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other thoughts

Take a knee

[Today’s run: 3.5 miles]

I’ve been told that the United States is unusual in its tradition of having the national anthem play at large sporting events.  The only sporting events I have been to outside of the US have been marathon races and I was so far from the action that I can’t say what happened or didn’t happen.

But I kind of enjoy hearing someone give a try at singing the anthem.

The “controversy” in the NFL these days is a tempest in a teapot as far as I’m concerned.  Taking a knee and being respectful isn’t the usual way, but it doesn’t seem like it warrants WW-III.  Now, the guys who just sit on the bench and mope kind of get on my nerves.It seems like getting off the bench wouldn’t be putting themselves out very much as a gesture toward their homeland. In a few minutes they’ll be shouting about a ball and beating each other up.   Maybe their emotions are 100% mercenary and they are lethargic until paid.  Ok, so the bench-mopes I can do without.  The kneelers don’t bother me.  And really none of them bother me because I rarely watch an NFL game and would just coincidentally stumble on any pregame events.

Now, college football around here is serious stuff.  They have a color guard, the anthem, and frequently a flyover of airplanes.  When the home team scores the ROTC people fire off a cannon and do push-ups.  I guess the ROTC people could go on strike and start moping on the bench until the country shapes up.  That might be interesting.

5 replies on “Take a knee”

I fully agree – that the president of the United States makes it an issue – that he even _mentions_ it with hurricanes, crazy dictators with hydrogen nukes and missiles flying over Japan, moribund congress, etc. is bizarre. Dare I say certifiably nuts? We get the leadership we deserve… we must be very very bad.

I don’t watch corporate sports and football bugs me in that rich owners hold cities hostage for new stadiums – threaten to leave without freebies at taxpayer expense (I am near Oakland – Raiders left, came back, now leaving again I think).

Now they get all this free publicity that money could’t buy.

I guess I have a different take on this situation. Surprise! Hahaha.

I personally think our president is an old guy who’s been around the business block a few times and enjoys putting stuff out there to stir up the knee-jerkers who hate his guts.

He’s also a big-business person who is trying to do the idiot NFL a favor. Their inability to respond to Kaepernik (sp?) last year when he started whining from the bench (prior to the kneeling), has been seen as weakness and dithering by football fans. That kid wasn’t playing up to par, so they benched him. (Prior to that he was fun to watch and very talented.)

So then the kneeling starts during the time when every American of every stripe has an opportunity to confirm their identity as Americans prior to playing/watching something they all enjoy taking part in. It’s part of the sportsmanship that makes the competition fun.

Anyway, enough people were – and are – offended by the NFL and their goofy response to what is perceived as a deliberate insult, the broadcast stations carrying the games are losing money like crazy, and tons of people have dropped their season passes in disgust.

Trump knows the games are entertainment and that’s what people pay for. They want relief from the constant politics, just for a couple of hours a week. The NFL isn’t providing that relief, so they’re going to find something else to spend their money on that’s more fun.

For some reason (I blame Courtney), we have enjoyed college football the last several years, and have watched some NFL. It’s interesting to see the differences between playing for passion and playing for a paycheck.

I do think Trump is the master of free publicity because he knows all the buttons to push to make people respond, which just keeps it going. I also think he’s entitled to weigh in with his opinions. Who cares? We can all take it or leave it. But I think it’s entertaining that we all know about his tweets – not because we’re on twitter, but because the media can’t stop being offended by them. They’re constantly monitoring them and “reporting” the offense of the hour. Talk about not paying attention to what matters. Reportable stuff that would be interesting to hear about is happening all over, but we can’t get those clowns to tell us anything worth knowing, so here we are going to the internet for actual news. The network people take themselves so seriously, it’s just sad. They’re selling a product. That’s it. I’m kind of surprised there are still sponsors backing them up, but I suppose plenty of people still think they are responsibly reporting the “news.”

I agree with Rowe about market power. That’s why I don’t understand how people choose to buy cheap imports at Walmart then blame politicians for loss of lower skilled factory jobs.

What I don’t get at all is how being on a knee is disrespectful. Giving the flag the finger or turning to face the other way, something like that would be disrespectful.

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