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I can hardly wait for the regular season.

Then the 'protests' or 'player solidarity' or whatever will be just a blurb before games start.
And what are we up to, now, in terms of the total number of players who protest during the anthem? Is it even a dozen? Clearly, the overwhelming majority of players choose to make a statement of their own and stand for the anthem.

Not commenting really on Carr and Malick here, just a point that the media hasn't spent much time on. Naturally, they just want to keep the 'controversy' going, contrived as it might be in some cases.

This man sums up my position much better than I have done:

"Sergeant Harper has also served in the 82nd Airborne, the Army’s elite airborne infantry division. So he’s not exactly new to deployments, to warfighting, to genuine, proven pride in risking his life to defend our country.

He has no problem with what Bennett is doing.

"We do what we do so people can have the freedoms that they want, such as freedom of speech,” SSG Harper told me in the middle of the practice field moments after Bennett finished visiting with some of the Army’s toughest dudes. “There are places in this world, which we are intimately familiar with as 1st Special Forces Group, that don’t have the luxury to have such freedoms. And I have no problem with somebody expressing the freedom that we help provide.

"Not offended. And I do know that it does offend some people…I know that peaceful protest is one of the greatest things that we have, being American. The fact that someone can do that and go home to their family and not fear they are going to be awakened in the middle of the night or persecuted for doing that, that’s why we do what we do.”

SSG Harper then waved his hand around the field in the direction of other members of his unit standing around him.

“And I bet to a man, if you asked all these people that question (about what Bennett did) they’d say the same thing,” he said.

“Somebody having a non-violent approach to protest? That’s what we fight for.”

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 81132.html

NorthHawk wrote:This man sums up my position much better than I have done:

"Sergeant Harper has also served in the 82nd Airborne, the Army’s elite airborne infantry division. So he’s not exactly new to deployments, to warfighting, to genuine, proven pride in risking his life to defend our country.

He has no problem with what Bennett is doing.

"We do what we do so people can have the freedoms that they want, such as freedom of speech,” SSG Harper told me in the middle of the practice field moments after Bennett finished visiting with some of the Army’s toughest dudes. “There are places in this world, which we are intimately familiar with as 1st Special Forces Group, that don’t have the luxury to have such freedoms. And I have no problem with somebody expressing the freedom that we help provide.

"Not offended. And I do know that it does offend some people…I know that peaceful protest is one of the greatest things that we have, being American. The fact that someone can do that and go home to their family and not fear they are going to be awakened in the middle of the night or persecuted for doing that, that’s why we do what we do.”

SSG Harper then waved his hand around the field in the direction of other members of his unit standing around him.

“And I bet to a man, if you asked all these people that question (about what Bennett did) they’d say the same thing,” he said.

“Somebody having a non-violent approach to protest? That’s what we fight for.”

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 81132.html

This sums it up for me as well.

BINGO! Sums it up for me, too.

The protest will go on and Kappernick will not get a job.

obiken wrote:The protest will go on and Kappernick will not get a job.

And viewership will continue to edge down. Then salaries will be suppressed. And that will be blamed on your racism, or your heterosexuality. Mark it down.

And viewership will continue to edge down. Then salaries will be suppressed. And that will be blamed on your racism, or your heterosexuality. Mark it down.

HUH?? How did I go from an observer to a Gay bashing racist in one easy post?? I was just sayin that the protest are part of the league now Burry, love them hate them, or ignore them. They are her to stay unless the CBA is changed and I dont see that.

PS, I agree with their cause, in the prison where I worked I counted 10% racist. 20 staff out of 200. We have a problem in America. However, is a football field in the NFL, the proper place to lay all of that. Most of you do not remember Wayne Cody, (The mound of sound) of KIRO. He said sports is an island that we all want to go to to escape real life. They are putting real life in our face Burry. Moreover, I think Kapper should have publically gone to Doug Baldwin, and said here, your are Afro-American, Your dad is a policeman, you are now the leader of the movement.

RiverDog wrote:http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/derek-carr-has-powerful-explanation-for-gesture-during-national-anthem/ar-AAqo91e?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

The Seahawks had a similar, simple protest/show of unity last year that got very little national attention. IMO it was a perfect way to protest by showing unity/support which puts the focus on how we can actually improve the situation as opposed to taking a knee during the national anthem which turned a lot of people off of the movement.

HUH?? How did I go from an observer to a Gay bashing racist in one easy post?

You didn't, but you'll be assumed to have by people who dismiss bad news and uncomfortable facts on such superficialities.

They are her to stay unless the CBA is changed and I dont see that.

That'd be a really dumb thing to codify in the CBA. It's their right to sit, kneel, face away, or otherwise do whatever they want during the anthem.

They are putting real life in our face Burry.

First, your assumption that "real life" hasn't been "in my face" before now is incorrect- just because you haven't pondered these issues before now doesn't mean nobody else has.

Second, they're blaming the USA for those racists because they aren't bright enough or are too lazy to figure out a more constructive way to address the real issues where they exist.

