NFL owners approve team-by-team national anthem policy, will allow players to remain in locker room
Source: The Washington Post
By Mark Maske
May 23 at 12:03 PM
ATLANTA NFL owners approved a new national anthem policy Wednesday that gives individual teams the authority to set their own anthem-related rules and permits players to remain in the locker room during the playing of the anthem, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
The new policy eliminates the current requirement from the leagues game operations manual for a player to be on the field for the playing of the anthem, allowing a player to remain in the locker room. Teams would then have the ability to set their own policy for players who choose to take the field for the anthem, including the ability to discipline a player for any protest during the national anthem.
Teams would not have the ability to force players to take the field for the anthem, however.
The new policy also is expected to contain a clause that the league could fine a team for any protest by a player on the sideline during the anthem, according to a person familiar with the owners deliberations. Any team that wants to allow players to protest would have to be willing to pay a potential fine by the league.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/05/23/nfl-owners-leaning-towards-requiring-players-to-stand-for-national-anthem-or-remain-in-locker-room/
UPDATE:
NFL's new policy on national anthem: Players, teams can be fined if they don't stand
Charles Robinson
NFL columnist
Yahoo SportsMay 23, 2018, 12:20 PM
ATLANTA The NFL has an official rule against kneeling during the national anthem.
Following a year of hand-wringing and disagreement inside the leagues ownership ranks, team owners approved a new measure on Wednesday that gives players the option of staying in the locker room during the national anthem if they dont wish to stand during the ceremonies. Under the new rule, players who choose to be on the field during the anthem will be required to stand. If a player or team employee is on the field during the anthem and chooses not to stand, that players franchise will be fined by the NFL. In turn, players and employees who choose to attend the anthem ceremonies but do not stand will also be eligible for a fine by their franchise, if the team chooses to levy one.
The leagues official statement on the policy change said, The Commissioner will impose appropriate discipline on league personnel who do not stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem.
Link to tweet
https://sports.yahoo.com/nfls-new-policy-national-anthem-players-can-fined-dont-stand-162017626.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=5c839b50-00d3-37e8-a68f-7c03c48d7104&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Botany
(70,281 posts).... are all cheering.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmaker-russian-trolls-trying-to-sow-discord-in-nfl-kneeling-debate/2017/09/27/5f46dce0-a3b0-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.2aa75d5aba31
Lawmaker: Russian trolls trying to sow discord in NFL kneeling debate
Initech
(99,909 posts)And how is Colin Kaepernick still not playing?
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)He simply isn't good enough to justify the salary he insists on. On most teams, he likely drives away more fans than he attracts - which certainly has an impact on "what is he worth?" conversations.
louis-t
(23,199 posts)It's all about repression or control, I guess.
Calista241
(5,584 posts)rightly or wrongly some owners attributed that decline to protest backlash.
PatSeg
(46,773 posts)What the hell is patriotic about football anyway? Americans attend plenty of public events where the national anthem is not played. The NFL is a lucrative commercial enterprise and the owners care about money, not flags.
This is such a non-issue.
relogic
(155 posts)Clearly, one of the aspects of our new, normal, fascist order included in our national sports (see video of 1930s era German extravaganzas). Any insufficient tribute to our military, America first loyalty is met with fines, demeaning by the dear leader or threats of violence.
Sports, like all institutions has been cleverly hijacked by the cynics of free speech.
elleng
(130,126 posts)Scalded Nun
(1,231 posts)Interest has been tapering off with all of the demands on cities to host, haven't cared much for it since Kaepernick got screwed, and this just seals the deal.
Bengus81
(6,907 posts)that they've received every year since 2009. That is the ONLY reason that players suddenly had to be on the field for the NA,before that they were in the locker room and then came out and NO ONE was offended.
Such BS..........
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)The military paid them a few million over several years. There's no way that's enough money for them to make significant changes.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)These NFL owners are greedy sons of bitches, every one of them. Relocation was approved so that each of the other owners could pocket a few extra million dollars a year in fees. These bastards are capable of way more greed than you seem to believe...
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)The DOD and Guard combined for a couple million per year for the entire league.
