This is America. Where else but in “the land of the free and the home of the brave” could a cabal of white billionaire team owners dictate patriotic behavior for a workforce that is 70 percent black without courting serious aneurysms from the weight of historical irony and outrage?
Where else but in a land “whose broad stripes and bright stars” could a shady real estate mogul who quarterback-snuck his way into the Oval Office possess a scintilla enough of moral authority to shame those same billionaires into doing his bidding?
“Oh, say can you see” what’s happening here, America? Can you see the rank hypocrisy of a group of men known for routinely blackmailing cities into underwriting the construction of their gleaming stadiums with billions in public subsidies dictating what patriotism looks like? “Oh, say can you see” it?
When the National Football League announced this week that the black millionaire players who make billions for them no longer have the “right” to use the national anthem to protest police violence by kneeling, did the white billionaires hear the contempt for them rising across America like “bombs bursting in air”?
Fortunately, Chris Long, a defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles, “gave proof through the night” (via Twitter) that patriotism wasn’t something to be dictated by the scoundrels in skyboxes jealously guarding their right to prostrate themselves before President Trump:
“This is fear of a diminished bottom line,” Mr. Long, who is white, wrote. “It’s also fear of a president turning his base against a corporation. This is not patriotism. Don’t get it confused. These owners don’t love America more than the players demonstrating and taking real action to improve it.”
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) May 23, 2018
“O’er the ramparts we watched” as the billionaires sought to spin a shameful capitulation to a demagogue into a “reasonable compromise” with players they didn’t have the decency to negotiate with. Of course athletes wouldn’t have to stand on the sidelines if their conscience forbade it, the NFL announced. The players simply don’t have the option to kneel. Consequently, they are invited to stay in their locker rooms until the anthem is done.
Those defending the right of the owners to dictate speech are quick to remind us “at the twilight’s last gleaming” that professional football is a privately owned and run enterprise and that bosses have an absolute right to make any rules they want to impose on those who work for them.
Still, you’ll have a hard time getting one of these free-market absolutists to concede that if the NFL owners were a cabal of black millionaires and billionaires who wanted to impose kneeling during the anthem as a sign of solidarity against police brutality, that doing so would be either moral or constitutional.
But back here in the real world, what do the white billionaire owners think will happen when Mr. Trump tunes in to the Washington Redskins’ season opener and sees only a handful of players on the field during the pregame ceremony, while a MAGA-hat wearing Roseanne murders “The Star-Spangled Banner” again? The sound of “the bombs bursting in air” won’t do justice to the fake patriot’s wrath.
During a victory lap on Fox News under “the rocket’s red glare,” Mr. Trump added another condition to what he considers acceptable patriotism:
“I don’t think people should be staying in the locker rooms, but I still think it’s good,” Mr. Trump told Fox & Friends Thursday morning. “You have to stand proudly for the national anthem. Or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.”
Not only does Mr. Trump expect the majority of players to comply with the wishes of 53 percent of Americans polled, but standing straight in a pose of respect and reverence should be a condition of both employment in the NFL and U.S. residence.
And so we have the spectacle of an accomplished schoolyard bully threatening the rich kids during recess that he’ll give them all wedgies if he doesn’t get exactly what he wants — total obedience. The bully sees all dissent as an existential threat.
But what every bully always fails to grasp is that however much they’ve successfully intimidated someone, it doesn’t translate into the capture of their hearts and minds. If the athletes can’t kneel, they will find more creative ways to protest the brutality of black people at the hands of law enforcement. The false arrest and brutal tasing of Milwaukee Bucks rookie Sterling Brown in January is still on every player’s mind. Black millionaire athletes are not exempt from police violence.
In another age closer to the time when the national anthem was originally composed, a truer sign of patriotism would have meant storming the owners’ boxes with torches and pitchforks “through the perilous fight.”
But even during this week’s explosion of fake patriotism in the NFL, the flag of free speech is still there. The players can still live in “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” if they’re willing to fight for it.
Tony Norman: tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631.
First Published: May 25, 2018, 4:58 a.m.
