A Brief History
NOTE: Prior to the game on August 26, 2017, all Browns players and coaches stood for the National Anthem, the players arm in arm. Apparently Browns great Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown had spoken to the team and implored the players to honor the flag and our country by standing during the National Anthem. Is standing arm in arm good enough for you? Is this gesture enough to cause you to forgive and forget? Should fans still be irate over the previous political display? Please give us your thoughts on this subject.
On August 26, 2017, the Cleveland Browns play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Tampa in an NFL pre-season game. Were you planning on watching the game in person or on television? If you were, DON’T! There are 2 incredibly good and yet totally opposite reasons to boycott the Cleveland Browns and the rest of the NFL.
Digging Deeper
The first case against the Browns and the NFL is the highly contentious and disrespectful kneeling of players during the playing of the National Anthem. Starting with 49’rs quarterback Colin Kaepernick last year, a movement has swept the NFL for African American players taking a knee or sitting during the National Anthem in a protest against alleged police wrongfully shooting Black men. Browns running back Isaiah Crowell was 1 of 12 Cleveland Browns to take a knee last week before the game against the New York Giants, the most players in the league from 1 team to do so at 1 game. Crowell last year posted a picture of a Black man cutting the throat of a Police Officer on the Internet. Of course, he got a lot of heat for that and apologized, but here he is again, insinuating police officers are felons out to kill Black men.
In spite of being the emotional founder and leader of this show of disrespect to our flag and our country, and professing to have deep reservations about how our country is being run, Kaepernick DID NOT VOTE in the 2016 election! Seriously, he has lost all moral authority to complain if he will not even vote. How about the 12 guys on the Browns? How about Crowell? We did not check to see if they voted in all the recent elections, but if not…
The second case against the NFL, all teams, is that nobody will hire Colin Kaepernick, a reasonably decent quarterback, presumably because of the political baggage that comes with him. For some reason, NFL clubs say players have every right to Free Speech (even though other workers on other jobs DO NOT while they are working and wearing the uniform of their employer). The NAACP, the premier organization working for the advancement of African Americans, is threatening to boycott the NFL if a team does not hire Kaepernick before the season starts.
So you see, there are 2 compelling reasons to boycott the NFL, even though those reasons are polar opposites! How did the NFL get into the position of alienating both African Americans and conservative Americans at the same time? By allowing players to pull political stunts while in uniform during the time they are working for the team! Certainly all free people in the United States should have the right to express themselves, but not while they are working!
Imagine for a minute if some White Supremacist NFL player decided he should do the Nazi salute during the National Anthem? Would the League be okay with that? Doesn’t this hypothetical player have the right of free speech??? What if a player was so fed up with the US government that he gave the flag the finger during the National Anthem??? Get the idea? Free speech is NOT FOR WORK TIME because it reflects on the employer. No store would let employees wear political buttons while working or give customers political diatribes when the poor people were trying to shop! Would your work place allow you to profess religious ideas on the job? Maybe preach against the sinfulness of homosexuality or interracial sex? Probably not. A police officer would get fired in a second if he or she pulled this type of “free speech” while wearing the uniform.
We ask the NFL to stop the political grandstanding and get back to entertainment. The players have all the opportunity every other American has when it is not game day. Until the NFL comes to this realization, we intend to boycott the Cleveland Browns and the NFL, including avoiding any purchase of any item with any NFL logo. Question for students (and subscribers): How about you? What do you think? Please feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with us. If you have another view, share that, too. We are always open to second and third opinions. Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Donald, Heather Mac. The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe. Encounter Books, 2016.