NFL says Trump's "divisive" comments "demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Steve N, Sep 23, 2017.

  1. liberalminority

    liberalminority Well-Known Member

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    bankrupt the rich, the American peasants do not need to be united on a pro nor anti American leash
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
  2. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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    I know they likely believe the false narrative. I don't blame them, though. After all, everyone "knows" it's true because the Fake News and race hate industries tell them so.
     
  3. Brit

    Brit Well-Known Member

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    Given that the police don't even collect proper statistics for civilian deaths, no-one knows for sure. But that doesn't stop people assuming the position that fits their preferred narrative.
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
  4. Brit

    Brit Well-Known Member

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    duplicate
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
  5. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Maybe I'm using bad data. Where are accurate numbers?

    In order to say Police data is wrong, there has to be correct data to judge it by...
     
  6. Brit

    Brit Well-Known Member

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    James Comey said reliable data isn't available: the police aren't required to provide it.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36826297

    Official data on the number of people killed by the police turns out to be remarkably unreliable.

    "We can't have an informed discussion, because we don't have data," FBI Director James Comey said in the House of Representatives in October.

    "People have data about who went to a movie last weekend, or how many books were sold, or how many cases of the flu walked into an emergency room. And I cannot tell you how many people were shot by police in the United States last month, last year, or anything about the demographics. And that's a very bad place to be."
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
    Mac-7 likes this.
  7. hawgsalot

    hawgsalot Well-Known Member

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  8. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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    So, those claiming racism in police shootings have nothing to base it on...

    How unsurprising!

    Umm... James Comey??

    For what it's worth; there is plenty of reporting on this issue in the leftist press. If one picks out the facts, and leaves out the spin, a truer picture emerges.

    If you limit your view to low-income, high-crime neighborhoods, by percentage of their respective populations, in those neighborhoods, the racial/ethnic backgrounds of people shot by police approaches random representation.

    The real issue is that black people are disproportionately trapped in those neighborhoods.
     
  9. Brit

    Brit Well-Known Member

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    I guess high profile anecdotal stories provide fuel for the suspicion that black people are more targeted than white, but by itself it's certainly not conclusive.


    Can you find a better source with an overview of this? Poor old Comey. I had the impression he tried his best in difficult circumstances, but he ended up being the villain for just about everyone at one time or another.


    Interesting take on it, but I don't know enough about it to usefully comment.
     
  10. Your Best Friend

    Your Best Friend Well-Known Member

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    The NFL is not owed respect. Respect is earned by honorable actions. The NFL is violating it's own code of conduct by allowing
    and encouraging divisive behavior during the staging of their games. Goodell and his robber baron owners, who use taxpayer money
    to build their product, don't have my respect in the least.
     
  11. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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  12. Brit

    Brit Well-Known Member

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  13. AKS

    AKS Banned

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    I'm a veteran and it doesn't piss me off. I would never protest in that manner but I don't care if someone else does.
     
  14. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    Why is genuflecting before a church altar considered respectful, but doing it when a song is played so not "pc" that it gives some prissy folks the jim jams?

    The reality is that anyone can stand like Bernie for a pre-game tune,
    [​IMG]

    or kill the time by daydreaming how one's celebrity is a license to grab women by their privates.
    [​IMG]
    Of course, the folks at Daily Stormer stands behind their "Glorious Leader" in the matter:

    Some Americans believe that embracing the right to express oneself in America is more patriotic than being "pc" and passively assuming the conformist position.
     
  15. guavaball

    guavaball Well-Known Member

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    Once again you are taken down with the dictionary.


    should
    SHo͝od,SHəd/
    verb
    1. 1.
      used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone's actions.
      "he should have been careful"

    Ooops
     
  16. guavaball

    guavaball Well-Known Member

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    You've explained you falsely inserted Constitution into his argument that never existed. Yes that's clear.
     
  17. tres borrachos

    tres borrachos Well-Known Member

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    "Negro Felon League"? Please tell me you made that up or took it from The Onion.
     
  18. Your Best Friend

    Your Best Friend Well-Known Member

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    The league's own policy (as per their operation manual) is to stand respectfully for the national anthem but I know you aren't one bothered by epic hypocrisy. In fact you seem to rather like it.
     
  19. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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  20. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    It is up to the NFL how fussy it wants to be concerning its etiquette requirements.

    Sure, its not "pc" to express how you honestly feel during the pre-game ritual, but respectfully genuflecting instead of being a hypocrite to appease those who demand token conformity is not a problem, imho.
     
  21. jack4freedom

    jack4freedom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Are you a foreigner? Anyone who chooses to watch or support soccer over Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey is no real American in my book. Shame on you! Lol
     
    AKS and Toefoot like this.
  22. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    Here's more:

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-politicization-of-everything-1506291118

    OPINION REVIEW & OUTLOOK
    The Politicization of Everything
    Everybody loses in the Trump-NFL brawl over the national anthem.