Meeting with police, holding press conferences, etc is work- disrespecting the flag is easy.

Racists exist in every country, in every walk of life, among every ethnic group. Police need better training in many things. And on and on.

Turning your back on the USA itself does nothing to address any of that.

...as opposed to taking a knee during the national anthem which turned a lot of people off of the movement.

Botching the recipient of your ire so spectacularly will do that.

burrrton wrote:Second, they're blaming the USA for those racists because they aren't bright enough or are too lazy to figure out a more constructive way to address the real issues where they exist.

Meeting with police, holding press conferences, etc is work- disrespecting the flag is easy.

Racists exist in every country, in every walk of life, among every ethnic group. Police need better training in many things. And on and on.

Turning your back on the USA itself does nothing to address any of that.

That's pretty much Charles Barkley's take:

Everybody’s engaged already. Everybody’s talking about it and know about it. I’m just a bit more big on action. Once you get off your knee, like, ‘OK, what are you doing?’ Because football season is going to be over soon. And the question is: How long do you do it? When is it over?’”

Barkley continued:

“It’s too late for symbolic. You gotta actually do something.”

Kinda like the weather: Everybody complains about it, but nobody ever does anything about it.

This is on Goodell. Its his fault.

I read a letter from a marine, not to Kap or Mike or any other misguided grandstander. But to Roger goody two shoes Goodell.

I wish I had the link but I don't. Here's the gist of what he said.

I served many tours and accompanied many flag draped caskets. My comrades make minimum wage to fight for our country, go without showering or eating for days sometimes in far flung places all over the world.

Im also a huge football fan.
Its a penalty to twerk in the end zone or talk trash to an opponent. its a suspension for too many illegal hits but its OK for multimillionaire athletes who don't know a damn thing about the reality of public service to taunt the men and women who have fought and died for the freedom of our nation. Ill tune out until it stops.

This is Goodells fault. His making the league into some tool for social engineering will ultimately kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
And he just got an extension..........

We get it idiots....

There is indeed social injustice, just keep your protest outside the workplace.

How many people would show up for a press conference about social issues if a player had one?
Not as many as would see them protest during a game.

Face it. They are just expressing their right to peaceful protest. One that I linked to earlier where
soldiers defended his right to do so.

From the article:
SSG Harper then waved his hand around the field in the direction of other members of his unit standing around him.
“And I bet to a man, if you asked all these people that question (about what Bennett did) they’d say the same thing,” he said.
“Somebody having a non-violent approach to protest? That’s what we fight for.”

How many people would show up for a press conference about social issues if a player had one?
Not as many as would see them protest during a game.

A lot more people would react positively toward the former than the latter. That's the point- yeah, a lot of people see you when you take a knee, but while the player thinks they look like MLK, the public sees some @sshole giving the flag a middle finger.

They are just expressing their right to peaceful protest. One that I linked to earlier where
soldiers defended his right to do so.

JFC will you quit bringing this up like it's a controversial point? Nobody disagrees that it's their right to kneel for Pete's sake- I agree with that soldier, too, just as I would if they were burning the flag.

It's freedom of speech that we are all letting slip away little by little as the years go by.
We're not as free today as we were 30 years ago and if we denigrate those who exercise freedoms, we will lose even more.

NorthHawk wrote:It's freedom of speech that we are all letting slip away little by little as the years go by.
We're not as free today as we were 30 years ago and if we denigrate those who exercise freedoms, we will lose even more.

I don't think that's true at all. A good friend of mine was nearly suspended from high school when he intentionally omitted the words "under God" when he led the class in the pledge of allegiance, and that was over 40 years ago. Try that in today's world.

Not only that, but if someone exercises their freedom of speech in a way that I disapprove of, I would be denying myself of my own freedom of speech if I did not feel free to speak out against them. That knife cuts both ways.

That knife cuts both ways.

Exactly. Hell, look at the Charlottesville filth- they were within their rights to be walking around with torches but I'm sure as hell not going to stay quiet about my feelings toward them.

Same goes for flag burning ANTEEFAH skids.

Everyone has an opinion

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/08/23/george-foreman-delivers-devastating-blow-to-colin-kaepernick-calls-out-his-privilege/

Kap don't have a job because he sucks and priced himself out of back-up jobs. He's not even worth having as a fill-in util yo find your guy because of his inflated ego that doesn't match his capabilities on the field. Some keep bringing up his 16-2 int-TD ratio. Big deal. He was throwing to avoid Ints. He wasn't taking games over or pushing his team up. He's not a leader and not someone to build a franchise around. Until he accepts true back-up money and the checks the ego at the door, he may get a job again.

Also why Kaepernick doesn't have a job:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2059 ... cist-tweet

I suppose any publicity is good publicity, but Kaep's lady's tweet cost him a job.

Edit: Didn't take time to notice that date, River. Seems she's happy to pump her image up at the cost of Kaepernick's.

MackStrongIsMyHero wrote:Also why Kaepernick doesn't have a job:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2059 ... cist-tweet

I suppose any publicity is good publicity, but Kaep's lady just cost him a job.

