NFL owners speak out in support of players, against Trump
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...924-story.html
NFL owners speak out in support of players, against Trump
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...924-story.html
I am so glad Trump has spoken out about this!
By far there is no more important issue facing our country than a bunch of overpaid children playing professional sports who take their platform and use it as an opportunity to exercise their First Amendment right to express themselves on an issue they feel strongly about.
I am so glad that he is not worried about leading the GOP through the upcoming ACA repeal attempt, his confidence level for its replacement must be very high.
I am so glad he is not worried about lowering our taxes...
I am so glad he is not worried about his wall...
I am so glad he is not worried about the myriad of other issues that we as a nation face.
The NFL players taking a knee is the most egregious threat to America today. No doubt about it, it's yuge, believe me...
Do I like it? No, not even a little bit. But it is their right as Americans and by GOD I will defend their right to do it.
In the end, the NFL will suffer for it, the owners will suffer for it, the teams will suffer for it, the players will suffer for it, the television networks will suffer for it. Then it will end, quietly. And when it does, all will be forgiven and everyone of you bitching about it today will go back to loving the NFL, loving the owners, loving your teams and the players.
"I am allergic to piety, it makes me break out in rash judgements." - Penn Jillette
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered." - Robert G. Ingersoll
To Donald Trump
<iframe name="f975f30e367544" width="1000px" height="1000px" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" title="fb:quote Facebook Social Plugin" src="https://www.facebook.com/v2.5/plugins/quote.php?app_id=122071082108&channel=http%3A%2F%2 Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2Fr% 2F5oivrH7Newv.js%3Fversion%3D42%23cb%3Df23418eeb96 23f4%26domain%3Dmashable.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A% 252F%252Fmashable.com%252Ff1a37c0d72de564%26relati on%3Dparent.parent&container_width=950&href=http%3 A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2017%2F09%2F24%2Fleland-melvin-astronaut-letter-to-donald-trump%2F%3Futm_cid%3Dmash-com-Tw-main-link%23HlPtmP987iqt&locale=en_US&sdk=joey" class="" style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 169px; height: 47px;"></iframe>I believe in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of this country even though at the time they were drafted, their tenets of life, liberty justice for all and eventual freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press and petition amendment ratified in Dec 1791, only applied to a select group of people and not ones that looked like me. Donald Trump I listened to your Alabama rally rant and could not believe how easily you say what you say. We have become numb to your outlandish acts, tweets and recent retweet of you knocking down Hillary Clinton with a golf ball that you hit. Donald Trump your boorish and disgusting actions are not funny. They actually promote violence against women especially when your followers act out what you say.I used to walk the grounds of UVA in Charlottesville, VA as a graduate student only to watch in horror as those same grounds became a battlefield being trod by Nazi and anti-Semitic worshippers armed with assault style weapons ready to fight to make America White again. (their words). You actually said there were nice people on both sides. People armed and ready to kill other Americans for the purpose of eradicating Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Mexicans, Asians, Latinas and even the first real Americans, Native Americans to make America Great Again were “nice people”? Verses what you say in condemnation of an unarmed black man peacefully protesting by exercising his constitutional First Amendment rights by silently taking a knee is appalling, unnerving and reprehensible. You called Colin Kaepernick “a son-of-a-bitch.” And said he should be fired. You are basically calling his white mother a bitch. The strong contrast in language for a black man and a Nazi is very telling. Do you have any sense of decency or shame in what you say to the American people that are part of your duty to serve respectfully with dignity, presidentially?The National Anthem that we listen too has been edited to try not to offend because when Francis Scott Key penned the song he watched freed slaves fighting for the British and wrote this stanza:“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”I guess if I were a slave back then I probably would have done anything to obtain freedom from my American oppressors who were whipping, killing, raping, dismembering, hanging or releasing the dogs on people like me all under our Constitution. In 1814 former slaves fought with the British for their freedom from their American enslavers and Key witnessed a battle from a ship off the Maryland shore at Fort McHenry which inspired him to write what became our National Anthem.I served my country not in the military but as 1 of 362 American Astronauts that have explored the universe to help advance our civilization. Not just Americans but all humans. I also was briefly in the NFL and stood for the National Anthem with my hand over my heart. What makes us great is our differences and respecting that we are all created equally even if not always treated that way. Looking back at our planet from space really helps one get a bigger perspective on how petty and divisive we can be. Donald Trump maybe you should ask your good friend Mr. Putin to give you a ride on a Soyuz rocket to our International Space Station and see what it’s like to work together with people we used to fight against, where your life depends on it. See the world and get a greater sense of what it means to be part of the human race, we call it the Orbital Perspective.Donald Trump please know that you are supposed to be a unifier and a compassionate and empathetic leader. If you can’t do the job then please step down and let someone else try. I pray that you do the right thing. May God bless you.Sincerely,
Leland Melvin
Former Astronaut and
NFL Player
I'm going to hang bobble-heads in effigy.....
