**This does not reflect the opinions of the rest of #TeamNobody. This is my opinion. Any hate, my DMs are open.
-Shawn
“Sports” and “Politics”
On September 22nd, at a rally in Huntsvile, AL for Republican Senator Luther Strange, President Donald Trump said typical Donald Trump things during an 80-minute speech for those in attendance. While the majority of the speech is far too political for a sports blog, one portion of his speech became the focal point for the sports world. Here is that segment of his speech:
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!” You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, “That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.” And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in this country.
When the NFL ratings are down massively, massively. The NFL ratings are down massively. Now the number one reason happens to be they like watching what’s happening… with yours truly. They like what’s happening. Because you know today if you hit too hard—15 yards! Throw him out of the game! They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes. Two guys, just really beautiful tackle. Boom, 15 yards! The referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home, she’s so proud of him. They’re ruining the game! They’re ruining the game. That’s what they want to do. They want to hit! It is hurting the game.
But you know what’s hurting the game more than that? When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing our great national anthem. The only thing you could do better is if you see it, even if it’s one player, leave the stadium, I guarantee things will stop. Things will stop. Just pick up and leave. Pick up and leave. Not the same game anymore, anyway.
The “Colin Kaepernick Paradox”
It should go without saying that this is aimed at Colin Kaepernick and those who have joined his protests. (If you’ve been following along, you know how I feel about the Colin Kaepernick situation.) Well, fast forward a day and the sports world has shown it’s true colors. And those are colors of pride and support for themselves as athletes, and more importantly, as people. Steph Curry said that he would vote against the Golden State Warriors visiting the White House, as is status quo for championship winning teams and as you would expect, this got Donny J all kinds of up in arms.
The Tweets
As is (unfortunately) standard operating procedure for our President, he took to Twitter, cause you know, he’s a 14 year old girl. He tweets about Steph Curry and the Warriors being uninvited to the White House by attacking athletes as a whole who have been utilizing their status in society to try and influence change.
In all honesty, it’s not surprising that this was his response to all of these things. (Fun thing to do if you want to lose and regain some faith in humanity, read some of the subtweets and replies to the above tweets. I’m not going to begin to attack people’s beliefs on this medium. I think by now, you all can assume who I voted for in November and I also think you can probably grasp that I don’t support anything that this man believes in. But I’m off track here. This is a sports blog, so back to the impact this had on sports.) The (majority) 0f the sports world came out to support there colleagues. And they should, because at the end of the day, they’re all on the same playing field. I don’t believe that athletes should “stick to sports” because at the end of the day, they’re people, they have beliefs. They just happen to have a much larger platform to express those beliefs.
The NFL Fires Back
Well thankfully, (most) of the owners in the NFL share those beliefs and organizations began tweeting and making statements both in support of their employees and in regards to the villainous statements that were made by Trump. And after the NFL world waited with bated breath for their fearless leader to make a statement, a statement they received. Roger Goodell, who has famously been vilified by NFL fans across the country, released the following statement on behalf of the NFL to which Donny obviously has a response.
What Now?!?!
This is obviously a story that will not have an ending for quite some time. All eyes will be on the NFL this Sunday as I would imagine there will be more interest in how players will react to Trumps comments then the actual action on the field. Fortunately, this is now the state of sports as we know it because this is going to become a topic of conversation for anyone who watches, reads, or talks about sports. Sports have been a vehicle for change for a very long time. Maybe this current state of sports will lead to people doing their research, taking the time to understand the issues, and develop actual thoughts regarding it instead of just looking at it as a quarterback kneeling during the National Anthem. So no, they should not “stick to sports”.