That didn't 'just' happen. Her tweet was on Aug. 2nd when the Ravens were contemplating bringing him in. Here's a little more detailed article about the incident:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/balt ... story.html

Check out this story

http://sports.mynorthwest.com/335135/se ... l-bennett/

http://www.king5.com/sports/nfl/seahawk ... /471552997

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2060 ... il-lawsuit

Love Bennett and Britt and I unequivocally support both their right to protest and the protest itself. Though like Justin, I'll personally continue to stand for the anthem.

Largent80 wrote:Check out this story

http://sports.mynorthwest.com/335135/se ... l-bennett/

http://www.king5.com/sports/nfl/seahawk ... /471552997

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2060 ... il-lawsuit

And this is why I don't criticize the protests. I wouldn't do what Bennett does, but I don't have to live with he has to live with so I'm not about to start telling him how to respond to the injustice he experiences.

Video

http://www.tmz.com/2017/09/06/michael-b ... est-video/

Sounds like some cops, at least one, needs to be fired. Get rid of the douchebag cops rather than paint the whole bunch as bad. Make the punishment fall on the people acting incompetently and with prejudice rather than the entire organization.

It's fine to publish stories like these about crap cops acting inappropriately. There are literally over a million cops in the United States. The vast majority of cops don't act like this. I don't like the way this protest seems to paint cops with a broad brush rather than going after the scumbag cops that do this kind of thing. Though hopefully the protest makes other cops start to care about these scumbags in their midst. Though sometimes I wonder if Bennett or other football players stand up against football players like Ben R. or Ray Rice. I don't see guys like Bennett calling out the scum in their midst. I have to wonder if the football players protesting who don't do what they expect cops to do getting rid of the scum in their midst aren't similarly guilty of the groupthink that leads to bad cops being ignored by their coworkers.

A few thoughts:

1. Foremost, I hope Michael sues- there's *zero* excuse for a cop to treat anybody like that, especially somebody he's not sure is a/the threat. Preposterous and infuriating.

2. Regarding the whole "because I'm black" stuff- I've read the entire place (80%?) was black people. When a shot goes off in circumstances like that, the chances of a black person being suspected are not going to go according to their percentage in the population as a whole. A black person was overwhelmingly likely to be suspected/detained in that situation, Michael- you weren't "singled out".

3. I also read IT WASN'T EVEN A GUN SHOT- IT WAS A DAMN POLE FALLING OVER. If you're a cop that can't tell the difference, get the fck out of the police force (and yeah, I'll allow some room for it sounding indistinguishable, but I can't envision it).

In the end, there *are* cops bad at their job, and possibly racist- this may have been one of them. Whatever the cause, I'm sorry for MB having to deal with that. Absolutely inexcusable.

This incident happened on August 26th. Why are we just now hearing about it?

I would assume it took this long because he needed to contact an attorney and evaluate his legal options. If he just comes out immediately then the police circle the wagons and when he talks to an attorney they are the ones playing catch up.

Firing a cop for s*** like this does exactly what???

Rodney King happened in the 90's. It was filmed, the entire brutal beating. Those cops all went to trial and walked.

Racism isn't relegated to just black people.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/philly-drive ... 59675.html

Wow, this thing is really taking on a life of its own. The police union not only denied Bennett's allegations, they are demanding an apology from Bennett and insisting that Roger Goodell conduct an investigation of Bennett:

http://www.12up.com/posts/5507023-las-v ... _aid=40824

Goodell has issued a statement as well:


http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/rog ... spartanntp

How to make a bad situation worse, courtesy of the Las Vegas PD.

That LVPD letter is ridiculous. They say they detained him because he was running and hiding? C,mon man there were shots being fired and armed police telling everyone to get out! Everyone that wasn't either a cop or the shooter had to be running and hiding.

c_hawkbob wrote:That LVPD letter is ridiculous. They say they detained him because he was running and hiding? C,mon man there were shots being fired and armed police telling everyone to get out! Everyone that wasn't either a cop or the shooter had to be running and hiding.

Typical union letter protecting their own. Turn the public relations battle in their favor.

Between body cams and surveillance cameras, I heard the LVPD has something like 400+ different recordings of the encounter that they're working through.

This is going to be interesting.

The 2017 season is going to be a sh*t show.......

I served both in the Army and in the governement for one of those TLAs. I have a huge loyalty to the flag.

I agree with Bennett's request to find someone who looks different, speaks different, or is different than you and sit down and have a conversation with them. Find out what they are like, what their world is like and see things from their perspective.

That all said, his sitting during the National anthem is like me walking up to him and saying the most hateful thing I can think of after calling him a racial slur and then saying, "let's go have coffee." That's how I feel when he sits.

I know many of you won't feel the same as I do but rest assured, I'm not alone. There's a much better way to go about the protest. Lynch made a huge statement by not talking during press conferences because the reporters are not there when he does his youth camps or project in his old neighborhood. Since then, his causes have garnered much more attention. Now "THAT" is the way to bring attention without alienating so many people you hope to win over before the conversation even starts.