The Super Bowl just ended last month and already NFL owners are back on that bull crap. First reports surface that the Houston Texans won’t sign any players who took a knee for the anthem last season. That is a serious and unsettling accusation that Houston has since denied. Texans owner Bob McNair, whose infamous “inmates running the prison” reference in describing NFL protests got him in hot water last season , can’t seem to hide his racist inner core.
The Shadow League on Twitter
Here is the Texans’ statement by Bob McNair after the reports of him saying “We can’t have the inmates running the prison” about NFL players
Then Miami Owner Stephen Ross opened his ignorant mouth and now, as Ice Cube said in ‘The Nigga You Love To Hate’, “once again it’s on…”
“All of our players will be standing,” Ross told the Daily News Monday at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, where he was honored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation with its ROBIE Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ross, said that at first he supported NFL players taking a knee because Kaepernick was protesting against racial injustice.
According to The Daily News, “Ross said his feelings changed when he felt the message being sent by players kneeling was a protest against “support of our country or the military.” Ross seemed to give a tacit endorsement of President Trump’s tweets last year, when Trump switched the narrative on the issue by blasting players taking a knee during the anthem because, in Trump’s mind, the players were disrespecting the flag and the country.”
“If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!” Trump tweeted in September.
“When that message changed, and everybody was interpreting it as that was the reason, then I was against kneeling,” said Ross. “I like Donald (Trump). I don’t support everything that he says. Overall, I think he was trying to make a point, and his message became what kneeling was all about. From that standpoint, that is the way the public is interpreting it. So I think that’s really incumbent upon us to adopt that. That’s how, I think, the country now is interpreting the kneeling issue.”
Ross played himself and naturally had to backtrack on that truth. Which public is he speaking for anyway? You can’tunite for social justice programs with your players and then tell them how to express their humanity.
The NFLPA shot back with a message of its own, because somebody has this shiznit twisted.
NFLPA on Twitter
Statement on Players’ Right to Demonstrate
I have several issues with this. Ross couldn’t stay humble long enough or even fake the fact that he still views his players as property and could care less about their personal feelings or social issues. He feels like all the owners feel and decided to set the tone early for the 2018-19 NFL season to avoid the “PR disaster” NFL owners had last season.
Ross is a real estate titan, but he’s a fool for that comment. AND he had the gaul to announce this at an awards dinner held by The Jackie Robinson Foundation. That’s some sick stuff.
Robert Littal on Twitter
While being honored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation, Ross said he believed Trump is making the country better and since the country (aka MAGA) didn’t like the players kneeling against racism, Ross will force them to stand https://t.co/tAWRvJ0VAr
Last NFL season was historic for many reasons. On the field, Philly defied the odds and the loss of Carson Wentz to capture the first Super Bowl in franchise history. For most of the season, the narrative focused on NFL players protesting, taking the knee Colin Kaepernick took two seasons ago amid a firestorm of criticism and a backdrop of a divisive new President, rampant police brutality and the overall horrors of oppression in America. He sparked the flame of social consciousness and activism in a generation of pro athletes and young people of color.
The owners say the protests hurt the game. Hurt business. Hurt the brand, put them in sticky positions with their predominantly white fan base and advertisers.
hypervocal on Twitter
Peyton Manning sells his stake in Papa Johns https://t.co/9dZIfix0wY
The players and a large portion of the country felt they were necessary and the social activism and financial commitment that has followed by superstars from Kaepernick to LeBron James to Kevin Durant as well as the NFL agreeing to contribute $89 million over seven years to projects focused on criminal justice reform, law enforcement/community relations and education last week, proved that the players did not go unheard.
As that deal was closed the NFL protests also stopped. In some circles, it wreaked of the players being paid off to keep business flowing. After all, the playoffs and the Super Bowl would have been the ideal opportunities for the players to take these protests to a global stage and really make a statement. Instead, any form of protest, from taking a knee to a raised fist, were non-existent come playoff time.
NFL owners have never genuinely tried to understand where the players are coming from. They got what they wanted, the protests stopped, and now they are attempting to rub it in, awakening a sleeping giant.
The Shadow League on Twitter
Malcolm Jenkins confirmed he has no intentions to go to the White House after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. https://t.co/BzdSx2Vaoz
It’s unreasonable to expect 70-year-old, privileged white men to understand and join in a fight against conditions that have helped their rise to incredible wealth, especially when the fight is messing with their cheddar and all they do is chase the cheese.
