1. Disrespect for the national values
Since September 2017
President Trump has been addressing in several tweets the issue of the American flag and national anthem being disrespected on the sports fields.
He advocated that the athletes (in particular of
the National Football League/NFL) should be fired or suspended if they fail to stand up for the national anthem.
Many teams and players of the football basketball and baseball leagues reacted to the presidents remarks by kneeling locking arms or remaining in the locker room during the performance of
the anthem.
In October 2017
Vice President Mike Pence walked out of an NFL game in his native Indiana between Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers when players from the 49ers disrespected the American flag by kneeling during the national anthem.
This controversy began in 2016. The NFL San Francisco 49ers quarterback
Colin Kaepernick sat during the pre-game anthem for three games beginning on August 14 2016 and then began taking a knee in games beginning on September 1 2016. He explained his position as a gesture to protest racial discrimination especially at the hands of police referencing a series of events that led to the Black Lives Matter movement. His conversion to social activism coincided with his romancing Nessa Diab since July 2015. Nessa a radio and TV personality of Egyptian descent has spoken frequently about perceived racial injustices and islamophobia in the U.S.
As usually
the mainstream media has tried to make this issue again about President Trump.
And as usually the media was wrong. Disrespecting the American flag and national anthem by some overpaid arrogant players is an issue that concerns first all of us as an American nation and second the fan base of the respective teams. The president hasnt done more than voicing this general concern. Disrespecting national values like the American flag and anthem if left unsanctioned will lead to eroding the moral fiber of the entire nation.
Therefore there are several points that need to be clarified.
2. The First Amendment
The media players and their advocates claim that kneeling or locking arms during the national anthem is protected speech" covered by the First Amendment. This assertion is false.
First
the First Amendment bars Congress from abridging
the emphases added T.D. freedom of speech or of the press…" In 1993 U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens emphasized the usage of the definite article the" to immunize a previously identified category or subset of speech otherwise the clause might absurdly immunize things like false testimony under oath" which is against the law (see: Stevens John Paul The Freedom of Speech" in:
Yale Law Journal 1993 vol. 102 p. 1296).
Likewise the American flag and national anthem are protected by law as shown below and therefore the disrespecting acts must be punished accordingly.
Second the First Amendment covers government interference with speech. People have freedom of speech as persons not while functioning as employees during their working time. Nobody wants retailers protesting while customers buy things or teachers protesting while they teach or doctors while they examine their patients or police while they apprehend offenders. And definitely nobody wants our military protesting while they fight for the country. Similarly sports fans do not want athletes protesting during the sports events that the fans paid for.
3. Laws and regulations
Many people think that the American flag and national anthem are not protected or regulated by law nor they should be. This assertion is false.
On the contrary there are specific laws and regulations for both the flag and the anthem. These laws and regulations on patriotic customs stipulate that during rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.
The hand-over-the heart gesture is a modification of the Bellamy salute a right-hand-extended movement that was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance which was created by Francis Bellamy.
In the early 1920s
the Bellamy salute was modified to the hand over the heart in order to not resemble too much the similar salutes practiced in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In 1942 the flag code was approved during the F. D. Roosevelt administration.
The U.S. code (Titles 4 and 36) specifies the circumstances for rendering the hand-over-heart salute. Thus the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag … should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart."
Also: During a rendition of the national anthem (1) when the flag is displayed … (C) all other persons present not in uniform
our note T.D. should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart …"
As for regulations the NFL Rule Book and Game Operation Manual specify that the anthem must be played prior to every NFL game and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem" standing facing the flag helmets in left hands.
Consequently
sanctions shall be imposed for protesting during the anthem.
After being faced with harsh criticism and rejection from their fans who began either cancelling their game attendance and cable subscriptions or tearing tickets and burning players jerseys
the NBA top executives have found eventually a rule that requires our players to stand for the anthem."
The United States of America is a nation of laws. When national anthem is played Americans stand in front of the flag. Protesters are missing the point. They are free to protest but not by disobeying the law otherwise they face consequences.
4. Kneeling or praying?
The consequences appeared while the protest supporters quickly changed their tune trying to have it both ways. Its not about kneeling" anymore they say but praying."
Watch
Jack Brewer the former NFL Safety in full swing at the FOX News Watterss World show of September 30 2017.
The problem is that Americans dont kneel for anybody who is not God because they have never had a king or queen. Can you imagine our military kneeling and praying during the national anthem?
