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ESPN has reversed plans not to televise the national anthem prior to tonight’s “Monday Night Football” game after the tragic events that unfolded overnight in Las Vegas. The network will now air the national anthem, followed by a planned moment of silence at Arrowhead Stadium. The Disney-owned ESPN planned to pass on airing the anthem live this week amid an on-going controversy regarding players kneeling as an act of protest that has emerged as a national conversation. The Sporting News first reported the network’s plans to skip the anthem before the Washington Redskins visit the Kansas City Chiefs this evening....

RARITAN TWP. -- In response to the ongoing controversy surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, the owner of Flemington Car and Truck Country has pulled the dealership's ads from broadcasts of games for the remainder of the 2017 season. "The National Football League and its owners have shown their fans and marketing partners that they do not have a comprehensive policy to ensure that players stand and show respect for America and our flag during the playing of the national anthem," Steve Kalafer said in a statement. "We have cancelled all of our NFL advertising on the Optimum...

Television networks have gone to great lengths to conceal the ratings-killing anthem protests that are costing the league huge money in terms of viewership and attendance. However, it looks like NFL teams have also started trying to conceal the anthem protests. In one case, by literally covering a player up. The Raiders’ Marshawn Lynch arrived at the stadium, like a man wanting to be made the center of attention. Lynch showed up wearing a shirt that read, “Everybody vs Trump”: However, when it came time for Lynch to do what he’s been doing since the preseason, which is protest the...

that means... more backlash against the Needless Football League: Many brokers and bankers — some of whom are also military veterans — have threatened to pull the plug on pro football for not reining in players who are using the American national anthem as an opportunity to protest by taking the knee. And as the protests gather steam this weekend, some vets of the financial markets — a huge employer of former US military service personnel, have unleashed a barrage of criticism in response and could be counted among the estimated 2 million fewer viewers over the first three weeks...

CNN host John King said Sunday that NFL owners have data supporting President Donald Trump's claim that television ratings have gone down because of players' protests during the national anthem. "NFL owners so far siding with their players for their right to free speech, but they're also keeping close tabs on the financial impact and the public relations impact of this confrontation," King said. He went on to say that the NFL owners have research "clearly showing the president is right" when he claims the national anthem protests are one factor in TV ratings dropping. "Since the president weighed in,...

Reflections on the meaning behind an NFL insult... Professional football players started refusing to stand for the National Anthem during the 2016 season, and it began as just a trickle of weirdos like Colin Kaepernick… but by late September, 2017, hundreds of pro football players were kneeling down during the National Anthem that begins the game, or even refusing to leave their locker room for it. This is obviously an issue for football players, owners, and fans. But some have asked why non-football fans care about it at all, much as theatergoers ask why what happens in a play or...

The NFL says the message players and teams are trying to express is being lost in a political firestorm. The issues have been "overtaken by political forces," NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said Thursday, referring to President Trump's criticism of the league, team owners and players for kneeling during the national anthem. More than 200 players either knelt or used other means as expressions of unity last weekend. Lockhart said such actions are not a protest against the anthem or the flag.

A new poll shows that the favorability rating of the NFL among Donald Trump supporters was nearly cut in half after more than 200 players kneeled during the national anthem last week. Morning Consult conducted the survey, and the results are a very bad sign for the NFL. They released the following data in a press release to The Daily Caller: NFL’s Brand Favorability Drops To Lowest Point Since Morning Consult Started Tracking: The NFL’s net favorability has dropped from 30% on September 21 to 17% on September 28. On September 21, 25% of Trump supporters said they had a...

The Green Bay Packers asked fans to link arms during the national anthem at Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bears to show “unity.” If the footage from the song’s performance is any indication, fans largely ignored that request. Quarterback Aaron Rogers even made a personal request, saying “we’ve got to come together and talk about these things and grow as a community, as a connected group of individuals in our society, and we’re going to continue to show love and unity, and this week we’re going to ask the fans to join in as well and come together and...

NFL had better get its act together. There is nothing to discuss. The deadbeat NFL players, "Hate America" "Lock your arms, together" has failed miserably. Packers, Q/B, Aaron Rogers earns the title of "Failed Obama Girlie Boy, Pajama Boy" as the overwhelming majority of thousands of Greenbay Packer fans rejected his request that fans lock arms to show unity with the NFL America Haters on the Packers and Chicago Bear NFL teams. The fans simply chanted unending, loudly all night long, USA, USA, USA!!! POTUS, Trump wins big time!!! There is only one road open for the NFL, the NBA...

