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Al Jazeera reports
The National Football League (NFL) announced a new policy that will fine teams an undetermined amount if players on the field fail to stand during the national anthem.
[...] The new policy does not require players be present during the anthem, allowing those who wish to protest and not attend the ceremonial act to remain in the locker room.
Players said they were not consulted and threatened to challenge the policy in the courts. A statement by the NFL Players Association said its athletes had shown ample patriotism by way of their social activism and community support initiatives.
[...] New York Jets chairman Christopher Johnson said he supported the measure out of obligation to the membership, but said players can take a knee or perform another type of protest without fear of repercussion from the team. He will pay their fines.
"If somebody [on the Jets] takes a knee, that fine will be borne by the organisation, by me, not the players. I never want to put restrictions on the speech of our players," Johnson said.
New York Magazine notes
The monetary risk to Johnson isn't huge, since no Jets players took a knee last season. [...] Johnson is currently acting as owner of the team while his brother, Woody Johnson, serves as Trump's ambassador to Britain.
(Score: 3, Informative) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:28PM
Let me tell you, the NFL is like Amazon. It's a NO-TAX MONOPOLY.
1984, the USFL, the United States Football League, had just started playing the year before. And I bought the New Jersey Generals, the winningest team in the USFL. Unfortunately the original owners had decided the games would be in the spring & summer, when guys have something else on their minds besides football. Reason being, they didn't want to compete with the NFL. But I said, let's play in the fall & winter. We'll sue the NFL for being a monopoly. And the NFL will have to come to the table, they'll have to make a deal with us. Buy us out or settle. And you'll all be very very rich. I was already very very rich. As everybody knows. Well, the other owners saw that this was a very smart plan. So we moved to the spring & summer and we did the lawsuit. But the NFL didn't want to make a deal. So our lawsuit went to trial and of course we won. But unfortunately the very dumb court said the damages were only $3. It wasn't enough, folks. And our beautiful American dream -- our U.S. dream -- died. Crushed by monopolism. Very sad!
It didn't die, believe me, it's alive in these new leagues. I went to court and proved the NFL is a monopoly. As I said. And as President I can tell my DOJ, my Department of Justice, to move very strongly against the NFL. And maybe Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- I don't call him Mr. Magoo, that's fake news -- will listen. And eventually we'll get something done. Possibly. But we have to have football. If we repeal the NFL and don't replace it, we'll have big problems. So my thoughts & prayers are with these new leagues. And I'll give them a shout out on my Social Media -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and SoylentNews. I have over 100 million followers!!