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

NFL owners could change anthem policy next season if protests continue

Some NFL owners believe there is a strong possibility they will enact an offseason change to the league’s national anthem policy if players’ protests during the anthem persist through the end of this season, reverting to a previous approach of keeping players in the locker room while the anthem is played, according to several people familiar with the league’s inner workings.

“I think that if players are still kneeling at the end of the year, then it could very well happen,” said one person familiar with the owners’ deliberations on anthem-related issues.

That person said it was “too early to tell” for certain if the change to the anthem policy will be made by owners and the league. The person was “not sure” if a formal vote of the owners would be required to enact such a change but said, “I think most owners would support it, particularly if players continue to kneel this season.”

Those sentiments were echoed by several others with knowledge of the owners’ thinking on the matter. They said they did not know at this point exactly how many owners would favor such an approach, and they cautioned that there have been no detailed discussions yet about leaving teams and players in the locker room for the anthem because owners did not consider it appropriate to make an in-season change to the policy.

But they agreed that if the protests last all season and remain intensely controversial among fans, the issue will be raised during the offseason and a policy change to having players remain in the locker room until the anthem’s conclusion would have the support of a significant number of owners. They said the matter could be addressed at the annual league meeting in March.

“It would certainly have to be considered very strongly,” said an official with an NFL franchise who is familiar with the thinking of that team’s owner on the matter.

The NFL declined to comment.

The change to having players and coaches on the sideline for the anthem was made in 2009. The current league policy says that players must be on the sideline for the anthem. It suggests but does not require that players stand for the anthem.

At various points this season some players, including full teams, have remained off the field during the playing of the anthem. They have not been fined or otherwise disciplined by the NFL.

The league has been under intense pressure from President Trump and some fans to require players to stand during the anthem. In September, Trump said during a campaign speech in Alabama that owners should fire any player who protested during the anthem. His fiery speech included a reference to such a player being a “son of a ? ,” and it fueled an intense national controversy over the issue.

The pressure from the White House has not relented. After Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch refused to stand for the U.S. anthem before Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots in Mexico City, Trump offered critical comments Monday on Twitter.

“Marshawn Lynch of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our national anthem,” Trump wrote. “Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.”

Owners held a series of meetings last month in New York focused on the anthem and related topics. Owners met with representatives of the players, then held their regularly scheduled fall owners’ meeting. Owners emerged from those meetings without enacting a rule requiring players to stand for the anthem. But even without such a requirement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and owners said they wanted players to stand.

“We believe everyone should stand for the national anthem,” Goodell said at the conclusion of the October owners’ meeting. “That’s an important part of our policy. It’s also an important part of our game that we all take great pride in. And it’s also important for us to honor our flag and our country, and we think our fans expect us to do that.”

Goodell and owners said then that they were focused on discussions with the players about league support of players’ community activism. They said they hoped that such support would convince players to voluntarily stand for the anthem, although they cautioned there was no formal or implied agreement that NFL support of players’ activism would lead to all players standing.

“This is not a trade-off,” Jed York, the chief executive officer of the San Francisco 49ers, said at the October meeting. “From what I’ve read, there are some players that have said that they’re still not considering standing yet. And that never came up in the meeting. … This has been, ‘How do we take protest to progress?’ How do we make sure that we move these issues forward that matter to the players and I think that matter to the owners?”

Players and owners have not had a face-to-face meeting since then and have not completed a formal policy for league support of players’ activism. But the conversations have continued, and an agreement could be coming.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he would bench any player on his team who protested during the anthem and thereby, in Jones’s view, showed disrespect to the American flag. But other owners said at the October meeting that the overwhelming majority of owners wanted players to stand for the anthem but did not want to enact a rule requiring it.

The players’ protest movement began last season with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, then with the 49ers. He refused to stand for the anthem to protest racial inequality in the U.S. and the treatment of African Americans by police. Kaepernick was not signed by an NFL team this season and has filed a grievance accusing teams of collusion.

The NFL’s current policy is in its game operations manual, sent by the league to teams, and not in its publicly available rule book. The policy says: “The national anthem must be played before every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the national anthem.

“During the national anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the national anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”

One NFL sponsor, Papa John’s, recently criticized the NFL for a lack of leadership related to the players’ protests, although the pizza maker later issued an apology to those who believed its stance was divisive. With TV ratings sagging and Jones citing the league’s current financial circumstances as a reason for his bid to stall Goodell’s pending five-year contract extension with the owners, some owners have acknowledged that the anthem controversy and the protests have had an effect on the business of the NFL.

“We know how important this is to our sponsors, our partners, our licensees,” Goodell said at last month’s owners’ meeting. “It’s important to us, also. We all share that.”

Colin Kaepernick visits Alcatraz to support a Native American protest

SAN FRANCISCO — Former 49ers quarterback and walking political flashpoint Colin Kaepernick received honorary eagle feathers as he attended the annual Indigenous People’s Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz Island on Thursday.

The event, also known as “Un-Thanksgiving Day,” celebrates the lengthy occupation of the infamous prison island by Native Americans between 1969 and 1971.

