Colin Kaepernick

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Blacks are banking on the country caving to this and the country probably will because they know if 1800 NFL players dont have multi million dollar jobs crime in the USA is going to fucking explode.

Like Chicago

[BDKJMU]

The owner. In this case the NFL. And by not stopping it (which they easily could have done) they are tacitly condoning it.

Bullshit as usual.

The owners can't stop **** or they'll be left with a small, slow, team that will never see the playoffs again.

Densedog spouting his usual non sense. The NFL extremely tightly regulates player on field behavior, how they wear their uniform, what they can and can't wear on it, etc. If the NFL as a whole said you have to stand or be fined, then players would stand. The one thing the NFL and players care about above all else is $$$. And before this past weekend it wasn't even 1% of players doing it. Easy to squash that.

If enough people quit watching, buying tickets and aparell, the NFL will start singing a different tune.

[CAA Flagship]

White people just don't understand.

[Baldy]

Pretty shitty.

Fake news alert on this one - three of those games didn't even happen this year - the Giants haven't played the Redskins yet, the Bengals weren't at San Fran, and the Titans didn't play the Chargers this year. I didn't check pre-season games but that's a whole different can of worms if you showed pictures from there.

With that said, though, there's no doubt the NFL is experiencing a dip in interest, and certainly some of it can be attributed to backlash against the protests. Certainly not all, though, as all sports have seen some issues of late.

Fake news.

Yeah, because some of the games are from last season makes so much of a difference.

Colts vs. Rams Week 1


Dolphins vs. Chargers Week 2 (30,000 capacity stadium)


Rams vs 49ers Week 2


Feel better now?

[UNI88]

Question 1 (and I apologize if this has already been asked and answered) - why is kneeling during national anthem disrespectful but proudly displaying the flag from an unsuccessful rebellion against the nation that the anthem and flag represent not disrespectful?

I don't think a majority of the people speaking out against the kneeling are the same one's supporting the flag from an unsuccessful rebellion against the nation. There are many, IMO, not a majority.

I agree with you that the majority of the people speaking out against the kneeling are not also supporting the flag from an unsuccessful rebellion against the nation. But let's flip the debate around because I strongly suspect that a great majority of the people proudly displaying a confederate battle flag are ironically and hypocritically against kneeling during the anthem.

I think it would be kind of fun to have a couple of threads on the hypocrisy of the right and of the left.

[JohnStOnge]

On the stadium pictures thing:

In order to properly interpret those pictures you'd have to know what the score was and how much time was left in the game. Honestly I haven't watched NFL football regularly for years. But what you'd have to do is look at what the crowds looked like at opening kickoff.

Having said that, Los Angeles does have an issue. See the NFL attendance stats at http://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance. They show an average Los Angeles home attendance for the first two home games at 25,383. That is incredibly low NFL attendance.

But I seriously doubt that's because NFL players are kneeling. I don't think Los Angeles is a place where you'd expect to see people fleeing pro football games because players are kneeling during the national anthem. It's not exactly Birmingham. If that's having an effect one would expect to see it manifested in places like the South. And it the South the average home attendances are pretty decent:

Dallas 93,183
New Orleans 73,168
Houston 71,710
Atlanta 70,826
Tennessee 69,108
Jacksonville 61,709
Tampa Bay 56,640

No home attendance average is listed for Miami.

[JohnStOnge]

From the Forbes article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg ... b8154ace16

In reality, the ratings decline has been mild, not massive, and the ratings of some big games--like the Sept. 10 matchup between the Giants and the Cowboys and Thursday's Rams-49ers tilt--have been up year-over-year as much as 38%. Before Sunday’s games, ratings for Sunday Night Football were down 7% this year, while those for Sunday afternoon games were down 11% on Fox and 19% on CBS, year over year. ESPN’s Monday Night Football has seen a ratings drop of 5%.

This likely reflects the effects of cord-cutting as people turn to the internet to watch the games. The rise of streaming has been so impactful that ESPN will now only report a viewing number combining streaming and linear audiences, it announced Friday. The various hurricanes that hit America over the past month also caused viewing disruptions.

And, even with the ratings decline, football games remain the most-watched primetime programming on television--and the some of the most lucrative, too.

[BDKJMU]

On the stadium pictures thing:

In order to properly interpret those pictures you'd have to know what the score was and how much time was left in the game. Honestly I haven't watched NFL football regularly for years. But what you'd have to do is look at what the crowds looked like at opening kickoff.

Having said that, Los Angeles does have an issue. See the NFL attendance stats at http://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance. They show an average Los Angeles home attendance for the first two home games at 25,383. That is incredibly low NFL attendance.

