Despite Donald Trump’s stand, some leaders now support NFL players kneeling during national anthem

It cost him his NFL career.

In his 2018 Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the El Paso Democrat, said there “was nothing more American” than the right of NFL players to protest against inequities during the national anthem. A widely circulated social media post of his stand probably cost him votes in conservative Texas. He lost to Cruz by 2.6 percentage points.

Now, after the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on the unarmed black man’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, many Americans are rethinking their views on protest of police brutality during the national anthem.

The redefining of protests during the national anthem sets up a social, generational and political clash this fall that will climax with a November presidential election that’s largely a referendum on the leadership of President Donald Trump.

The president has taken a law-and-order approach after the Floyd killing. He condemns the killing but pledges to “dominate the streets” when protests go too far.

Trump believes that a “silent majority” of American voters don’t want NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. He also believes they are against proposals by activists to “defund” police departments. For most folks putting forth that proposal, defunding means reducing police budgets and allowing other agencies to respond to calls where police don’t have the proper expertise, such as a mental health crisis. Others want to scrap police departments and create a new public safety system.

Democrats hope the activism related to curbing police brutality and systematic oppression will result in progressive, anti-Trump voters flooding the polls in November.

Powerful leaders have already reversed course in criticizing players for protesting during the national anthem.

That includes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who took the extraordinary step of apologizing for not listening to NFL players during the Kaepernick controversy.

“Without black players, there would be no National Football League, and the protests around the country are emblematic of the centuries of silence, inequality and oppression of black players, coaches, fans and staff,” Goodell said in a video statement.

“We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter,” he said.

It will be fascinating to see how Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones responds to Goodell and the issue. He has said he would not tolerate players kneeling during the national anthem.

COWBOYS

Can Jerry Jones fully support Cowboys players while demanding that all must stand for the national anthem?

BY DAVID MOORE

“We cannot in anyway give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag,” Jones told The Dallas Morning News in 2017. “We know that there is a serious debate in this country about those issues, but there is no question in my mind, that the [NFL] and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag.”

It’s likely that some of the Cowboys star players will participate in demonstrations against police violence when the season starts this year. Jones’s policy is increasingly becoming out of step with the NFL mainstream.

Time are changing — and quickly.

The movement for change is multicultural, with protests against police brutality sprouting in mostly white suburbs and small towns.

Trump, who praised Jones for his hard line on protests during the national anthem, has not budged on the issue.

But there’s evidence that leaders have a nuanced view on the players who participate in the protests.

When New Orleans Saints star quarterback Drew Brees drew criticism for expressing opposition to players protesting during the anthem, he quickly apologized and then stood firm after Trump urged him to retreat to his original position.

Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas and a former NFL player, said critics of the protests are missing the point.

“I played with and against some of the guys that this president attacked. I played against Colin Kaepernick, who lost his ability to earn a living because of what is happening,” Allred told CNN last week. “And when all this was going down, I said, well, you can disagree with what these players are trying to say, but we shouldn’t as Americans disagree about their right to say it. And that was the real failure.”

“That was unacceptable,” Allred said. “I think more than an apology is needed.”

Kaepernick and others have been mischaracterized as protesting against the military. Critics also accused him and other players of disrespecting the flag, which obscures the message the players are making.

Those protests are focused on ending police brutality and dealing with issues related to inequality.

Here’s what Kaepernick said in a media gaggle after sitting during the national anthem: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”

Many Americans, including those who know the purpose of the protests, disagree with players or anyone else protesting during the national anthem. They see standing for the anthem as a sacred tribute to what America is supposed to be about — the land of the free and the home of the brave. Some veterans and current members of the armed forces feel there should be other ways to protest. And Kaepernick’s statements about the flag infuriated some patriotic Americans. Television viewership for NFL games decreased during the first season of the NFL protests.

Americans are free to criticize the timing of protests during the national anthem, not watch NFL games and speak out in favor of what they believe.

But it’s important to put the issue in its proper context.

The players, as well as those who have taken to the streets after the Floyd killing, are pushing the country to live up to its great potential. Every citizen deserves the freedoms outlined in the Constitution. And everyone has the right to protest, even if you don’t agree with how they do it.

It was former NFL long snapper Nate Boyer, who served as a Green Beret in the Army, who told Kaepernick that kneeling during the anthem would be more respectful than sitting. It proved to be a lasting compromise.

Brees, in an Instagram post to Trump, says he now understands the distinction between disrespecting the flag and speaking out against oppression.

“I realize this is not an issue about the American flag. It has never been,” Brees wrote. “We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities.”

“We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform,” he continued. “We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history! If not now, then when?”

History has a way with bringing clarity to the most controversial situations.

In 1968, American Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos lost their gold and bronze medals after they raised their black-gloved fists in a black power salute during the medal ceremony to protest African American poverty and other issues.

Today they are viewed as heroes of the black liberation movement.

At the time, many considered legendary boxer Muhammad Ali a draft dodger when he refused to go into the Army during the Vietnam War and was exiled. It cost him the prime of his brilliant boxing career.

Ali became beloved around the world, and perceptions about the Vietnam War and the draft have changed.

We see similar shifts today. In past years, some people mocked or dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement. Now more Americans understand that the name of the anti-police brutality crusade does not suggest that other lives don’t matter.

After the Floyd killing, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, joined thousands of people in Washington rallying against police brutality. “We need to stand up and say that black lives matter,” he said.

Floyd will be remembered as the catalyst that unified Americans from disparate backgrounds to fight against brutality and oppression.

But Floyd didn’t think about being a martyr during the final moments of his life.

He just wanted to breathe.