Have you ever been involved in a family conversation where all the older adults are trying to decide what to do about grandma, but then the grandma says that she would like to be included in the conversation? I think the same thing could be said for this first meeting between the players and owners over the national anthem protest. Colin Kaepernick was not even there, he has been blackballed from the league, and they did not even ask his opinion. Am I the only person who is troubled by that? I think it is very strange, and I think that we need to look a lot harder at the owners and executives and how they want to handle this.
They want it to go away
We all know that the owners are trying to make this protest go away as soon as possible. They want to force the players to stand, but they cannot actually do that. They are contradicting Roger Goodell at every turn, and they are hoping that they can give the players a candy bar in exchange for their trouble. The problem is that the players are informed and united. The players are aware of their rights, and the players have just as many lawyers as the owners do. You cannot tell me that the players will go quietly when they have shown time and again that they are not going to stop.
The owners are being disingenuous
These owners all have to face their players in these meetings and admit that the kneeling before the anthem thing was meaningless.
These owners also have to tell these players to their face that social justice means nothing to them. I find that hilarious because owners have always been able to hide, but now they cannot. These players could keep up the protests for so long that fans will actually get turned off, and the owners will be freaking out the whole time.
The only thing they can do is admit that they do not care and try to make the players happy so that this can go away.
The league fears for the Super Bowl
I know all these owners and the commissioner are freaking out because they do not want to see this protest at the Super Bowl on national television. Besides the fact that that would all be on TV, they do not want to turn off the racist fans who tune in, buy a lot of food, get drunk, and bet on the game.
The NFL could lose some money on this if they have a protest at the Super Bowl, but those of us who care about social justice would love to see the protest at the Super Bowl because we know that that would start the conversation all over again in time for baseball season. The owners will try, but they will not just make this go away because they are scared. They have to face their privilege and bigotry.
