Ok. I get it.
This being the First Day of Autumn, marks my favorite time of year: putting away summer clothes, falling leaves, leaves changing colors, breaking out the turtlenecks and sweaters, hanging out at the World Pub (don’t I wish) having a beer or two watching college football on Saturdays…………..and (up until this season) the NFL on Sundays. I, like millions of other people, have been conflicted as to whether or not to watch any football due to the league’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick, who unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the last two years, has been a flashpoint and point of contention among many regarding his taking a knee during the National Anthem. We’ll get to a couple of ‘unintended consequences’ surrounding that later in this blog, and at the end, I’m gonna show you how to get ‘something for nothing’.
First and foremost, let’s deal with the elephant in the room, kick it square in the you-know-what and deal with it head-up:
The NFL tacitly condones police brutality.
And I don’t say that lightly. When Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem last season, he made it crystal clear who and what he was protesting. Instead of hearing other people’s “interpretations” of it, hear it from the man himself (View Link).
Now, to shut down the arguments that he’s against the Military or against the Flag, you’ll note: at the 1:34 point of the video he stated clearly: he’s against police brutality. At no point in this video do you hear him say he’s anti-military or even anti-flag. He talks about police brutality in no uncertain terms: police killing unarmed citizens, getting paid vacations and getting their jobs back without punishment or accountability. What has happened is that people who support bad policing (i.e. many police unions) have managed to shift the narrative, so that instead of the spotlight being on bad police, it’s now become ‘Colin vs. the Flag’ or ‘Colin vs. the Military’. Police brutality (as was hoped) conveniently faded into the background. The fact that NFL teams are signing quarterbacks who played in Arena League Football from years ago, guys who were selling houses for 2 years (hello, Baltimore Ravens) over Kaepernick proves there’s collusion amongst team owners.
Speaking of the Ravens, I live about 20 minutes from Ravens stadium. Steve Bisciotti, Baltimore Ravens owner, said a few weeks ago at a Ravens Fan Forum that ‘he was interested in signing Kaepernick, but wanted to hear what the fans thought’. I call unmitigated BS. When the time comes to do what he thinks is best for the Ravens, trust me, fan input isn’t even the LAST of qualifiers to his thought process. For example, when time comes to sign a player he wants, do you think he goes to the fans for their input? Absolutely not. When time comes to ponder advancing the Ravens business interests and leveraging them to increase his team’s profitability, do you think he goes to the fans for their input? Absolutely not. When time comes to raise the ticket prices and seating licenses, do you think he goes to the fans for their input? Absolutely not. Keep that in mind.
I mentioned earlier about ‘unintended consequences’. Lost also in the narrative are the verses to the National Anthem itself. Most folks don’t even know there are 4 verses to the Anthem, not just the one verse everybody knows to sing. And until this controversy arose last year, it was
with good reason that many people wanted next to nobody to know about the history of those verses. The unintended consequence here is that, through the unearthing of the infamous 3rd verse, it unintentionally gives credence and validity as to why Kaepernick would protest to begin with.
Before you read further, to justify my argument in context, you need to understand the history of how the National Anthem actually came to be (please click to read):
For your reading edification, I offer you the infamous 3rd verse:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Now I ask you……..given the history of the anthem I linked above, can you imagine an analogy where Jewish people who just this week are celebrating Rosh Hashanah being urged to stand for an anthem written by a Nazi, an anthem which explicitly calls for the eradication of their people? Is that a conscionable, palatable argument? Absolutely not. That’s tantamount to what this 3rd verse calls for. Ex-slaves, damn you to the grave and beyond.
Back to modern day: the NFL, via their silence and I believe collusion, denies Colin Kaepernick an opportunity to play, because his protest made them uncomfortable. Furthermore, they don’t even choose to address the problem that he’s articulated. Sorry, billionaire NFL owners, but what should make you uncomfortable is the significantly high numbers of unarmed minorities shot dead by police in the streets. Many of those people could quite very well be part of your product-purchasing consumer base. And it almost happened to one of their own, one they laud for his leadership on and off the field.
