So, Jerry Jones has taken a stand in favor of taking a knee. I think he stands for the wrong thing. Jerry did what Donald Trump did and is making this about disrespecting the American Flag. This is not at all about disrespecting the flag. In fact, this protest is exactly about the ideals that the American flag stands for. This is about liberty, justice, and equality for all men. These are the bedrocks from which the flag rises. These are more than the American flag.
His comments came at the start of the game Sunday between the San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts.
You know the one. It was the game in which Mike Pence wasted taxpayers money to appear, for what seemed to me to be merely a publicity stunt, and then went home.
Petty Pence didn’t get what he wanted, and Jones stamped his little foot and said no way!
Mike Pence exited the stadium in protest to the San Francisco 49ers, who elected to kneel in continued protest. Never mind that this writer thinks the entire game improved in the moment Pence was no longer there. It had an effect on Jerry Jones, who then made some fairly unbending comments.
“We can not, in the NFL, give the impression that we tolerate disrespecting the flag,” he said, following his team’s loss to Green Bay Packers. Admitting there is a serious debate in this country about “those issues,” he said that there was no question in his mind but that his team, the Dallas Cowboys, was going “to stand up for the flag.”
This transpired after Jones and his whole team locked arms and took a knee before the National Anthem and the game which followed between the Dallas Cowboys and the St Louis Cardinals.
That was two weeks ago. Evidently, he had some time to think about it.
Jones had said that respecting the flag was more important than any team unity. Saying that if it came to supporting fellow players and disrespecting the flag that, “We will not disrespect the flag.” He said he wasn’t aware whether or not any of his players raised a fist at the end of the anthem before the game against the Green Bay Packers but again reiterated that, “If we are disrespecting the flag, then we won’t play.
Period.”
It’s gonna be Jones or the team, but someone is going to suffer the loss of something
So Jerry Jones is set in his ways at 74 years of age. I would not expect that to change anytime soon. It seems, for now, that his team is on the same page as Jones. It also seems, at least to this writer, that he subjugated and effectively castrated a team that is composed of at least 80% black players and under ten white players.
Forgive me for the reference, I cannot help what the facts say to me, but Jerry Jones is looking an awful lot like a slave master today. I wonder if his team will continue to stand for it. I hope that they do not.
They have a lot more power than Jerry Jones thinks. If they took him at his word and the whole team kneeled, Jerry might lose a hundred million… per game. If, however, they, forgiving the despicable reference, obey their master, then, as far as I can tell, it is they that lose something far greater than money.
But then, I’m just a writer. What I make does not even register compared to the money they could lose for bucking Jerry Jones, so we’ll just have to see what we’ll see. I support the players, no matter what they choose to do.
I’ll stand for it when it truly represents liberty and equality for all.
I would like to go on and spell this out for the rest of the country. The players that are kneeling during the anthem are not disrespecting the American flag. They are fighting for the very ideals for which it stands; free speech, equality, and justice for all. Anyone and that includes you Jerry Jones, that tries to stifle that is an enemy of those ideals. Let that sink in.
Standing for the flag means more than simply the physical act of standing. Jones should know better. Remember, if you will, The American flag represents liberty and equality for all. Standing for it means you feel included in that. There are people today that are not...still.