New York Giants linebacker Jonathan Casillas said Thursday that he was among 20 to 25 players and owners who met Tuesday with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in New York to discuss player protests of the national anthem last week that were heavily criticized by President Trump. “Now, there was nothing ironed out; there was just a whole bunch of opinions being thrown out,” said Casillas, who attended the meeting with Giants’ co-owner John Mara. “I liked it because you got to see the opinions from the owners, and you got to see some of the opinions from the players as...

Three days after NFL players locked arms to protest President Trump's criticisms of those who kneel during the National Anthem, the topic remained on the minds of many around the league. Players and coaches took podiums during the NFL's weekly media day to field questions about the protests and whether they'll demonstrate again this weekend. Trump, meanwhile, continued to hammer the league for its handling of the protests. "The NFL is in a very bad box. You cannot have people disrespecting our national anthem, our flag, our country. And in my opinion, the NFL has to change or you know...

I should say at the outset that I’ve never really been a big football fan. I grew up in Detroit and played hockey, so I love the Redwings. Besides, we didn’t really have a professional team in Detroit; we only had the Lions.Jokes aside, I watched it nearly every week. Not intently, but it was on in the background because it’s easy to do other things with football on. Whether it’s cleaning, writing or whatever, there are long stretches of time during a football game where nothing much happens. And if anything interesting does happen the announcer’s voice and crowd...

First, by now the NFL’s #TakeAKnee controversy is probably already growing long in the tooth and so I apologize if I’m belaboring it. What is below is fairly important, though, as it’s a hell of a good response to the Michael Bennetts, Kenny Vaccaros and Marshawn Lynches of the world. And second, another hell of a good response was given by Heather Mac Donald at City Journal on Monday. Mac Donald looked through the FBI’s recently-released crime statistics and found scant evidence to support the underlying cause for #TakeAKnee. As in… Contrary to the Black Lives Matter narrative, the police...

Most professional sports leagues in the U.S. are quasi-socialist enterprises within capitalist corporate America. Outwardly, the NFL looks like a successful corporation, but from within, this corporation has implemented principles of doing business that are alien to America. Sooner or later, the conflict between the quasi-socialist paradise inside the NFL and its capitalist encirclement was bound to happen. For too long, this smoldering conflict between serf gladiators and free citizens was in the shadows. Sports organizations have managed to introduce as many socialist ideas into the sport as they could, but now this genie has jumped out of the bottle:...

President Trump, in an exclusive interview with "Fox & Friends," said that NFL owners are “afraid” to act against their players protesting the national anthem at games across the country. “The NFL is in a box and they have to do something about it,” Trump told Fox News' Pete Hegseth, in the interview aired Thursday morning. “I think they’re afraid of their players, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. In the same interview, Trump also touted the newly released Republican tax reform framework, describing the plan as the “largest reduction in terms of dollars in any plan...

After all the excitement and the flurry of media coverage and great posts I've read here on Free Republic in the last few days, I thought I'd post this series of random, rambling thoughts about the self-inflicted demise of what had once been one of this country's iconic cultural institutions: the National Football League. I gathered these from many of the things I've posted in recent days, and I wanted to share them with anyone (everyone) who wants to chime in on this unfolding disaster. I was going to post it as a more serious, formal article, but I figured...

Whether you like it or not, the Colin Kaepernick kneeling movement isn’t stopping anytime soon. Shonda Rhimes posted a photo of her, Ellen Pompeo, Jesse Williams and other members of the Grey’s Anatomy cast taking a knee while filming their 300th episode. The photo included the caption “…and we took a knee in solidarity of racial justice” to support the long list of NFL teams that have been doing the same over the weekend. The Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, and a long list of other teams have been making headlines for taking a knee, linking arms or doing both prior...

As the controversy over athletes boycotting the National Anthem continues, I would like to share some historical perspective. “The Star-Spangled Banner” became part of our sports traditions for a good reason: It brought people together in times of grave national turmoil. For this reason alone, it is a tradition worth respecting. According to MLB.com, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was first performed at a baseball game on May 15, 1862. Given baseball’s lengthy history in America, this is likely the first time it was played at a major U.S. sporting event. The timing was significant. In 1862, the nation was embroiled in...