Colin Kaepernick refuses “to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people”...

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan: Donald Trump 'jealous of' NFL amid failure to buy team

NEW YORK — Shad Khan thinks he knows the real reason Donald Trump is so obsessed with how the NFL does business.

"This is a very personal issue with him," Khan, the Jacksonville Jaguars owner, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday as NFL owners wrapped up two days of meetings in Lower Manhattan.

Trump, whose bid to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 failed, slammed one of his favorite punching bags again Wednesday, tweeting that the NFL is demonstrating “total disrespect” for the nation because it is not forcing players to stand for the national anthem.

The league and its owners generally have had little public response to Trump, though New York Giants co-owner John Mara said, facetiously, “I’m shocked,” when asked for a response to the President's tweet. But Khan didn’t hold back.

“He’s been elected President, where maybe a great goal he had in life to own an NFL team is not very likely,” said Khan, who bought the Jags in 2011 for $760 million. “So to make it tougher, or to hurt the league, it’s very calculated.”

He reiterated a description he's used before in characterizing Trump, calling him “a divider, not a uniter.”

Asked if he was aware of Trump insulting the widow of a Green Beret, LaDavid Johnson, during a phone call Tuesday when, according to Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., he told her, “He knew what he was signing up for,” Khan shook his head.

“It’s so bad," said Khan, who had seen the news reports. "It’s below the lowest of the lowest expectations. It doesn’t sound rational. It’s bizarre.”

Khan notes the irony of Trump accusing the NFL for a lack of patriotism and national pride while the President himself once again stands accused of great disrespect toward the family of a fallen soldier.

“Let’s get real," Khan said. “The attacks on Muslims, the attacks on minorities, the attacks on Jews. I think the NFL doesn’t even come close to that on the level of being offensive. Here, it’s about money, or messing with — trying to soil a league or a brand that he’s jealous of.”

Khan, a self-made billionaire who immigrated from Pakistan, contends that Trump’s flap with the NFL pales when compared to social issues, notably including Trump's proposed travel bans that target people from Muslim-majority nations.

“That’s one aspect that you can imagine — someone is getting a visa that will change their life is from a Muslim-majority country — and, now, boom, that dream to change lives, they get locked out,” Khan said. “That’s a hell of a lot more significant than fighting some sponsors or people who want their money back because they’ve been riled up.”

Interestingly, Khan was one of seven NFL owners (also: Jerry Jones, Robert Kraft, Stan Kroenke, Robert McNair, Dan Snyder and Woody Johnson) who donated significantly to Trump, providing $1 million to his inauguration fund.

Regret that now?

“I have no regrets in life,” said Khan, who founded a leading manufacturer of auto parts, and was intrigued by some of Trump's proposed economic policies.

“This ugly, toxic side sours the whole experience,” Khan said.

It’s too bad every owner isn’t as candid as Khan. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell undoubtedly expressed the sentiment of many while contending the league wants to “stay out of politics.”

Unfortunately, Trump, who profanely criticized protesting players during a rally last month and urged NFL teams to fire or suspend them, keeps the political link in play.

One high-ranking league official, while mulling Trump, sounded like Los Angeles Chargers tackle Russell Okung, who recently told USA TODAY Sports that he likens Trump's outbursts to the so-called “Southern Strategy,” using the NFL to draw attention from more important matters that are unfavorable to Trump.

Still, several owners have deeper ties to Trump than Khan, raising questions about their apparent willingness to overlook his approach to social issues, including some — such as police brutality and social inequality — that can be directly linked to player protests.

Kraft, the New England Patriots owner, refused to comment on Trump when approached by USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday, contending it wasn’t the proper setting. Strange, considering that Kraft presented Trump with a Super Bowl LI ring this year.

Last week, Trump declared during a Pennsylvania rally that Kraft urged him to gear tax cuts for the middle class rather than wealthy Americans.

Kraft's relationship with the President goes back years, and he credits Trump for helping him cope with the death of his wife, Myra, in 2011. He may have talked taxes with Trump, but I wonder if Kraft has urged him to show more humanitarian concern for Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico or more contempt for white supremacist rallies.

Jones, meanwhile, told USA TODAY Sports that he recently talked to Trump, who has praised the Dallas Cowboys owner for his controversial declaration that he won’t play any player who doesn’t stand for the anthem. Jones considers himself a Trump friend but refused to provide details except to say that he doesn’t agree with all of Trump’s positions. (You’d hope not.)

Still, with Jones pushing the Trump doctrine on protesting players — rejected, incidentally, by other owners — it’s a bad look.

Taking on Trump publicly has its political risks. But at least one owner, Khan, is willing to address any misperceptions.

Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith discuss how they’d protest if they were current NBA players

On Tuesday, the members of TNT’s Inside The NBA pregame show held a season opening conference call with the media. After being asked about how they think player protests and activism among players will be handled on and off the court this season, Awful Announcing posed an interesting question to former players Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal:

If you were players in today’s NBA, how would you handle being active on social issues that are at the forefront of today’s sporting landscape?

Straight off the bat, Barkley and O’Neal said they would both stand for the National Anthem, but Barkley said this issue needs to be about more than that.

“What are we actually doing for our community? That’s all I really care about,” Barkley said. “Man, we gotta start putting our money where our mouth is.”

Barkley suggested he would give back to his community and help more kids go to college rather than just sit around and talk about being socially active. He also said the media is handling this issue poorly, in part because they care too much about who’s standing and who is not for the Anthem.