But I seriously doubt that's because NFL players are kneeling. I don't think Los Angeles is a place where you'd expect to see people fleeing pro football games because players are kneeling during the national anthem. It's not exactly Birmingham. If that's having an effect one would expect to see it manifested in places like the South. And it the South the average home attendances are pretty decent:

Dallas 93,183
New Orleans 73,168
Houston 71,710
Atlanta 70,826
Tennessee 69,108
Jacksonville 61,709
Tampa Bay 56,640

No home attendance average is listed for Miami.

Miami isn't the 'South'..

[JohnStOnge]

Hint: If you are taking anything Trump says seriously as though it actually has some kind of factual value, you are a fool.

[JohnStOnge]

On the stadium pictures thing:

In order to properly interpret those pictures you'd have to know what the score was and how much time was left in the game. Honestly I haven't watched NFL football regularly for years. But what you'd have to do is look at what the crowds looked like at opening kickoff.

Having said that, Los Angeles does have an issue. See the NFL attendance stats at http://www.espn.com/nfl/attendance. They show an average Los Angeles home attendance for the first two home games at 25,383. That is incredibly low NFL attendance.

But I seriously doubt that's because NFL players are kneeling. I don't think Los Angeles is a place where you'd expect to see people fleeing pro football games because players are kneeling during the national anthem. It's not exactly Birmingham. If that's having an effect one would expect to see it manifested in places like the South. And it the South the average home attendances are pretty decent:

Dallas 93,183
New Orleans 73,168
Houston 71,710
Atlanta 70,826
Tennessee 69,108
Jacksonville 61,709
Tampa Bay 56,640

No home attendance average is listed for Miami.

Miami isn't the 'South'..

Actually I don't know if Jacksonville and Tampa are either. Florida has been taken over by Yankees and the only places that I think of as "Southern" in cultural terms anymore are in the rural counties. But, geographically they're in the South so I included them.

[Skjellyfetti]

Panhandle is pretty southern. You'd love Apalachicola, JSO.

[Skjellyfetti]

Senator says Russian internet trolls stoked NFL debate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator on Wednesday said Russian internet trolls, seeking to polarize Americans, helped fuel a debate ignited by President Donald Trump over whether NFL players should have the right to kneel during the national anthem.

The assertion, made by Republican James Lankford, comes as congressional investigators probing Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election are focusing on how Russian agents used social media to spread divisive political content.

”We watched, even this weekend, the Russians and their troll farms, their internet folks, start hashtagging out #TakeAKnee and also hashtagging out #BoycottNFL,” Lankford, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a hearing on threats faced by the United States.

“They were taking both sides of the argument this weekend ... to try to raise the noise level of America and make a big issue seem like an even bigger issue as they are trying to push divisiveness in this country,” Lankford said.

Lankford did not provide evidence to corroborate his statement.

A Lankford aide said U.S. intelligence shared with senators showed that Russian troll operations relied on social media to meddle in U.S. issues going back to last year’s presidential election in an effort to divide Americans.

Such activity has also been occurring in Europe for years, the aide said.

A website built by researchers working with the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan, transatlantic project to counter Russian disinformation, showed tweets promoting both sides of the football debate from 600 accounts that analysts identified as users who spread Russian propaganda on Twitter.

A Senate aide said the website was viewed as credible among congressional investigators.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKCN1C237J

[JohnStOnge]

Panhandle is pretty southern. You'd love Apalachicola, JSO.

I've been to Apalachicola a number of times because my career has been all about what happens in estuaries and that's a nationally important one.

I agree about the panhandle. But even there, the county that contains Tallahassee (Leon) voted for Clinton by 61% to 35%. There are large and relatively large metro areas that voted for Trump, I'm sure. But if only large and relatively large metro areas got to vote Trump would've lost in an overwhelming landslide. I'm talking by at least 2:1 and I wouldn't be surprised if it got to 3:1.

[houndawg]

Weather is too nice to be inside.

How is game attendance?

Pretty shitty.

Fake news.... work of moose and squirrel.

[SuperHornet]

Good one, houndawg.

My main beefs with this Turlock-inspired protest:

1. It's on company time. If any of US did anything like that, we'd be suspended or canned. Are NFL/MLB players somehow "more equal" than the rest of us?

2. The protest fails to address what they want it to address. The anthem typically honors the military, yet they're trying to shoehorn police brutality into it. That doesn't work, IMHO.

In terms of importance, #1 > #2, but I believe that both are true....

[Baldy]

On the stadium pictures thing:

In order to properly interpret those pictures you'd have to know what the score was and how much time was left in the game.

All you would have to do is look at the stats to see what the final score was.

You seem to be struggling. Let me give you a little help here: http://www.espn.com/

[mrklean]

Good one, houndawg.

My main beefs with this Turlock-inspired protest:

1. It's on company time. If any of US did anything like that, we'd be suspended or canned. Are NFL/MLB players somehow "more equal" than the rest of us?

2. The protest fails to address what they want it to address. The anthem typically honors the military, yet they're trying to shoehorn police brutality into it. That doesn't work, IMHO.

