The NFL’s national anthem problem won’t go away.
The players hate America and the fans are furious.
Now things just took a disgusting turn for the worse.
Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett – one of the most outspoken anthem protesters—and who was caught red-handed spewing racist lies about his treatment at the hands of the Las Vegas police – offended millions of Americans when he claimed that forcing players to stand for the anthem was the same as slave owners hunting down the fugitive Dred Scott and forcing him back into bondage.
Breitbart reports:
“Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett compared Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’s decision to sit players who do not stand for the national anthem to the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision.
“It reminded me of the Dred Scott case: You’re property, so you don’t have the ability to be a person first,” Bennett told reporters Wednesday. “I think that in this generation, I think that sends the wrong message to young kids and young people all across the world that your employer doesn’t see you as a human being, they see you as a piece of property, and if that’s the case, then I don’t get it. I just don’t get why you don’t see us as human beings first.”
Jerry Jones benching protesters reminds @mosesbread72 of Dred Scott: “You're property; so you don't have the ability to be a person first.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017
In the Dred Scott v. Sanford case, Scott sued for his freedom on the basis that since he lived in free territories, he should be liberated from bondage.
But the courts ruled that blacks whose parents were brought to America were not American citizens and had no standing to sue.
Bennett – who is paid $15 million a year to play a child’s game—an occupation he is free to leave at any point in time to chart whatever course he wishes in life – compared himself to a man who was told by the courts that he did not count as a person and must live a life where beatings, lynching, and death lurked around every corner and could be inflicted upon him at the whim of his owner.
It was a sickening comparison that only deepened the NFL’s problems.
Bennett – who sits for the national anthem and has raised a racist black power fist on the field – is one of the ringleaders of the anti-American protest movement.
Because of Bennett and his fellow America-hating players, ratings are down 7.5 percent from last year and 18.7 percent from 2015 – which is the last year all players stood for the national anthem.
But that is just scratching the surface of the league’s ratings issue.
Sports Illustrated reports 25 of 31 teams are drawing lower ratings in their local markets, and the league’s digital streaming viewership is not rising at the same level that TV audiences are shrinking:
“• The NFL’s average household rating is currently 25.1, down from 26.9 over the same period last year, and the 28.1-28.7 range where it sat from 2013-15.
Twenty-five of 31 teams (excluding the Chargers, because of the move) are drawing lower local numbers than they did in 2016. Nineteen have dropped 5 percent or more, including brand name teams like the Cowboys (7% drop), Patriots (8%) and Steelers (6%), and both New York clubs (the Giants are down 7%, the Jets are down 37%). Conversely, only three teams (Chiefs, Bucs, Lions) have improved by more than 5 percent.
Digital streaming numbers are improving, but not at the rate that TV numbers are falling. ESPN counts the stream crowd as 3 percent of its viewership of Monday Night Football, which is the best of all the game-carrying networks.”
Standing for the national anthem is no different than adhering to a dress code at work.
Private employers – such as NFL teams – are allowed to set conditions for work as long as they do not discriminate based on age, race, or sex.
For Bennett to compare that standing for the American flag is the same as being told he doesn’t count as a person like the slaves were in the 1800s is a disgusting statement that betrays all respect for America and its history – and that kind of attitude will only further drive fans away from the league.
