Jim Brown criticizes Kaepernick-style protests: 'I don't desecrate my flag'

Fox News ^ | 08/25/2017

[DFG]

Pro Football Hall of Famer and Cleveland Browns legend Jim Brown panned current football players who choose to protest during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, saying “I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem.”

Brown, who fought for social causes throughout his career, told ThePostGame.com he empathizes with jobless quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began the trend of kneeling during the anthem last season when he played for the San Francisco 49ers. But Brown said Kaepernick and other players who demonstrate – such as a dozen Cleveland players who knelt Monday – are going about their crusade the wrong way.

[DungeonMaster]

When NFL income drops and they call us racists for it, my response is “Too late, you already called me a racist when you started taking a knee.”

[Mears]

I’m with you.

Many here refuse to go to the movies because of the Hollywood leftists.

I love the movies and if they are good at what they do I feel I have received what I paid for,

The political leanings of an actor do not bother me anymore than the political leanings of my surgeon or my pilot.

.

[fredhead]

The 49er’s teammates could have straightened Kaepernick very easy last season.

Snap him the ball, then the offensive line step aside and let the opposing team at him.

[JMS]

Good idea, the offensive line could take a knee after the snap.

[jjotto]

Normalcy bias.

People want to pretend the dysfunction is just isolated.

[rlmorel]

I understand completely.

I cannot stomach seeing a movie that has people like George Clooney in it. I can't listen to music that has Roger Waters in it. I cannot drink Coca Cola products or General Mills products because of their open embrace of homosexuality in commercials, marketing, and packaging.

I have been drinking Coke Zero, up to 6-8 12 oz servings a day since it was introduced over 10 years ago. I purchased it in large quantities, up to 12 boxes of the 12 serving packages when it was on sale (I could often get it for 4 for $10, even occasionally 5 for $10.

Then I saw this commercial:

Homosexual Boy, Sister, and Mother fight for Pool Boy

It so disgusted and nauseated me I won't consume their products, any of them, at all.

I have been eating General Mills and Kelloggs breakfast cereals for my entire life, in pretty large quantities, and saw these homosexual advocacy ads by them:

Frosted Flakes

Lucky Charms

I cannot consume goods from those companies now. BUT THAT IS MY CHOICE.

I am sure there are loads of food/drink/movie/music/computer/car/whatever Nazis who will tell me I shouldn't be consuming these things anyway (we have tons of them on Free Republic) but I don't tell others

What food to not eat

Drinks to avoid

Movies to not see

Music to not listen to

Computers to not use

Cars to not buy

Or whatever. I don't do it because I AM A CONSERVATIVE, AND I AM FINE WITH PEOPLE DOING WHATEVER THEY WANT TO DO IN THEIR OWN LIVES, AS LONG AS IT IS NOT IMPACTING ME.

I personally do not care a whit if people are homosexual and engage in it as long as it doesn't affect me or my loved ones, but once they start agitating against millenia of human history to FORCE people to accept it as anything other than a sexual peccadillo, then I refuse to have my head pissed on while someone tells me it is raining out.

So, other people can do what they like. I am not going to bother them about this stuff. But it is really starting to piss me off to see conservatives taking part in this.

I expect this stupid virtual signaling crap from dumb ass liberals.

I hate seeing it from conservatives. It should be a personal choice.

[CDB]

I’m much more into the English Premier League these days than the NFL.

I like rugby, especially New Zealand's national team, the "All Blacks" (named for the color of their uniforms, not their skin). Even the coaches sing their national anthems before every game.

New Zealand's National Anthem at 2011 Rugby World Cup a>

[rlmorel]

"...That's why you don't see anyone on the New England Patriots, for example, engaging in this kind of idiocy..."

In the case of the New England Patriots, I attribute that to two things:

1.) Bill Belichick's attitude towards the military.

2.) Bill Belichick's iron fisted approach to separating football concerns to non-football concerns (media, personal lives, protests, etc) and ensuring they don't overlap and impact football. That makes him a jerk to a lot of people, and he does indeed treat the media with total disdain and contempt, something I applaud every time I see it. So he's a jerk. So are they.

I can imagine Belichick talking to the team about this in that flat, annoying monotone:

"Look. What you do outside football, as long as it doesn't impact the team or your performance, is your business. But when you put on the uniform with the logo, you become an employee of Robert Kraft's team. You become an employee of my football team. My employee. And I am telling you right now, I don't want to see anything unrelated to football once you step on that field. People serve and die under that flag to allow us to play football every Sunday. I won't stand for anything less than standing and paying respect to the flag. I am not threatening you. I am telling you what I expect anytime you interact with anyone, anywhere, in any way, as my employee. That is all. Let's play football."

I don't doubt for a minute there are players on the Patriots who want to do this crap. Devin McCourty is one of them, even if he didn't kneel. Martellus Bennett, Jamie Collins, and a few others WERE too. It doesn't surprise me a bit to see both of them elsewhere.

I won't stop watching the team if some of them do, I just hope they can keep that crap to themselves.

[rlmorel]

"...The political leanings of an actor do not bother me anymore than the political leanings of my surgeon or my pilot..."

I agree, as long as they keep it to themselves.

[Huaynero]

a new league?

If a football fan, ditch NFL and tune in your state or favorite college team. Roll Tide and it’s a shame that VMI doesn’t have more games televised.
I gave up on the Redskins some years ago. I didn’t expect them to win every season but between making excuses for losing and injecting politics - Hands Up etc. - they became a waste of time.

[oldvirginian]

“Better not call him that to his face, I don’t care how old he is.”

Ten years after his death Jim Brown will be able to crawl out of the grave and open a can of whoopass on half the earths population
Yeah, he’s that badass.

[onedoug]

I really like him as the Marine CO in “Ice Station Zebra”.

[V_TWIN]

Don’t watch college football either.