, not all players adhered to this crisis management suggestion.  In addition, the lock step pose still did not allay the ire of many patriotic NFL fans. 

It is unclear what sort of behavior that League officials will tolerate.  In the past, the NFL has threatened New York team players  from donning decals  to show solidarity with 9/11 victims.  More recently, the NFL denied the Dallas Cowboys  permission to wear a "5" on their helmets  to remember the fallen law enforcement officers from a shooting.  Yet antics like Odell Beckham Jr. seems to be tolerated.

A better question is what NFL fans will tolerate.  Television ratings are markedly down. Long time fans are publicly burning licensed merchandise and even tickets. 

"Rev." Jesse Jackson's Cotton Picking Advice on Taking A Knee

Perhaps Jesse Jackson should remember that the First Amendment refers to the government making laws against the free exercise of speech. Private entities, such as a professional football team, can restrict or fine speech and behavior by their employees. Hence, the NFL's Take The Knee moment does not apply, notwithstanding President Trump's blue collar blurtation about "Sons of Bitches" who do not respect the flag or the National Anthem. 

Despite "Rev." Jackson's assertion that the Take The Knee protest is not about race, he uses a Cotton Picking analogy, which would be a micro-aggression if it was uttered by someone else.

Jackson's suggestion again demonstrates that he is more inclined to organize political factions than organizing a church much less evangelizing the Gospel.

UPDATE 10/23/2017

A month after first making his controversial "cotton picking" sports analogy, Jesse Jackson was still trying to make hay over the controversy on Fox Sports F1.