First, my intention with this site was stay close to facts and things that can be easily measured and therefore not get too “controversial”. However, I am opinionated and the eventual direction of this site was to expand into all areas of everything, so here we go.
As a kid, we would go to about a couple baseball games a year. The anthem signified that the game was about the start. It wasn’t important to be in your seats by then, but it meant that if you hadn’t made it to your seat, you were going to miss something. I also loved the Olympics. That is where the anthem meant something. I would give anything to be standing on the podium and having The Star Spangled Banner ringing throughout the venue.
Throughout the 90s, as I started to mature into a young adult, the anthem started to have more meaning. It mostly coincided with the Iraq War and the beginning of our new reality of tragic massive casualty events. Whitney Houston brought everyone to tears at the ’91 Super Bowl. Every community on a smaller scale seemed to experience their signature anthems after devastating tragedies in an attempt to heal.
After September 11th, 2001, the anthem and everything else red, white and blue became more meaningful. Maybe the anthem is the leading candidate why we look at sports to help cope with these all too frequent disasters. Outside of these moments, does everyone stand and remove their hats? Does everyone stand in silence and appreciate the actions of those who made this the greatest country in the world?
Now that I am a father, one of the many, many lessons I try to pass down is to focus on yourself. I will give one kid $5 and they are extremely happy until they find out that I gave the other kid $20. Now, I have one delighted kid and another kid in tears and having the worse day possibly. Worst of all, I am down $25. Focus on yourself. Do what you need to do, and don’t worry about others. Brace yourself for what the media will convey as controversial – I don’t care if players kneel, raise their fist, wear their hats, hide in the locker rooms, or whatever else. I know that I will be standing, my hat in my hand, possibly yelling “STARS”, and taking the moment in and reflecting. A lot of fans of incorporated various words that they highlight relating to their teams. I’m not bothered by it. I think it does a little more good by getting a lot of people to pay a little more attention to the lyrics than they normally would than the bad of disrespecting a national song to make a little more local. Again, focus on yourself. It solves a lot of issues.
In 2016, the national anthem protests started. The media ran with it. The weeks that followed, the National Anthem was televised and camera men and announcers were looking for any and all unpatriotic jocks they could find. One, another lesson I try to teach is that nobody likes a tattletale. Two, is the media exempt from disrespecting the flag? If I am at home watching the proceedings, I’d prefer to watch the disrespectful camera men to show the flag, players singing along and the flyover. NASCAR knows how to do it right. They even throw in a controversial prayer beforehand. Individual sponsorship dollars are heavily involved in racing and as such drivers and others are less likely to participate in these kinds of controversial protests. Subway ended a longtime deal over its driver in a fluff pre race segment handing out doughnuts to fans.
Now lets look at the protest side of things. Protests usually start when a group has no other form of power and thus try to influence with the power by numbers. In today’s world, money is very powerful and these are NFL players. You have brought awareness to your cause, but now what? The next step is action. Get involved in events bringing resolutions. You may spend some money, but it there is a growing positive movement, companies will be more than willing to jump in. Its to the point that I forgotten what the protests are even about. It began as an awareness towards racial inequalities between the police and communities. Organize some kind of get togethers in various communities, where police and citizens clean up/build playgrounds, fix up some much needed houses in neighborhoods, whatever to have citizens side by side with the police and doing good. Invite the media, and see if this movement spreads to other cities.
We are aware. It is time for action. Continued awareness beats down the audience. The audience will stop watching, dropping the ratings. Lower ratings means less TV revenue and lower sponsorship deals. Less money means less salary for all.
You guys are celebrities and there are a billion ways to get your message across. JJ Watt helped bring awareness to the needs of post Hurricane Harvey rebuilding. Then, he acted by being a big part of the distribution efforts. I will gladly take a knee for actions like these.
BEAM – WhatIzBetter.com