How Football Players Could Really Make a Difference (Feedback)

Arkansas Razorback Grant Cook carries an American flag on to the field at War Memorial Stadium on Sept. 11, 2011.

TO THE EDITOR:

I just finished reading Gwen Moritz’s Editor’s Note (The View from the Cheap Seat) in my noon e-blast. It is the appropriate place to voice an opinion. I appreciate the professionalism of Arkansas Business in that regard.

However, I think she missed the point of those who are unhappy with the current protest of the national anthem and the disrespecting of our flag by professional football players. She referenced the politicization of a “legal, nonviolent protest” by our president. First, just because something is legal does not make it right. Second, the U.S. Constitution protects us from the government infringing on our rights to free speech, not our employers. That is the crux of many people’s concern, including mine, about this particular phenomenon. No one I know says the NFL players do not have the right to protest, but on their own time, not mine and not on their employers’ time.

Do I wish President Trump had not gotten involved in this situation and not used the language he did when doing so? Absolutely. Do I agree that in disrespecting our flag and national anthem these players are disrespecting the men and women who risk their lives and sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice so that we can have the amazing freedoms we enjoy in this country? Absolutely. The red in the flag represents the blood given to support this country. My father-in-law’s two older brothers died at Normandy. My uncle served in Korea. My brother-in-law’s helicopter was shot down in Vietnam. My nephew served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. To claim you didn’t know not honoring the flag would be considered disrespectful to our military is naive at best.

Unlike Moritz, I am, and have been since the age of 13, a rabid football fan, and I am angry at these players and the owners of the NFL. When a player wears the wrong color socks to support his mother who died of breast cancer, he’s fined by the NFL. When the Dallas Cowboys wanted to wear helmet stickers in support of the five murdered police officers in Dallas, the request was denied because helmet stickers are not approved. When a player wore clothing supporting domestic violence abuse awareness because his mother was killed by her abuser, he was fined.

When players refuse to stand for the anthem in violation of NFL policy, they incur no consequences. That’s why we are mad. If these men want to really make a difference, they should donate their time and treasure to the cause they are espousing or use their free time to speak out against injustice.

It takes no courage to protest when you are certain there will be no consequences. To compare the action of kneeling during the national anthem by men who are paid millions of dollars to play a game with the courage of the Little Rock Nine, who along with their families faced actual, physical violence, is ridiculous and honestly somewhat insulting to both the Little Rock Nine and the intelligence of your readers.

I think time will show this protest was not the best way to ensure lasting, positive change. The best way to do that is to be the change you want to see, more like the example of Peyton and Eli Manning using their personal treasure to charter a plane, load it with supplies and take those supplies to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina or of rookie Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans giving his first game check to cafeteria workers at the Texans stadium who lost everything in Hurricane Harvey. Or perhaps like Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who upon signing his $125 million contract extension was asked what was the first thing he was going to do with his money and answered, “The first thing I’ll do is pay my tithe like I have since I was in college.” In my opinion, those are the NFL players who are actually making a difference.

Elizabeth Clogston
Little Rock