“Today, I was on Alcatraz Island at the Indigenous People’s Sunrise Gathering, in solidarity with those celebrating their culture and paying respects to those that participated in the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz,” Kaepernick said in a tweet Thursday.
The former NFL star — who led the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl won by the Baltimore Ravens — has been at the center of controversy since he declined to stand for the national anthem before 2016 games, in protest against police brutality toward black people. His defiance spread to other players and engulfed him in a controversy that has seen him vilified by President Donald Trump. He remains an unsigned free agent and has filed a grievance with the NFL alleging he’s being blackballed over his anthem protest.

After receiving two eagle feathers from a Native American elder, Kaepernick gave a brief speech.

“I’m very humbled to share this space with all of you,” Kaepernick said in the video posted on Twitter. “Our fight is the same fight. We’re all fighting for our justice, for our freedom. And realizing that we’re in this fight together makes us all the more powerful.”

The Alcatraz occupation started on Nov. 20, 1969, led by Mohawk activist Richard Oakes and Native American college students, according to the National Park Service, which runs Alcatraz.

“Once the occupiers had established themselves on the island, organization began immediately,” according to the National Park Service. “An elected council was put into place and everyone on the island had a job; security, sanitation, day-care, school, housing, cooking, laundry, and all decisions were made by unanimous consent of the people.”

The Alcatraz protesters wanted the deed to Alcatraz, and to establish an Indian university, cultural center and museum, according to the park service.

“The government negotiators insisted that the occupiers could have none of these and insisted that they leave the island,” according to the park service.

“The underlying goals of the Indians on Alcatraz were to awaken the American public to the reality of the plight of the first Americans and to assert the need for Indian self-determination.”

As the occupation progressed, divisions appeared among the activists. Hippies and drug users began “taking up residency,” according to the park service. A fatal fall by Oakes’ 13-year-old daughter, and his subsequent departure, left two competing groups to vie for leadership.

The federal government took a mostly hands-off approach, but also shut off electrical power and took away a barge providing fresh water to the island.

Ultimately, President Richard Nixon approved a plan to remove the protesters when the fewest were on Alcatraz, and on June 10, 1971, armed federal marshals, FBI agents and special-forces police “swarmed the island and removed five women, four children, and six unarmed Indian men,” according to the park service.

“The occupation was over.”

However, the occupation, directly or indirectly, led the government to adopt Indian self-determination as official U.S. policy, according to the park service.

Hypocritical athlete protests demand deeper investigation
By Phil Mushnick


With protests now as common as Ethel Merman imitations, it’s time to examine the protesters, starting with those who have exploited the TV-reliant NFL and our national anthem to protest alleged police brutality by racist cops (of all races), one week, President Tweet, the next.

Oakland’s Marshawn Lynch made big news and noise last Sunday in Mexico City, where he respectfully stood for Mexico’s anthem but then again showed his rude side to the U.S. anthem.

And if one read and/or listened to reports of this “protest,” one could logically conclude Lynch is a legitimate social activist, an advocate of right over perceived wrongs.

But if one were to apply Lynch’s NFL bio, his ascension to conspicuous and now international social protester would be — or should be — reported as preposterous.

In 2008, Lynch, with the Bills, was driving his new Porsche at 3:30 a.m., when he struck a pedestrian then fled. He pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and had his license revoked. But he was still able to play — and for millions of dollars — in the NFL. There’s nothing he can do to prevent that.

In 2012, Lynch was arrested for DWI then plea-bargained to a reduced charge.

Three times Lynch “celebrated” a TD by grabbing his crotch. In 2014, the NFL fined him $11,000 for his vulgarity, but Lynch did it again before a national TV audience in the 2015 NFC Championship.

This season, Lynch was fined for making an obscene gesture during a game.

Yet, none of this was heard or read in the reports of his “protest” in Mexico City. And although it’s doubtful that any of us could remain employed with his bio, Lynch continues to be employed, this time, a $9 million contract plus “incentives.”

As a practical matter, protesting players concede that the NFL is a business. Yet, when signing Colin Kaepernick is avoided as a bad business decision — one that will diminish a team’s customers, thus revenue — it’s presented by the wishful as a racial matter, although the league is predominated by well-paid African-Americans.

Want to take a knee in protest of something before a game? Try this one:

The annual — as in 89 years — Thanksgiving Day football game between N.J. high schools Neptune and Asbury Park, now mostly attended by African-American kids, last week was postponed before its 90th year in anticipation of “credible threats of violence,” interpreted as gang warfare.

Throughout the country, high school football and basketball games are now postponed, canceled or ordered played before no spectators due to concerns based on previous violent episodes.

Also escaping protest examination was that nine-day, one-game shopping trip to China taken by UCLA’s basketball team of student-athletes.

The three players nailed for shoplifting were explained on ESPN as having “made a mistake.” As reader Howard Heller, asks, “Have you ever made a ‘mistake’ stealing from stores? I thought a mistake is driving past your exit or buying expired milk.” Stealing is a conscious choice.

And as reader Luis Rosell notes, UCLA is among those schools to declare it would not play in states that have not approved LGBT-sensitive legislation. Yet, UCLA traveled to play in China, known to the Western World for reprehensible human rights deprivations, incarcerations and disappearances.

As for UCLA’s high-minded no-travel LGBT stance, declared late in 2015, last season it was unexpectedly scheduled to play in one of those banned states, Tennessee — in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.

With all that dough at stake? UCLA played in Tennessee. Didn’t hear anything about that on CBS and TNT, did ya?

But examine the protesters at your own risk. The con job is now King.