In terms of importance, #1 > #2, but I believe that both are true....

Show me proof of this This has nothing to do with the military.

[Gil Dobie]

Good one, houndawg.

My main beefs with this Turlock-inspired protest:

1. It's on company time. If any of US did anything like that, we'd be suspended or canned. Are NFL/MLB players somehow "more equal" than the rest of us?

2. The protest fails to address what they want it to address. The anthem typically honors the military, yet they're trying to shoehorn police brutality into it. That doesn't work, IMHO.

In terms of importance, #1 > #2, but I believe that both are true....

Show me proof of this This has nothing to do with the military.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. - WIKI

[mrklean]

Show me proof of this This has nothing to do with the military.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. - WIKI

Again, show me were it states it honors the military.

[Gil Dobie]

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the United States Navy in 1889, and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931 (46 Stat. 1508, codified at 36 U.S.C. § 301), which was signed by President Herbert Hoover. - WIKI

Again, show me were it states it honors the military.

From Stephen A. Smith

The players were moved to the field during the national anthem because it was seen as a marketing strategy to make the athletes look more patriotic. The United States Department of Defense paid the National Football League $5.4 million between 2011 and 2014, and the National Guard [paid] $6.7 million between 2013 and 2015 to stage on-field patriotic ceremonies as part of military recruitment budget-line items.

Snopes Link

[BDKJMU]

Networks are in bed with the NFL in trying to portray the players in a positive light & hiding the actual fan backlash..

"...Some fans, if they reacted at all, happily clapped and cheered during protests, but others did not, and they angrily let their home teams know it. The audio mics picked up the boos. Yet the TV networks mostly avoided crowd shots Sunday, so there was never a chance for viewers to see fans jeering players.

A segment of Patriots fans in Foxborough, Mass., for example, nearly booed their own players off the field when some Pats sat or kneeled, with some screaming, "Stand up!"

One behind-the-scenes TV staffer at another stadium told Sporting News that camera operators were ordered to avoid crowd shots in case they showed fans counterprotesting the protests.

NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports and ESPN pay billions each year to televise live NFL games. The league saw this weekend's unprecedented anthem coverage as a golden opportunity to demonstrate unity among players, coaches and owners -- and opposition to Trump's comments.

If crowd shots were indeed purposely avoided, it was a wise business decision by the networks not to bite the hand that feeds them their most popular programming, but a weak move from a journalistic standpoint. By covering one of the most significant days in NFL history with rose-colored glasses, the networks cheated viewers. We got an incomplete picture of what really happened in stadiums on Sunday and Monday....."
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/nf ... ktogwfftzs

[GannonFan]

Fake news alert on this one - three of those games didn't even happen this year - the Giants haven't played the Redskins yet, the Bengals weren't at San Fran, and the Titans didn't play the Chargers this year. I didn't check pre-season games but that's a whole different can of worms if you showed pictures from there.

With that said, though, there's no doubt the NFL is experiencing a dip in interest, and certainly some of it can be attributed to backlash against the protests. Certainly not all, though, as all sports have seen some issues of late.

Fake news.

Yeah, because some of the games are from last season makes so much of a difference.

Colts vs. Rams Week 1


Dolphins vs. Chargers Week 2 (30,000 capacity stadium)


Rams vs 49ers Week 2


Feel better now?

Just kidding around, no personal slight intended. I just happened to notice that you had pulled games from last year to say how things look this year and wanted to yank your chain. And obviously there are plenty of shots of games this year to prove the same point.

[Baldy]

Fake news.

Yeah, because some of the games are from last season makes so much of a difference.

Colts vs. Rams Week 1


Dolphins vs. Chargers Week 2 (30,000 capacity stadium)


Rams vs 49ers Week 2


Feel better now?

Just kidding around, no personal slight intended. I just happened to notice that you had pulled games from last year to say how things look this year and wanted to yank your chain. And obviously there are plenty of shots of games this year to prove the same point.

Got me. Excellent troll job, GF.

[CAA Flagship]

Again, show me were it states it honors the military.

From Stephen A. Smith

The players were moved to the field during the national anthem because it was seen as a marketing strategy to make the athletes look more patriotic. The United States Department of Defense paid the National Football League $5.4 million between 2011 and 2014, and the National Guard [paid] $6.7 million between 2013 and 2015 to stage on-field patriotic ceremonies as part of military recruitment budget-line items.

Snopes Link

That's interesting. Didn't know that. But I'm with kleany on this. I want to see where this "tradition" is supposed to be strictly about the military, and not for general patriotism of our country's values.

[89Hen]

Just kidding around, no personal slight intended. I just happened to notice that you had pulled games from last year to say how things look this year and wanted to yank your chain. And obviously there are plenty of shots of games this year to prove the same point.

Got me. Excellent troll job, GF.

BTW, coincidence that all three games are in Cali?