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The Center for American Progress reports
Last month, the NFL announced a new policy for its players during the national anthem: Players are permitted to stay in the locker room during the anthem, but if they go out onto the field during it, they must stand. If any of the players takes a knee, the team will be fined.
Soon afterwards, a Wall Street Journal report confirmed what most have long suspected: That President Donald Trump's public outrage about NFL players protesting police brutality and systemic racism during the national anthem at football games heavily influenced NFL owners to change the rule, and discouraged them from signing players who would protest.
It's all terrible news for those in favor of free speech and peaceful protest, and for those against white nationalism and police brutality.
However, Mark Geragos, the lawyer representing Kaepernick in his collusion lawsuit against the NFL, [...] believes [...] that Trump's direct influence over NFL owners on this issue violates federal law. U.S. Code 227 [which] says that members of Congress or the executive branch cannot "wrongfully influence a private entity's employment decision ... solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation".
A few revelations from the last couple of weeks strongly support Geragos' case here, and it's important to remember that Geragos knows much more about the case than we do--he has taken the depositions of more than a dozen NFL owners, while the public only knows about the depositions that have leaked.
[...] Of course, influencing the private hiring decisions of a company isn't the only part of U.S. Code [227] that needs to be proved; it would also have to be shown that Trump did it for partisan political purposes.
That sounds trickier to prove, but in this case, that's not necessarily true. First of all, Trump's comments were made at a political rally supporting an Alabama Republican candidate for US Senate--an expressly partisan environment. And according to the WSJ, Trump told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in private conversations that the issue was a "winning" one for him.
Previous: NFL: New National Anthem Rule; NY Jets CEO: Break the Rule and I'll Pay the Fine
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Monday June 04 2018, @03:56AM (3 children)
Standing for something denotes your reverence to that topic. Hence, the stand to attention in the military, religious practise schools etc.
Clearly the sports association behind that sport wants their sport to be synonymous with being a patriotic sport. One that is played by patriots. Or watched by patriots. Or something patriotic really. Also it might be worth reading the history of how it was played [washingtonpost.com] at sporting events.
When it standing for the anthem became more of a commercial affair, in wanting the "'Murica!" associated with a commercial product much more than actually respecting what it stood for. It's great to be totally 100% patriotic and do all the sporting anthem stuff as long as it is generating money and making everyone feel good. When someone starts to use that meaning for another reason, better get out of the way of their lawyers. Even more so when it is actually a divisive topic which people feel strongly about. Unhappy patrons don't buy tickets and/or booze. And they stop watching. That's when kneeling became less respectful. Right then in history is when it did.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday June 04 2018, @04:24AM (1 child)
so, you're saying it unpatriotic to do soemthing that hurts (or might hurt) profits?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by tfried on Monday June 04 2018, @09:29AM
I believe what GP was trying to say is that it's silly to even think about this in terms of "patriotic" or "unpatriotic". Whichever side you take, you're falling for a marketing trick.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday June 04 2018, @09:43AM
It would be hilarious if it wouldn't be crass ignorance.
You stand for attention because the superior rank ordered you to... a thing that happens in the army quite a lot.
In enough cases, reverence in religious practice is shown by kneeling or even bowing while kneeled.
Taking the oath while kneeled during coronation [wikipedia.org] doesn't seem like lack of reverence to me.
That's not reverence, that's brain bleaching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford