05-24-2018, 10:58 AM
(05-23-2018, 03:47 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: The actual point appears to be lost on some, political protest at a place of business is going to almost always be unwelcome. If you're in the entertainment business then this is even more unwelcome. A person's perception is that person's reality, it doesn't matter why Kaepernick and others are kneeling if a person observing their kneeling interprets it as disrespect to our nation. It doesn't matter why the NFL is allowing it if the person observing it perceives it as disrespecting the nation. To put it simply, politicizing your business is a piss poor business decision. Allowing your employees to politicize your business is a piss poor business decision. I'm not allowed to protest at work, send a personal e-mail from my work e-mail or represent my department in any way during my private life. This is one of the reasons I have never disclosed what agency I am employed by, as my viewpoints are my own and should not be associated with them in any way.
The NFL made the right call, they just did it a year too late. If Goodell where anything other than a sock puppet he would have squashed this the first time it happened for the above reasons. The NFL is a business, it's as simple as that.
It's nearly impossible to just lay down one blanket policy across all businesses. There are different power dynamics between employees and employers all over the world. In the case of the NFL, the players have much, much more leverage than the average hourly working joe blow. Besides having an extremely powerful union, the players themselves are a necessity, if the NFL wants to remain the best football league, which also gives them a lot of leverage. Unlike most employees, the players are also the product.
There's a reason why the NFL spends so much time and money searching for and signing the best of the best. If the best of the best started going to another league, the NFL would go the way of the XFL in a matter of years.
