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Neither rain nor sleet nor a storied football rivalry could keep an angry group of local patriots from turning out on a dank Sunday afternoon during the Bears/Packers game to burn their football jerseys in protest of the way NFL owners have responded to the long-simmering national anthem controversy. Not only did some of these passionate veterans, ranging in age from mid-30s to upper-80s, toss their once beloved jerseys into a metal pit set ablaze near a pond on Aurora's West Side, the charred remains were to be gathered up and mailed to the owners of the teams represented as...

The NFL has taken a beating over players kneeling during the national anthem, but a closer examination shows that the protests are less a story of the league as a whole and more a tale of two liberal cities: San Francisco and Seattle. On any given Sunday, the vast majority of those refusing to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner” play for the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, teams nestled in famously left-wing locales and led by owners who sought to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. That doesn’t include blips like Sept. 25, which saw nearly 200...

JOIN THE SFGOP ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH AT 2:00PM TO PROTEST THE GAS TAX INCREASE On the Divisadero side sidewalk of the ARCO station at the corner of Fell & Divisadero Streets. The California Republican Party is declaring Saturday, November 4, 2017 as #GasTaxtrophe Day! On November 4th, activists from across the state will gather in their communities to demonstrate against the Democrats' harmful new gas tax. We want everyone to know the California Democrats' gas tax is a #GasTaxtrophe.

Last November, a few days after the election, thousands of people gathered for a rally in New York to protest Donald Trump. The Guardian reported on the scale of the Nov. 12 rally at the time: More than 10,000 people indicated on Facebook that they would attend a noon march from Union Square to Trump Tower, the future president’s home and corporate headquarters.As marchers mustered at East 17th Street and Broadway, organisers estimated the turnout at 2,000. As the march began to move, however, the true figure seemed closer to the promised 10,000.Chanting “Not my president!”, the crowd set...

NFL players protesting the national anthem has undoubtedly caused serious damage to the popularity of the National Football League and has also hurt the reputation of league Commissioner Roger Goodell. In fact, the New York Post reported Sunday that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has had enough of Goodell and is leading a charge among fellow owners to derail a pending contract extension for the commissioner. Jones has been outspoken about how he would have handled the anthem protests differently, such as threatening to bench players who behave disrespectfully. [Snip] Aside from the obvious problem of allowing player protests during...

The National Football League continues to struggle with furious fans as player protests enter their second month, with ratings for the NFL’s flagship ‘Sunday Night Football’ down a staggering 25% from this time last week. According to Deadline Hollywood, television viewership for the troubled football association continued its free fall from previous weeks, with roughly one quarter fewer fans tuning in as the Detroit Lions faced off against the Pittsburgh Steelers. “With that, as the league and broadcasters have been losing ratings traction and snared in political controversy this season, last night’s Week 8 NFL game is down a hard...

TV network executives are scrambling to solve the NFL ratings decline and are looking to possibly cut games on Thursday to prevent “over-saturation.” According to Sports Business Journal, there are talks to cut “Thursday Night Football” from 18 games a season to eight games. The report states there is a plan to pull games played in the UK back to 1 p.m. ET, or 6 p.m. London time. “Ten years ago, the NFL had 32 game windows through week six,” the publication said. “This year, it is up to 39, a 22 percent increase. It’s even more crowded in college,...

NFL kneelers have started a firestorm regarding our National Anthem and article after article have discussed what the National Anthem means. Although perhaps well intentioned, all of these discussions miss the main issue. The issue is not what the National Anthem might mean to this or that individual but rather why the National Anthem, or in smaller settings the Pledge of Allegiance, is performed before public gatherings. And that why is unity. Before the city council meeting or before a town hall or even yes, before a sporting event the National Anthem is performed as a sign of unity. Before...

An open letter to the NFL players, You graduated high school in 2011. Your teenage years were a struggle. You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Your mother was the leader of the family and worked tirelessly to keep a roof over your head and food on your plate. Academics were a struggle for you and your grades were mediocre at best. The only thing that made you stand out is you weighed 225 lbs and could run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds while carrying a football. Your best friend was just like you, except he didn’t...

