#anthem protest
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, linebacker Eli Harold, defensive lineman Arik Armstead, cornerback K’Waun Williams, safety Eric Reid and defensive back Adrian Colbert all took a knee as they continued to protest police brutality against African Americans. One inactive player took a knee with his teammates.
The rest of the 49ers all stood during the anthem before Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins.
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A mockery was made of the national anthem all right.
But it wasn’t by the San Francisco 49ers.
Vice President Mike Pence turned the anthem into a prop Sunday, co-opting it for a stunt that served no other purpose than to sow division, further enrage the administration’s conservative base and try to cow NFL owners. That it likely deflected attention from yet more neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville was all the better.
Please, though, tell me again how it’s the players who are so disrespectful.
Pence was so incensed by the sight of several 49ers kneeling during the anthem at Lucas Oil Stadium that he left immediately afterward. Not so incensed that he wasn’t right there with a carefully crafted statement to let the world know of his outrage, however.
Some see kneeling during the national anthem as patriotic protest. Some see it as disrespect to flag and country. And some see it as something they don’t want to think about as they settle in to watch the football games they attend to forget the troubles of the world outside the stadium walls.
Thenational anthem was an NFL flashpoint for another Sunday, but at what seemed a lower temperature this time. The heat on display as the anthem played last Sunday came just two days after President Trump said NFL owners should fire the “son of a b—” who fail to stand when it’s playing.