“I’m just so sick of the media hijacking this conversation because they need something to talk about every day,” Barkley said. “Man, let’s start doing. Stop talking.”

On kneeling during the National Anthem, O’Neal said that many people are just going to tune you out solely because they believe it’s disrespectful to the flag.
“When you do it at a moment during the National Anthem— and I know people say it’s not about the flag, and I believe that it’s not about the flag— but when you do it in that moment, there’s a large majority of people that say you are disrespecting the flag and they won’t even listen to your conversation,” O’Neal said.

The only way to go about protesting, the trio of former players agreed, was in a peaceful and respectful way.

“When you give people a choice to listen or not to listen, they’re always going to go to the excuse,” O’Neal said, stressing that many people who criticize National Anthem kneelers would immediately tune out or discount an opinion or cause because of this. “‘If you disrespect the flag, I’m not gonna listen to you.’”

O’Neal “would try to do it much bigger” by holding large press conferences, like past sports icons who were successful at social activism.

“When I always look at the photos of Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, they held a press conference and they made their case known. I would do it like that,” O’Neal said. “Because when you do it like that, respectfully, people have no choice but to listen.”

Smith took a more analytical and cerebral approach to the question, saying that the first thing he would do as an NBA player today would be to educate himself on all the important issues of the day. Some of those issues, Smith said, he didn’t need to be educated on, having grown up in the inner cities of Queens, New York and knowing those life lessons first hand.

“The reality is that there’s an issue in the inner cities of America that is not being addressed,” Smith said, beginning an honest and frank discussion of why he would seriously consider openly protesting if he were an NBA player today. This issue won’t be a problem solved by just throwing money at it, he said.

“It’s a collective thought that’s perpetuated by a certain group of people that won’t allow any amount of finances to change or allow any amount of finances to make change,” Smith said. “So to me, it’s about changing the mindset, or acknowledging that there’s a mindset of people that are prejudicial towards minorities in America.”

Making it known and publicized that this prejudicial mindset exists, Smith said, is the root of why these player protests are taking place altogether, and why some players feel it’s necessary to kneel for the National Anthem, or lock arms, or raise their fists, or wear sneakers on national television that say “Equality,” like LeBron James did on Tuesday night.

“Until that is consistently addressed, no matter how much money you throw at it, it doesn’t matter,” Smith said. “And it is about bringing awareness to it in any shape, form or fashion, as long as it’s peaceful. So that’s what I feel.”

Dems Demand Pence Refund Taxpayers For ‘Costly Publicity Stunt’ At NFL Game

A group of Democratic representatives asked Vice President Mike Pence to repay taxpayers for a trip he took to an Indianapolis Colts game that he walked out of when players knelt for the national anthem, a move that President Trump essentially confirmed was a preplanned stunt.

Spearheaded by Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), the Democrats claim the “costly publicity stunt” was “employed by the Trump-Pence reelection campaign for the purpose of soliciting donations” because the campaign quickly used the scene to rally its base.

Additionally, members of Pence’s press pool were advised to stay in their cars and were told there might be an “early departure,” the letter said.

“This strongly suggests that your truncated visit was not a spontaneous act of protest — as you have sought to portray it — but was instead a premeditated act conducted solely for the purpose of generating publicity. In fact, President Trump confirmed as much when he posted on Twitter that he told you beforehand to stage this protest if any players kneeled,” according to the letter, which was signed by Gallego, Lieu, as well as Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA).

Requesting documents about his travel and communications between Pence and the Trump-Pence campaign, the members of Congress said the American people “deserve to know” how many taxpayer dollars were spent on the trip and whether the campaign knew about it ahead of time, “at the very least.”

But, in order to “preserve the integrity” of Pence’s office, the Democrats also urged Pence to reimburse the Department of the Treasury for the full cost of the trip.

“The health of the democracy requires that taxpayer funding is not used for campaign purposes,” they wrote. “Again, given the appearance of serious impropriety in this matter, we request that you instruct the Trump-Pence campaign to immediately reimburse the Treasury for the full cost of your wasteful, unnecessary trip to Indianapolis.”

Pence’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to TPM’s requests for comment.

Jerry Jones Sat Through the National Anthem With Elizabeth Taylor During His First Home Game as Owner of the Cowboys

Jerry Jones started the season with the hollow look-at-me gesture of kneeling with the entire Dallas Cowboys team before the playing of the National Anthem. Since then he had multiple phone calls with Donald Trump and has decided that any player who dare exercise his Constitutional right to protest would be punished. Disrespecting the flag in Dallas will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Unless you’re chatting with Elizabeth Taylor



That is from a 1989 letter to the editor in the Star-Telegram. It resurfaced last August when Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling originally became a story. This disrespectful, letter-inspiring act likely took place during Jerry Jones’ first home game as Cowboys owner so you can forgive him if he didn’t know what he was supposed to do during the Anthem.

Still, the idea that Jerry Jones, the owner of America’s Team, would ever disrespect the flag is confounding. It was just two weeks ago that he was fielding calls from Donald Trump about the issue and would bench any player who disrespects the flag. What if a celebrity is on the sideline? Is that a reasonable exception for Cowboys players? Or is this simply more proof that the NFL and it’s owners don’t actually care about respecting the flag?

Note: Jerry Jones first regular season game as owner of the Cowboys was on the road. The article originally said this happened during his first game as owner.