Four members of the Ann Arbor city council mimicked the NFL protests and took a knee for the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance during Monday’s meeting. According to Mlive.com, Chip Smith, 5th ward; Chuck Warpehoski, 5th ward; Sumi Kailasapathy, 1st ward; and Jason Frenzel, 1st ward were the four kneelers. "I can't speak to what is in each person's heart, but for me to 'take a knee' is an act of attention, of concern, and of respect," Councilman Warpehoski explained on his website. Warpehoski elaborated at the meeting: "And it is in that spirit that I take a knee...

UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER   Sometimes sports become a venue for overcoming racial tensions. Amid anthem protests, pro football has a high-profile opportunity. Minutes before kickoff for the first round of Sunday’s football games, the National Football League website carried two unusual features. Below the usual fare of game-day predictions and fantasy matchups were slideshows of Baltimore players visiting schools with Baltimore police and of Miami Dolphins and the league commissioner doing the same with police in their city. It was a jarring bit of social activism for a sports league site on game day. The slideshows are the NFL’s tentative...

Any television show or any sporting event would take a rating of 30.0 in the Dallas-Fort Worth market and laugh all the way to the bank. It's a terrific number. It means that an average of 30 percent of all homes with televisions in the area were tuned in at any moment. That translates to approximately 794,550 homes. Relatively speaking, however, those are low numbers for a Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys matchup. But that's what Sunday's down-to-the-wire Packers 35, Cowboys 31 at AT&T Stadium scored locally for Fox on KDFW (Channel 4).

They’re going to continue to speak out by kneeling down. Five Kennesaw State University cheerleaders who knelt on the football field during the national anthem at a recent game said Tuesday they’ll continue their silent protest in a somewhat different fashion, since a new campus policy prevents them from taking such action on the gridiron. The students said in a group interview Tuesday they’ll continue to get on one knee during the anthem, while they’re in the stadium hallway. “Somebody has to take a stand,” said second-year student Taylor McIver. KSU no longer allows the cheerleaders on the field during...

NFL player protests during the national anthem continued this week, defying pleas by Commissioner Roger Goodell and some team owners to have everyone stand for the song. While fewer teams had mass protests this week than in the early games, some players still kneeled, while others stayed in the locker room for the pre-game national anthem. The prior protests have sparked fan outrage and might have hurt television ratings, with some angry observers and at least one sponsor vowing to boycott the league in a counter-protest. A meeting is set this coming week between NFL management, ownership, and the NFL...

Players and teams that protested the National Anthem in week 6: Dolphins vs. Falcons Kenny Stills, Mike Thomas and Julius Thomas stayed in the locker room for the anthem but came out to rejoin their team after it was over. All members of the Falcons stood for the anthem but 10 did not interlock arms. Packers vs. Vikings All members of the Packers and Vikings stood during the national anthem. The Packers linked arms as a team once again. Lions vs. Saints All members of the Lions and Saint stood for the national anthem. The Lions linked arms for the...

On the same day that Jemele Hill was suspended from ESPN for tweeting about politics, another network personality, Michael Wilbon, compared Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to a slave owner. Mr. Wilbon, co-host of "Pardon the Interruption," took issue with Mr. Jones' stance that players who do not stand for the national anthem before football games will not play. "And the word that comes to my mind―and I don’t care who doesn't like me using it―is plantation," Mr. Wilbon said on Monday’s show. "The players are here to serve me, and they will do what I want. No matter how...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for changes to U.S. tax law affecting the National Football League, fueling a feud with the league and its players over protests that he says disrespect the nation.

48hrs After Black Players Break White QB's Back For Standing For Anthem, Chiefs Star Sends Sick Message To Furious Fans ...... Protests within the NFL have taken a nasty racist turn over the past several weeks, after Seahawks player Michael Bennett started a sick new trend where black players are now rendering black power salutes anytime they sack a white player on the field. The NFL has an even bigger scandal brewing however, after white Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had his back broken over the weekend during a tackle, where some sports commentators are speculating that Carr’s all-black offensive line...

Fox Sports says they will not air any live anthem coverage from any other game except for the London contest between the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints. Last week, the network aired the national anthem from games as more than 250 players took a knee during the anthem to protest President Trump calling for NFL players to be fired for what he says as disrespect to the flag. The Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks chose not to even leave their respective lockers during the anthem. "As we have in previous broadcasts of NFL games from London, Fox will show...