The league would make more by just running an additional ad on TV instead of televising the anthem.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)Greed for every last nickel and if a policy costs them the change in their couch, it would be voted down by those rat bastards.
Please feel free to continue wealth worshiping and water carrying for them all you wish, I'm not buying.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)They would make more money by skipping the anthem and running one extra commercial per game.
Lots more.
Bengus81
(6,907 posts)So what if the NFL cut is only a couple million per year,it's millions the NFL has received since 2009 for doing nothing except having players on the sidelines instead of in the locker room.
FBaggins
(26,693 posts)I'm saying in most cases it was closer to $10,000 for a given team for the year... and he wouldn't "turn it down for kneeling" because they weren't paid for "having players on the sidelines"... that was what was paid for some ceremony/recognition/swearing in/etc. The military didn't pay to have players on the sidelines for national anthems.
mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)So in the future will we be displaying the Russian flag and play the Russian anthem and everyone be required to stand and salute our new masters.
I love football. Fuck you, Republicans. I'll try to give it up.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Unless the Miami Dolphins miraculously start winning again...
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)erronis
(14,941 posts)Let's make this really interesting.
I've been to only a couple of "professional" (read COMMERCIAL) sports games over the years (DC Senators vs. Minn. Twins, and KC Chiefs on their run-up to the Super Bowl - long time ago.)
I hate pro sports (except tennis) for all the commercial and in-your-face sudo-patriotic reasons. I have worked in a few environments where the boys (and some girls) spend 20-50% of their workday after a game dissecting shit. To me it's non-facts - it is just opinions about something so ephemeral that even the historians of 100 years from now will know WTF.
Frances
(8,531 posts)As a way of showing respect for the brave men and women who fought for our country in the past and those who are fighting for it today
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)standing there listening to the anthem. Most of them aren't paying the least attention. I'll bet the majority of players decide to stay in the locker room. It's not like the national anthem playing is shown on TV. That's when the networks get in a bunch of commercials.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)And as soon as the questions ("why weren't you at the anthem today? don't you love America enough?" start flowing from the press, then the whole "issue" in the NFL's estimation is right back center stage...
This was never about protesters or the flag, it is, was and ever shall be about control. About telling those "uppity" players to get back in their box and shut up. About "not letting the inmates run the asylum" as one of those genius owners said last year.
This issue made lots of old white men with money feel that they could extract some kind of historical revenge on African-American athletes, a sort of reversal in the face of John Carlos and Tommie Smith from their youthful days of yore. This idea that fans were actually offended (really offended, not the Fox News 'I'm-so-offended-I-can't-think-straight' offended) was always smoke and mirrors and more right wing bullshit.
Fuck the NFL. That league is ripe for an extended fall and needs to go.
ROB-ROX
(767 posts)I am a veteran, and I see a constitutional concern. This purely entertainment industry's solution is to break the law, and stop people from using their first amendment rights. I see the far right TOTALLY ignoring this issue even though it is a constitutional concern. I really hope whole teams wait in the locker room during the "flag time." My protest is to avoid watching NFL............
kelly1mm
(4,719 posts)Government punishing speech. Does not apply in this case at all.
alwaysinasnit
(5,037 posts)Apparently right-wingers forget that the flag is a symbol of the Constitution, so that in criticizing people for not respecting the flag, they are stomping all over the 1st Amendment. Ironic????
Also, if I am not mistaken, the NFL is a tax-exempt organization. In discriminating, or attempting to curb behavior based on the content of the speech or expression, then perhaps there might be a basis to sue the NFL for civil rights violations, over and above any rights included in the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the NFL.
otchmoson
(67 posts)After they stand for the anthem, will they soon be required to kneel for a christian prayer in this christian nation?
Freethinker65
(9,928 posts)My 20 year son and his friends rarely watch the weekly games, and certainly can not afford to attend them in person. The NFL will continue to lose viewership.
briv1016
(1,570 posts)So, yea.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)than acknowledging unarmed black folks getting shot by cops is a legitimate political issue??
Guess this fall will be soccer-only for me....