    Baltimore Ravens players kneel during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, Sunday Sept. 24, 2017. PHOTO: MATT DUNHAM/ASSOCIATED PRESS
    By The Editorial Board
    Sept. 24, 2017 6:11 p.m. ET
    2786 COMMENTS
    Healthy democracies have ample room for politics but leave a larger space for civil society and culture that unites more than divides. With the politicization of the National Football League and the national anthem, the Divided States of America are exhibiting a very unhealthy level of polarization and mistrust.

    The progressive forces of identity politics started this poisoning of America’s favorite spectator sport last year by making a hero of Colin Kaepernick for refusing to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games. They raised the stakes this year by turning him into a progressive martyr because no team had picked him up to play quarterback after he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

    The NFL is a meritocracy, and maybe coaches and general managers thought he wasn’t good enough for the divisions he might cause in a locker room or among fans. But the left said it was all about race and class.

    All of this is cultural catnip for Donald Trump, who pounced on Friday night at a rally and on the weekend on Twitter with his familiar combination of gut political instinct, rhetorical excess, and ignorance. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s fired,’” Mr. Trump said Friday.
    Opinion Journal: NFL Protests: Risky Business
    Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot on why professional football may regret injecting politics into sports. Photo Credit: Getty Images.
    No doubt most Americans agree with Mr. Trump that they don’t want their flag disrespected, especially by millionaire athletes. But Mr. Trump never stops at reasonable, and so he called for kneeling players to be fired or suspended, and if the league didn’t comply for fans to “boycott” the NFL.

    He also plunged into the debate over head injuries without a speck of knowledge about the latest brain science, claiming that the NFL was “ruining the game” by trying to stop dangerous physical hits. This is the kind of rant you’d hear in a lousy sports bar.

    Mr. Trump has managed to unite the players and owners against him, though several owners supported him for President and donated to his inaugural. The owners were almost obliged to defend their sport, even if their complaints that Mr. Trump was “divisive” ignored the divisive acts by Mr. Kaepernick and his media allies that injected politics into football in the first place.

    Americans don’t begrudge athletes their free-speech rights—see the popularity of Charles Barkley —but disrespecting the national anthem puts partisanship above a symbol of nationhood that thousands have died for. Players who chose to kneel shouldn’t be surprised that fans around the country booed them on Sunday. This is the patriotic sentiment that they are helping Mr. Trump exploit for what he no doubt thinks is his own political advantage.

    American democracy was healthier when politics at the ballpark was limited to fans booing politicians who threw out the first ball—almost as a bipartisan obligation. This showed a healthy skepticism toward the political class. But now the players want to be politicians and use their fame to lecture other Americans, the parsons of the press corps want to make them moral spokesmen, and the President wants to run against the players.


    The losers are the millions of Americans who would rather cheer for their teams on Sunday as a respite from work and the other divisions of American life.

    Appeared in the September 25, 2017, print edition.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-strange-sports-radio-style-weekend-1506289670

    SPORTS JASON GAY
    Trump’s Strange, Sports Radio-Style Weekend
    The president enters the fray over protests in the NFL—and takes on the NBA champion Golden State Warriors as well
    Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0Slide 0

    Members of the Cleveland Browns take a knee during the national anthem.MICHAEL CONROY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
    By Jason Gay
    Updated Sept. 24, 2017 8:00 p.m. ET
    1849 COMMENTS
    Believe me, my friends, I wanted to “stick to sports” this weekend.

    After the prior week of ESPN madness, I was eager to get back to the goofy. You know: My usual, meaningless sports insanity, with a couple of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes sprinkled in for fun.

    Maybe, for a column, I’d take my kids to the annual meatball-eating contest at the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. Meatball eating is basically a sport, and Tony Danza was set to host. Maybe I’d write about the men’s road cycling world championships in Norway, which the remarkable Slovak Peter Sagan won for the third year in a row. You know how I love me some bike racing and Peter Sagan. I could write about that stuff until your eyes fall out.

    But then, on Friday night, the president of the United States drove a monster truck onto the sports world’s front lawn, and blasted the horn until he woke up the entire neighborhood.

    In a loud, impossible-to-miss speech, Donald Trump assailed NFL players who have been protesting during the national anthem, referring to a player who does so as a disrespectful “son-of-a-bitch” and goading team owners to fire anyone who took a knee. He also lamented what he sees as football’s over-penalizing of aggressive hits—an odd choice at a moment where there is widening scientific concern about the long-term impact of head injuries.

    “They’re ruining the game!” Trump said. “They want to hit.”

    He didn’t stop with Alabama. By now, you know that the president spent the weekend on his Magic Twitter Machine taking on not only the NFL, but the NBA. He revoked a White House invitation to the Golden State Warriors to celebrate their basketball title, an apparent reaction to star Steph Curry’s lack of interest in going. He again urged NFL owners to fire protesting players. He further mocked the league for allegedly declining ratings and attendance, and urged fans to boycott if the protests continued.

    The president basically took American professional sports in 2017 and set its pants on fire. And it wasn’t long before Trump was getting blowback from athletes, coaches, owners, and leagues for being unnecessarily divisive. His remarks were condemned not just by his usual detractors, but also by people who voted for him, campaigned for him, and contributed to him. Even New England Patriots owner and loyal Trump friend Bob Kraft said he was “deeply disappointed” by Trump’s NFL commentary. Fox’s Terry Bradshaw offered this exquisite Terry Bradshaw-ism: “I think our president should concentrate on serious issues like North Korea.”