In 1996 the National Basketball Association (NBA) suspended the Denver Nuggets
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf an Islam convert for his praying and refusal to stand during the national anthem.
In 2011 the former American football quarterback and current baseball outfielder
Tim Tebow kneeled in prayer on the game field but not during the national anthem and his gesture has since been referred to as Tebowing."
Back then the leftist media went ballistic since Tebow was known as having
conservative values being outspoken about his Christian faith being pro-life and holding a firm stance in favor of faith-based abstinence.
But Tebow unlike Kaepernick did not fit the medias favorite narrative about social justice" so he had to be castigated.
5. Sports and politics
Sports fans do not care about politics when they watch a game. Players are entertainers not politicians as sports is entertainment not a political debate forum. The left try to inject social justice" problems in sports and in turn what they got from the patriotic sports fans was a taste of their own medicine.
The protesting players have attempted to mirror the fans as racist and uneducated when most of them simply are not. When NBA all-star
LeBron James insults a large percentage of his fans saying that a lot of people
was sic! uneducated" because of their political affiliations he has shown the NFL the recipe for disaster.
The truth of the matter is that LeBron should be the last one to speak about education." He is a 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 260 lb (118 kg) 30-million salary per year high school graduate basketball player who probably spent his first ten years in a kindergarten where everybody thought he was the teacher.
The fans enjoy paying respect to the country by standing and listening to the anthem in front of the national flag not because they are racist or uneducated but because they are Americans. They dont watch sporting events because the athletes are famous for their wisdom but because games are an entertaining pastime which the country can most certainly survive without.
6. Black athletes and the American symbols
Truth be told
black players predominate in some U.S. major leagues.
These players have found that protesting the flag and anthem is something that irritates white people.
The problem is that most of their
fan base who actually pay their astronomic salaries is white so the protesters have chosen the wrong enemy" to fight against.
Unfortunately American sports history has a long list of black athletes disrespecting the American flag and national anthem.
In 1968 during the Summer Olympics in Mexico City the track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos used the black power salute and were suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
In 1972 during the Summer Olympics in Munich the track athletes Wayne Collett and Vince Matthews did not face the flag they stood casually hands on hips their jackets unzipped they chatted and were barred from the Olympics.
In 1973 fans went agitated and furious when some Eastern Michigan University runners continued to warm up on the floor while others were laying on the ground during the national anthem.
In 1996 the basketball player
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand during the national anthem and was suspended from the NBA.
Jackie Robinson the baseball player who broke the color line in 1947 wrote in his 1972 autobiography
I Never Had It Made: As I write this twenty years later I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world."
7. Football vs. soccer
Protesting the American flag and national anthem by players from the NFL and other major leagues will have devastating effects for the teams players and their owners in the foreseeable future. Disrespect for the national symbols of the country has awaken a sleeping giant. Many Americans have lost already their patience and will stop sponsoring these types of events.
American football is a sport played only in North America and its fan base is limited (400 million) compared with soccer (3.5 billion) or other
sports.
In addition to that the basis of the NFLs league structure like other North American majors (NBA MLB and NHL) is monopolistic and basically anti-commerce. Its a closed league which controls how many teams are allowed to compete who can own the teams and where the teams can be located. Revenue sharing and TV money ensure high and constant cash flows which are redistributed evenly in a socialist manner between teams including the ones performing poorly. Therefore in this closed system owners are not incentivized to promote better ideas or win since the teams are in an artificial bubble of profits.
By contrast
soccer is based on meritocracy (the winning clubs move up the divisional ladder) has much simpler rules and the clubs can be formed irrespective of who the owners are how much money they have or the team geographical location.
When the NFL no longer televises its games because of the protests and the sponsors stop sponsoring the owners cannot afford to secure the salaries of their players anymore. The athletes cannot go to another country like the soccer players usually do and get paid millions for a sport that exists just in North America. The American public has realized already that these arrogant overpaid and often illiterate prima donnas (Kaepernick is no Copernicus) are not entertaining anymore but have just become offensive.
Most probably after seeing Americans siding with President Trump against the players protests the U.S. major leagues will think again before concocting a new challenge.
NOTE - A version of the article was published previously in MEDIUM.
Tiberiu Dianu has published several books and a host of articles in law politics and post-communist societies. He currently lives and works in Washington DC and can be followed on MEDIUM.
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