This Is How America Truly Feels About National Anthem Kneeling
By CNBC. With the NFL season set to start next week, a majority of voters believes it is inappropriate for players to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before games, according to a new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
Fifty-four percent of voters called kneeling during the anthem inappropriate, while 43 percent say that the practice is an appropriate way to bring attention to the problems that NFL players have cited for their protests, the poll said.
The protests against police brutality and racial injustice have drawn fiery condemnations from President Donald Trump and are likely to remain a hot-button cultural and political issue this fall.
Trump has lambasted the players’ behavior as unpatriotic at his rallies and on Twitter, which has fired up his voter base. In June, he canceled the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ White House visit over disagreement about the protests. The president said the team was “unable to come” because “they disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.” . . .
The poll also comes after an arbitrator ruled that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who led the way in the kneeling protests, will have his collusion accusation against the NFL heard in court. Kaepernick, a former Super Bowl starter who hasn’t played since 2016, has accused NFL owners of denying him the right to sign with a team. (Read more from “This Is How America Truly Feels About National Anthem Kneeling” HERE)
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NFL Will Reportedly Not Finalize New National Anthem Policy by Week 1
By CBS Sports. Discussions between the NFL and NFLPA are still ongoing, but it is not expected that the sides will have agreed on a new national anthem policy by the start of the season. According to a report from ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano, however, talks are still ongoing and there is optimism that an agreement will eventually be reached.
Members of the NFLPA’s executive committee met with select owners earlier this week to discuss the policy. In a joint statement Monday, the sides labeled those talks “productive” while noting they “remain committed to working together on solutions.”
Sources familiar with that meeting told Graziano that as the talks continue, each side is curious to see how the other handles issues that arise moving forward, such as whether players will continue protesting during the anthem, what owners and/or the league will do, and if President Donald Trump continues to mention it.
Presumably, this means 2017 policy — expected but not required to stand during national anthem — remains in place. May policy (stand or locker room) remains on hold.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) August 31, 2018
(Read more from “NFL Will Reportedly Not Finalize New National Anthem Policy by Week 1” HERE)
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