    Baltimore Ravens players kneel down during the national anthem before a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London. PHOTO: MATT DUNHAM/ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The protests, meanwhile, only widened—on Sunday, more NFL players took a knee than ever before. The Pittsburgh Steelers—hardly a bunch of rosé-sipping coastal media elites—passed on the “Star-Spangled Banner” entirely, choosing to stay in the locker room. So did both sides of the Tennessee Titans-Seattle Seahawks game. The Warriors acknowledged the White House disinvite. Then the 2017 championship-winning University of North Carolina men’s basketball team announced that they, too, would not be going to the White House.

    So, you can see, it’s been going really well.

    No matter what side you fall on, I think we can all agree that “Stick to Sports” is officially dead as a reasonable expectation in the American sports landscape in 2017. I’ve always thought “Stick to Sports” was a ridiculous ask—politics have forever been entangled in sports. It’s really an absurd ask now, as the nation’s highest elected official has decided to turn athletes and athlete activism—and let’s be specific here, this is activism by athletes who are largely African-American—into his latest rhetorical target. A president who shortly after taking office tweeted that “Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognize the rights of people to express their views” has decided these particular protests (which have been tolerated by their employers) have gone too far, and is using the power of his office to put pressure on everyone involved, including fans.

    Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
    ...NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.
    4:13 AM - Sep 24, 2017
    64,488 64,488 Replies 33,095 33,095 Retweets 153,244 153,244 likes

    The president has plenty of supporters on this issue. I don’t dispute that for a second. This is a jet fuel topic for him and anyone who wants a quick burst of attention. Long before Donald Trump repurposed the presidency into a morning sports radio talk show, there were a great many Americans who did not agree with the athlete protests, which began last season with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the anthem to protest issues affecting the African-American community, including what he viewed as unequal treatment by law enforcement. This rancor predates Trump’s victory, and I am certain that there are plenty of people who think the president is right on, and I have the hate mail to prove it. (I read all my hate mail out loud to my cat, using a cat voice.)

    But a protest isn’t a popularity contest. Trump, a creature of television, is habitually obsessed with ratings, and seems to equate success or failure with Nielsen points and how many people can be stuffed into a stadium. There’s a case to be made that Trump’s railing about NFL ratings and attendance declines—“WAY DOWN” he wrote in all-caps—is factually wrong (ratings are down only mildly, for a variety of factors, and attendance last year was the NFL’s highest in a decade, and 2017 is tracking to match it thus far), but that whole discussion is irrelevant, anyway.

    Officials stand on the sideline during the anthem as players from the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans remained in the locker room. PHOTO: MARK ZALESKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
    A protest, by definition, is always going to challenge the status quo. It is designed to cause agitation and discomfort, and maybe even cost protesters their jobs, and, in extreme cases, their lives. It isn’t the People’s Choice Awards. “This ain’t never been popular,” the author Ta-Nehisi Coates tweeted about protests over the weekend, citing, among other unpopular-in-their-time American protests, the Alabama bus boycotts, the March on Washington, and Muhammad Ali’s refusal to enlist during Vietnam.

    This is hard, painful stuff. And that’s the other thing: We can either sit here on the surface of this topic and bicker glibly on social media, or we can drill deeper into what it’s really about. To make this about Trump actually does a disservice to the protesters, because these protests are not a referendum on Trump. They’re not about the flag, or the anthem, either. This has always been a protest intended to provoke a much broader and harder-to-have conversation about racial and other mistreatment in this country, and what all of us can do to get better. That’s a conversation that a number of high-profile athletes in this country want to have—and, because of the elevated place we give in this country to athletes, and all the patriotism we’ve wrapped around our sporting events, they now have a platform and our attention.

    It’s also a conversation that a president of the United States can have a constructive role in, but after this weekend, I’m not sure he’s eager. “Son of a bitch”? What is going on?

    This is exactly where we are now. Today, I would have loved to have given you a play-by-play of the meatball-eating contest, or the bike race, or even a Jets game. (They won!) Politics are exhausting, especially now, and I’d have loved to have to steered clear of them and stuck to sports.

    But politics have barged down the door. And they look like they’re going to stay for a very long while.

    Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2017
  23. tres borrachos

    tres borrachos Well-Known Member

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    Holy ****. Now I'm more glad than ever that I don't support President Trump. Those are not the kind of people I want to be associated with. <Mod Edit- Rule 3> Those people there are just downright diseased.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 26, 2017
  24. dixon76710

    dixon76710 Well-Known Member

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    The NFLs even more divisive actions of protesting the National anthem show even more lack of respect for the United States of America, soooooo they really have no justification for their views.
     
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  25. Toefoot

    Toefoot Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Living the American dream in Colorado. Lived in Germany for 7 years. Some fun times in Iraq/KSA also.

    Just tired of the NFL antics. Do love some Hockey (CC Tigers) and can only watch baseball(Dodgers/Giants) from the stadium with a couple of cold beers at $23.99 each.

     

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