NFL puts greed ahead of freedom of expression, again
“Being rich doesn’t mean you’re smart, honest or fair. It just means you’re rich.”
That’s how John Feinstein ended his column about how former San Francisco 49er Eric Reid is getting punished by rich National Football League owners – in the same way former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is – for kneeling during the playing of the American national anthem.
Reid, a free agent, has started at safety for the 49ers the past five seasons. He’s healthy and in his prime at age 26. There’s clearly no reason why he hasn’t been signed by an NFL team other than the fact he kneeled during the anthem last season.
Feinstein’s concluding sentence gets to the root of the problem in the NFL: revenue-at-all-costs rules. NFL owners don’t really give a damn about patriotism or, if they do, it’s well below worshipping the God of Greed on their list of values. Money is all that matters to them. If they feel players kneeling during the anthem is bad public relations, resulting in decreases in stadium attendance and TV ratings, then they’re against kneeling. On the other hand, if they felt there was huge public sentiment from their key stakeholders in favour of players being allowed to quietly protest during the anthem, they would be totally fine with players kneeling.