The Recent Controversy in Sports

Posted on by

2017 has been a strange year. Never before has the nation been so divided over the most American sport created. There has been large backlash over the action of a large portion of NFl players who have decided to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem. The backlash was amplified by a tweet by President Donald Trump that insinuated he believed that the players taking part in these demonstration should be let go from the NFL. After this tweet more players began to step forward and participate in demonstrations as a sign of unity and solidarity with their fellow players. This caused a major media spike in the coverage of this conflict. The majority of NFL team owners and coaches with multiple different political viewpoints and even players such as Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman have been asked to comment their side on the conflict. Even people outside of the NFL have been asked to state their side on the issue like NBA star LeBron James and San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich. At its core this issue boils down to the following. There is a disagreement between the players taking these actions and the spectators watching the games about the meaning of the protests. The original protest were part of the Black Lives Matter movement and Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first to kneel before he was cut from the San Francisco 49er’s. The protests this originally began as another protest against the oppression of colored people but was received by a portion of the fans as an act of disrespecting the flag. Since the tweet the majority of protests have to do with the President’s call to fire players who take part. Is this an attack on freedom of speech or does the fact that the players are playing under a private company with its own set of core values surrender that right.

Leave a Reply