Point 1: Twitter aggregation is surely the lowest form of journalosm.

Point 2: it's interesting how many important causes for which Americans want or need to demonstrate are being co-opted into anti-Trump exercises. Sure, black lives matter but, more importantly, Trump sucks.

@1: This time, though, it was President Trump who "co-opted" himself into the cause when he told the Black Lives Matter demonstrators to shut up or be fired. The athletes' anti-Trump statements are not a case of BLM protestors shoehorning Trump in where he doesn't belong; they are a case of Trump himself launching an attack on BLM - an undignified and racially motivated attack at that.

I started off last year thinking it was tasteless for athletes to kneel during the anthem. Now I think they all should.

This all could be a Machiavellian stunt worked out ahead of time with Trump and the NFL managers to increase ratings.

Or it could be yet another unnecessary Trump outrage-of-the-week that steals the nation's spotlight from more pressing matters, like hurricane victims.

@3: Sorry, Trump is an idiot. To claim that he planned anything he has done or said during his presidency in advance is just foolishness.

The ARMY and NAVY both have NFL teams...so,why protest it? That would be protesting the military itself!

@6, the Army and Navy aren't NFL. On what planet do you live?

@2,
You have a point regarding the NFL. The "Concussion Issue" and any other unflattering topics are now on the back burner and the media is suddenly speaking positively of it, the league especially concerning player solidarity and freedom of expression.

Most curious.

All this brouhaha has made me ask the question (to which I bet there's no satisfactory answer) . . .

Since the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and all professional sports franchises are basically money-making, often multinational corporations (never mind their phony non-profit tax status), why do they play national anthems at games? Instead they should be flying flags with replicas of the currencies in which they count their revenues because that's where their allegiance really lies.

Seriously, given how they operate and that their loyalty is always and foever to the money they rake in, playing the national anthem is as crazy as having it piped in over a speaker every time you fill up at an Exxon-Mobile station.

I honestly don't care who stands or sits or scratches or sleeps through a national anthem at any professional sports event. Playing it at these is a joke anyway.

Whoops! Meant to say @3.

"In honor of the sacrifices made on our behalf".

Sorry. You don't get to coopt those sacrifices into your narrative, you didn't make them.

It's not about disrespecting veterans, I get that, but again, you don't get to tell other people what the correct interpretation of your protest is. You can protest, state your case (pretty vague, don't actually know what is specifically being protested besides inequality and racism in America, which is kind of universally reviled, so...ok?) and people are going to think what they are going to think.

A lot of people think these massively privileged players are disrespecting veterans and a country that have allowed them to make millions playing a game. I think they just want to watch the game sans the "you're all racist" sermon from players

Also, "unacceptable", is losing to the fucking Titans, Sherman.

Ask some of those who are all mad about the kneelers etc about the topic of when players started standing for the Anthem or about the NFL "sponsored patriotism" flap from a few years ago and unsurprisingly you'll find a gap in their contextual knowledge.

On Sunday, in solidarity with protesting NFL players, I started a YouTube video of the National Anthem, then shut myself in the bathroom until it ended.

@15: But are racism and inequality universally reviled in America? These players believe some Americans do NOT revile racism and inequality. President Trump's speeches and tweets (and executive orders) indicate the players are right to think so.

They are not protesting the anthem. They are protesting during the anthem. They are not rejecting America. They are rejecting American racism. Surely we won't begrudge them that?

Are the Seahawks out of the running for the playoffs now?

I'd already stopped watching the games but now I'm wondering if I can stop Googling the game results.

Unfortunately the Seahawks offense stayed in the locker room until well into the second quarter.

I saw at least one player kneeling with his hand over his heart as if to say this is where my heart is but my head wants everyone to consider other issues. To me that covered both sentiments.

The true embarrassment to the U.S flag is in the White House.

@3: If it is anything other than Trump just saying something he thinks a crowd will like, it is Trump trying to use this as a wedge issue to appeal to his base.

If you can make a connection between these players and liberal anti-racism, you can then make a connection between liberals and "disrespecting" the anthem/America in the minds of soft-brained rubes.

@19. You're preaching to the choir my friend. I understand a lot of people still think America is a very racist place and while I don't share that opinion,(point out racist laws and institutions if that's true)I respect that others have a right to theirs. I'm just offering both sides of the coin to look at and making the point that people can take your message any which way they want.

@20. If the NFL is a racist orgaization (pretty sure they're not) then all the players are guilty by association and their protest is moot. Think about what you write before you write it, or at least during.

@26 I don't believe for a second you're "part of the choir." What a load of bullshit. The "choir" understands that there doesn't need to be a "racist law" for a law to be exploited by racists. That's the whole concept behind "institutional racism." If you really want to be "part of the choir," look up that term, listen to minorities on how they experience discrimination, and for heaven's sake, keep your white trap shut.

Also, everyone, please remember: The NFL is paid by the Pentagon to force players out onto the field to stand for the national anthem. Before '09, the players stayed in the locker room. These players, no matter how much indignation you have over their pay-scale, are being asked to be props by the Pentagon (whose over-inflated budget was just increased again, and there will never be an accounting of the *trillions* of dollars that have gone missing: Why no one gets upset about that is a crime in itself) and the players are finally saying "no."

@27. If the laws aren't racist, then racists enforcing them make them racist? There's a racist conspiracy woven into law enforcement that is framing innocent people of color or enforcing certain laws only against POC? Not clear how stupid you really are. Institutional racism doesn't have any ethereal qualities about it, mongo. There's either an institution that's racist, or it isn't. If you think laws are being racistly enforced in this country, tell me which ones. Be specific. Show me statistics from the UCR that prove your point or take your silly conspiracy theories and climb under a rock.

@15 The flag is just a rag. Our National Anthem is racist to the core. Most importantly, our military has done nothing but make America hated around the world. Anyone who has served since we abolished the draft has been a mercenary for our military-industrial complex, and has shed blood solely to make the 1% richer. The police and military are nothing but armed gangs in service to the 1%.

Revolution!

@29: Indeed, racist against those whitey redcoats from across the pond.

@30 You can tell by how he parrots the 'football players are privileged millionaires' talking point currently being circulated in the right-wing media. It's so transparent.

@30&32. I WAS parroting that point. That's what I said I was doing in my post, explaining that you can't make other people take your side just by protesting. You have to have ideas to convince them otherwise.

Still waiting for those examples too. But I'll be waiting forever because you don't have any. You believe in something you can't prove. You're basically the flat earthers of racism.

@33: Don't feed the trolls.

@36. Examples. Cite them or shut up.