Keep that shit OFF the field

The football field is no place to make a political statement. Players on NFL teams are not paid millions of dollars so that they can protest police violence against black people in America. They should leave that shit OFF the field.

I agree with the first statement above. The football field should be a place where two teams battle it out to see who is better that particular day.

I also agree with the second statement above. Players are drafted and signed because of their skills on the field and it is their skills that earn them millions of dollars.

As far as the third statement…I would agree, with one caveat.

Players should leave that shit OFF the field--- but only to the extent that the NFL leaves that shit OFF the field, too. It is not the players who have politicized the field; it is the National Football League that has done this.

By demanding players be on the field, in a camera-ready line, for the National Anthem the League is turning the field into a place where politics happen. Just like schools cannot require students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the League should not be allowed to require players be on the field, standing for the National Anthem. Requiring that players be present for a political activity—the playing of the Anthem—injects politics where they should not be.

And let's be real, here. The NFL uses the National Anthem as a marketing tool. In the wake of 9/11 it was a way to express their patriotism and support for a country left reeling. And the NFL is no fool--it knows that patriotism sells tickets. The League made a crass decision to use the National Anthem as a marketing tool. The League brought politics right out onto the field.

And once the League did that, the players had every right to do the same.

There is a simple solution: Stop making the playing of the National Anthem part of what players are expected to participate in. It has NOTHING to do with why they are hired and why they get paid. Why is it part of their job description? In what other area of life is the National Anthem played before you are allowed to do your job? NONE.