...full immersion.....
It only took trump a few minutes out of a day to say those things. I don't understand the idea that trump isn't concerned about the issues you mentioned.
Whats crazy to me about the "right to do it" argument is if you go into work in a "normal" job ad after a meeting concludes you stand up and yell something offensive or if you tweet or go on Facebook, you can be fired. But these NFL players seem to be above that norm.
Then they should do it on their own time, not while being paid, and being paid by the very people they're offending. They're being paid to entertain people by playing a game, not shove their disrespectful, anti American displays in people's face. If every person across America walked into their place of work and started protesting while on the job, and that protest started costing where you worked financially and in standing, you would be FIRED, PERIOD, END OF STORY.
What about that don't you leftist understand? Why are simple concepts sometimes impossible for you people to grasp? Why do you all have to start in with the bizarre exaggerations and hyperbole?
And once again, you like a fool attempting to use a term coined by conservatives for liberals like yourself. What's the matter, don't you have enough originality to think up your own terms? Too lazy? What is it?
Last edited by High_Plains_Drifter; 09-24-2017 at 01:16 PM.
Speaking of snowflakes have you accepted the fact trump won on November 8 or are you still hanging on to Russian conspiracy theories ?
and what difference does it make if it's silent or not? Someone wears a t shirt saying AIDS kills fags dead are you gonna say the league should be allowed to fire him or will you fight to the death to make sure he keeps his job?
Last edited by Black Diamond; 09-24-2017 at 03:08 PM.
You have the right to protest. You have the right to be protested in return. When I turn on a football game, I want to watch a football game. Not some bullshit athlete using is media access as a forum to do anything other than play football. And in all fairness, I treat Hollyweirdo's the same. Want to bitch instead of make movies? Fine. MY form of protest which is MY right to do is I won't pay for nor watch your shit.
And I watched some of the NFL last year because I was in the hospital hooked up to about 7 tubes this time last year. Entertainment options were severely limited.
Do I think the President should be weighing in? Probably not except for THEY brought the ball to HIS court. White House dinners are presided over by the President in HIS house. Don't want to go? Far bigger impact if you don't run your mouth in the media and just don't show up. Same goes for Trump in that regard. I'd just have not shwn up to my own dinner.
And bet your ass if any of these "protesters" got on the tube and starting talking shit about the NFLSuch are our priorities.
“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Edumnd Burke
Yeah, I hear you. I do think he's 'concerned' about those other issues, but this has caught his fancy and plays well to those that like 'the outsider and tough guy' parts of him.
I totally agree that people certainly have the right to not support the NFL through tickets, buying their products, and not watching on TV. The players have the right to not stand for the anthem, the owners the right to back them or punish them. What they are doing is legal, the owners could fine, fire, or otherwise penalize them-but not the government.
Trump could have used the comparison with Media Matters and what they've done regarding boycotts of FOX and others. Instead it sounded a lot like he was trying to threaten, which is likely just how he wanted to sound. Legally, not a leg to stand on.
"The government is a child that has found their parents credit card, and spends knowing that they never have to reconcile the bill with their own money"-Shannon Churchill