Roger Goodell sends letter to NFL teams

[brewer]

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I can see both sides to this issue sooooo, I think I'll stay neutral.

No, nothing neutral at all.

The pay gap America has is a direct result of bad GOP policy since Reagan. While blacks have historically been affected more negatively, I find it vile that players simply looking at their backgrounds and pointing the inequity that still exists in all businesses, and being vilified because they move up and simply say, "others are not as lucky as me, lets help them"

There is nothing to be neutral about here. We are still stuck as a country on race, we should not be, but we are. 

Fuck 45 and fuck Pence. 45 started his assault on minorities 5 years ago. Vilified multiple groups during his run and has proven that this is just a sport to him, spite for him, and if urban blacks and rural whites cant make ends meet, blaming black rich athletes is an easy and cheap tactic to divide America.

I protest with the black players. I protest with all workers. I am tired of the top dictating to everyone.

Thanks for the chronic victim statement. I'd never have guessed. But you forgot big oil, you must be ill.

[Cecelia]

If you have to force people to stand for your anthem, then your country has bigger problems than that anthem already.

[Brian37]

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No, nothing neutral at all.

The pay gap America has is a direct result of bad GOP policy since Reagan. While blacks have historically been affected more negatively, I find it vile that players simply looking at their backgrounds and pointing the inequity that still exists in all businesses, and being vilified because they move up and simply say, "others are not as lucky as me, lets help them"

There is nothing to be neutral about here. We are still stuck as a country on race, we should not be, but we are. 

Fuck 45 and fuck Pence. 45 started his assault on minorities 5 years ago. Vilified multiple groups during his run and has proven that this is just a sport to him, spite for him, and if urban blacks and rural whites cant make ends meet, blaming black rich athletes is an easy and cheap tactic to divide America.

I protest with the black players. I protest with all workers. I am tired of the top dictating to everyone.

Thanks for the chronic victim statement. I'd never have guessed. But you forgot big oil, you must be ill.

Bullshit.

There is chronic racism, and there is chronic vilification of all workers trying to bargain for better wages. But no, I am not personally a victim, for recognizing the bullshit the GOP has sold for decades.

Yes big oil too. We don't even have to make this about race as far as greed destroying our planet, the science is in, and the sane have been screaming for decades that we as a planet need to get off burning fossil fuels.

There are 64 worldwide billionaires whom collectively have the combined wealth of 3 billion people. If the planet and America WOULD stop ignoring that, race could go away. But don't blow smoke up my ass and pretend we are a post racial west, because we wouldn't be seeing this shit at all if that were the case.

There is only one right side on this issue. Singing a song is not a law, nor should it be. If you want forced ritual try North Korea.

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If you have to force people to stand for your anthem, then your country has bigger problems than that anthem already.

Force isn't the theme of the First Amendment or the Oath of Office. Even with the oath of office it says you cannot be forced to swear an oath to a god you don't believe in. And since the National Anthem and Pledge have never been legal documents, but merely voluntary ceremony I find it vile and disgusting to think voluntary rituals should be forced on anyone.

I agree, and right now our problem as a nation is that we have allowed a bullshit artist pander to xenophobes and racists.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Next up: the first one to stop applauding gets shot.

[Amarok]

Forced national pride is just retarded . The fact this is used to shame people is retarded. 


As For thumbs statement a very scary reality 

At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaped to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). ... For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the stormy applause, rising to an ovation, continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin.
However, who would dare to be the first to stop? … After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who would quit first! And in the obscure, small hall, unknown to the leader, the applause went on – six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heart attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly – but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them?
The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minutes! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter…
Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved!
The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel. That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him:
“Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.”

The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

[Ravenshire]

Until Goodell orders the concessions closed and the bathrooms locked so that all the fans are forced to join the players, he can shut the fuck up. Or, better yet, he can just shut the fuck up. I hope every single player on every single team stays in the locker room.

That fucking trumpster fire in DC that our electoral college foisted upon us can shut the fuck up too.

All the ass-clowns complaining about the protests need to learn that blind jingoism has nothing to do with patriotism, and seeing something wrong in the country you love and trying to do something about it goes to it's very heart.

Why the fuck should we stand for a flag and a song when we're told we can't stand for what we believe?

[bennyboy]

Can't protest?

If we have to start calling Trump "Dear Leader," that's going to be very awkward.

[Whateverist]

Steel, I need you to cover your ears.

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I hate Concussion Ball!

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[A Theist]

The NFL is big business and relies on its fans' financial support. Evidently, the larger majority of its fans have spoken and the NFL has lost this dispute.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The NFL is big business and relies on its fans' financial support. Evidently, the larger majority of its fans have spoken and the NFL has lost this dispute.

Fans' financial support means fuck all of you don't have players.  One owner (don't know who, don't know the team, don't much care) said he's going to sit any player who doesn't stand.  Suppose his entire team doesn't stand - is he going to sit them all and forfeit?  For every game?  If players can show even a modest amount of unity over this issue, the owners are going to cave so fast the air will crackle.

Boru