In case you missed it, just a few weeks ago on August 27, 2017, shortly after the Mayweather/McGregor fight, Las Vegas police physically assaulted Seattle Seahawks player Michael Bennett where Bennett has alleged the police put a gun to his head and told him “if you move, I’ll blow your f–ing head off”. Few quick points of note: A) there were two officers involved in this incident, B) the officer physically assaulting Bennett did NOT have his bodycam unit turned on, the footage I will cite below comes from his PARTNER’S bodycam, C) the ‘shooting’ that the police claimed was the impetus behind the mayhem leading up to this wasn’t actually a shooting after all. Meaning, it never happened.
Second link – Other Partner’s Bodycam
In the second link above, if you pause the video at 3:18, you can clearly see the officer with one hand in Bennett’s back, with the other holding an object that appears to be a firearm to his head. The police have denied all of his claims that this occurred, but it’s kinda hard to dispute video, especially video from one of their own officers.
How do I swing the argument back to my original platform statement, that the NFL is quietly agreeable to police misconduct? Simple. Their silence. Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, only made a statement on the Bennett incident after public outcry FORCED him to do so.
Read the first sentence of that statement. That should tell you what level of high caliber the NFL thinks of Michael Bennett. Paul Allen is a co-founder of Microsoft and is also the owner of the Seattle Seahawks, Bennett’s team. To date, Paul Allen has yet to make ANY statement about the incident in Vegas involving one of his star players, who the LEAGUE ITSELF said was about as stand up a guy as they’d hope for in the NFL. Silence breeds consent.
Here’s how we bring this whole dialogue home.
Eddie Murphy said it best in “Trading Places”: the best way to hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people. The NFL profited $3.5 billion in advertising dollars alone last year (see link). Granted, they won’t go broke by losing that income stream, but it’ll certainly hurt if they get less dollars than what they’re accustomed to getting.
Remember what I said in the beginning about getting something for nothing? My strategy is this, and I know it sounds counter-intuitive but hear me out:
Watch the NFL. Watch your favorite teams, cheer for your favorite players,
don’t deny yourself that enjoyment.
HERE’S WHERE THE WORK (STRATEGY) COMES IN: what you DON’T do is support the league. That means a financial boycott of the NFL and all its holdings, meaning don’t buy any NFL jerseys, merchandise, posters, videos, no tickets to the games, no tailgating, cancelling your subscriptions to the NFL Network, et al. – you name it. A COMPLETE ECONOMIC SHUTDOWN of the NFL and all its interests. If you want to enjoy the games at a bar or restaurant, find one that is like-minded to your thoughts and beliefs and support local business instead. But, it doesn’t stop there……………..
That was just the first prong of a two-pronged strategy. The second prong will prove to be even more fun. As you watch the games, during the commercial breaks, take a pen and notepad and write down each of the advertisers/sponsors whose commercials get aired. Then begin a collective boycott of those companies as well. And if you want to take it a step further, each company has a public affairs/outreach email or telephone number. Contact them by email or telephone and let them know that due to their support of the NFL and its policies which are antithetical to your belief system, you can no longer in good conscience support their products or brands either. Trust me: with enough emails/phone calls, somebody will take notice. First rule of Business 101: the outlay cannot exceed the income. For example, if a company lays out $100 million on an advertising campaign, and only gets $4 million in attributable profit, that’s called a low rate of return, or a low return on investment (ROI). No company will advertise with the NFL if it only means spending millions to be on TV and getting next to nothing for it in return. Below is a partial list of advertisers from the past two years:
Also, more advertisers include Toyota, Ford, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, Southwest Airlines, Geico, Nissan, and FanDuel. That’s why I suggest getting a more accurate accounting of who to boycott, and how do you do that? Watch the NFL. Watch your favorite teams, cheer for your favorite players………and be busy writing down advertisers during the commercials.
So as you can see, it’s really a win/win for us as consumers. You can have your cake and eat it too, literally. You can watch all the football you want AND STILL be able to have a significant enough impact on it by withholding your consumer dollars from people who would take your money and disregard everything else about you.
The power to inflict economic hurt not only to the league but also to advertisers is in our hands. Collectively, we have that power.
The question now is………..will you choose to wield it?