Trump disinvited Eagles to the White House

[Millhouse]

(06-06-2018, 11:40 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I've made this point in the past.  Willie Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats to raise domestic violence awareness.  His mother was murdered in front of him by his father.  If you can punish that guy for that gesture then you can easily punish people for protesting, or making any statement not approved by the league, while on the job.  Any such policy, executed consistently and fairly (admittedly not a Goodell strong point) will be upheld in court and the players will eventually acknowledge the league's right to this position.


You're looking at this through Trump glasses.  Trump didn't create the situation, he exacerbated it.  Yes, I've heard the arguments that the protests were dying down before Trump reignited them.  I think that's a bit of revisionist history but I also know that people who were upset about the protests didn't start being upset the minute Trump weighed in.  Quite simply, Trump just kept the issue in the mainstream limelight, but NFL fans already had their opinions on the subject decided.


Trump is very good at finding meaningless issues he can whip up a furor over.  The NFL's mistake was in letting there be an issue for him to target.  They made the classic business mistake of doing nothing rather than taking decisive action.  They let the tide and currents of the news cycle control this topic and shape the narrative.  They have no one but themselves to blame for the current situation.

Thing is though it was dying down, until  Trump called kneelers "son of bitches" at some rally down in Alabama early on in the season. Then kaboom. But that is classic Trump. Rather than try to work through an issue like this with others, he doubled-down on his stance in an absolute way.

As Obi-Wan once said, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes".