The NFL has been under the spotlight in recent weeks in part to Donald Trump's speech rallying his base against the NFL, or more specifically, the NFL athletes that took a knee during the National Anthem to protest police brutality in the United States. In response to Trump calling the NFL players that took a knee during the National Anthem "sons of bitches" that should be fired. Then the sports world erupted into flames with hashtags and tweets back and forth from the crowd of people who believe in free speech, and the crowd of people who hate opposing viewpoints and appreciate the President of the free world openly calling for censorship of dissenting views. It got so bad, the anti-kneeling crowd called for boycotts of the NFL to hurt their bottom line for daring to condone free, harmless demonstration. By demanding players to display patriotism and respect, you're ironically not displaying any of the values you claim the flag represents for you.
But this thread isn't to discuss whether the players that took a knee are right, or if they're wrong. It's been discussed relentlessly on this board and it's clear that the pro-censorship, anti-American Trump supporters do not care for American values when it opposes their President. What needs to be discussed is that this feverish boycott of the NFL by a silent minority was only brought upon by the NFL and the NFLPA condoning peaceful demonstration than the other demons the NFL has been beaten to death with year after year but met by total silence by Trump and his fan base.
A kicker for the New York Giants can serially abuse his wife and child. Josh Brown of the Giants can beat, and assault his family to the point where the Giants not only swept it under the rug, but tried to mitigate the damage by booking Brown's family in a different hotel than with Josh Brown. Trump never spoke up against that, he never called Josh Brown a son of a bitch that should be fired. Adrian Peterson beat his child with a switch so violently, his son's scrotum was damaged and bruised. The NFL only acted after backlash from their initial inaction to Peterson's arrest. Again Trump and the Alt-right never called for a boycott. Same with Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald, TJ Ward, or Ray Rice.
Let alone the fact that Trump never called Roger Goodell a son of a bitch for Goodell's efforts to hide CTE and pretend like the consistent head trauma being inflicted to NFL players on a weekly basis is slowly killing them and turning their brains into mush. That Goodell and the NFL have actively attempted to hinder research into CTE and concussions in order to refuse blame for the injuries and damage these players take in order to line the pockets of the billionaire teams that they crushed their own skulls for.
But the worst thing about all of this isn't their total apathy to actual concerns and issues, but rather their final straw to rally for a boycott? It was a simple gesture of kneeling during the anthem. What stir their blood more than the NFL actively covering up Ray Rice knocking out his wife in a hotel elevator and dragging her knocked out body like a rag doll was a back up quarterback daring to want to make America great again. But yet, many of the posters here (a majority of which whom never served in the military) will stand on the bodies on the fallen to demand players to stand for the anthem. The men and women who gave everything for this country can not rest for when the Alt-Right and the Trump supporters need to use their bodies as a political cudgel to beat down their opposition. In their attempt to claim the moral high ground, anyone who uses dead troops to bolster their point only dig themselves deeper into their already amoral position