Cleveland Browns- 12 players kneeling for protest

comedyrelief wrote:

Wonder if they will still feel as passionate about their protests when their paychecks start getting cut due to decreased viewership (of course is anyone watching the browns anyhow?). I find it ironic that in a sport that is 68% African American, on a team that has an African American head coach, players are complaining about systematic discrimination. I want to start a new movement called #judgeslivesmatter to protest violence against judges. How is it that we have a slew of posts when someone is killed by a cop, but hardly a whimper when someone tries to kill a judge (a direct attack on the legal system):

http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2017/08/man_who_shot_judge_is_father_o.html

We can start by not watching any more NFL games for the rest of the preseason.

You forgot to add that those players are in a city a man was killed in Walmart holding a replica gun that SOLD AT THE STORE and a 13-year old boy was killed within 15 seconds of cops arriving on the scene at a park.

When I moved to the US from a European country a couple of years ago, I found the practice of playing the national anthem at the beginning of random games or local road races pretty bizarre. That's something I would have expected in North Korea, China, or Russia. I still remember my first road race here, I was almost shocked. That being said, there might be an argument that the US is so much more diverse than most European countries, that in some sense it is necessary to be overly patriotic to keep the country together. So I'm more or less fine with the national anthem now, but I find the militaristic attitude still a bit disturbing.

Were they protesting their teams existence?

People come on LetsRun and whine about BLM and kneeling by NFL players. In aggregate people are still watching NFL football. I will love it when people turn off NFL football. I will love it when former NFL fans become fans of futbol, real football. You do know why soccer is popular globally don't you? The underdeveloped countries get to put a thumb in the eye of colonial empires. Welcome to real football! Soccer is socialism. American football is capitalistic imperialism.

DeBron Lames wrote:

Support for the NFL will continue to crater if the players insist on injecting politics into a non-political game.

Wrongo crypto racist-- exactly the opposite. Many black folks love football and are disgusted by the political-- and ethical-- apathy of the game. Just because you're there for the jock sniffing not everyone is.

where've you been? wrote:

Macdaddy wrote:

Meanwhile, the league is making more money than ever...

Ratings were down last year, with protests being the primary reason.

What are the reasons for NASCAR ratings being down year after year? A much bigger decline than football.

Dam if I know, I don't know anything about NASCAR.

But it's a red herring. Do you dispute the ESPN article?

where've you been? wrote:

Dam if I know, I don't know anything about NASCAR.

But it's a red herring. Do you dispute the ESPN article?

The point is ratings are down in other sports, and you have to question the reasons people give for not watching the NFL. It's too easy for people to blame it on the protests when they weren't going to watch anyway.

Same with claiming ESPN's ratings are down because of their "liberal bias". I'm sure some people are actually not watching for that reason, but the majority of the decline is because cable and satellite companies no longer require it for basic packages.

Who cares about the Browns though?

Everybody needs to shut up and blindly worship the patriotic ideals of this country and our elected leaders, and push aside the concerns of the people and individuals. Doing anything else is unpatriotic and treasonous. That's how democracy works.

Macdaddy wrote:

Meanwhile, the league is making more money than ever...

where've you been? wrote:

Ratings were down last year, with protests being the primary reason.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20171611/national-anthem-protests-no-1-reason-viewers-tuned-nfl-games

1) An extremely unofficial survey

2) Data is so close that saying 'primary' reason is silly.

From your article:

- 26% said protests

- 24% said domestic violence/game delays (not sure how these are related)

- 20% said commercials

- 16% said election

- 5% said they gave up cable

More from article: "J.D. Power noted that only 12 percent of the fans it surveyed said they watched fewer NFL games last season, with 27 percent of people saying they watched more and 62 percent saying they watched just as much as they had the season before."

12% who watched fewer - 5% who got ride of cable = 7% lower rating due to ALL reasons listed above.

7%/5 reasons listed = a completely negligible amount of people who care about the protests.

This doesn't even factor in the 27% who watched MORE. Did they watch more because of the protests? Maybe!

And, of course, the NFL made more money than ever last year ...

Long story short, the protests are NOT hurting the NFL whatsoever

As your article pointed out, the increase in revenue is due to media payments which are contracted before the season starts and not affected by lower ratings. Your head is in the sand if you think ratings weren't lower and that the protests aren't hurting the NFL.

where've you been? wrote:

Your head is in the sand if you think ratings weren't lower and that the protests aren't hurting the NFL.

Ratings may be lower, but it is due to a number of reasons - only roughly 1.5% of the drop can be attributed to the protests as your article implies.

More so, as you said, the media's payments aren't impacted by ratings so -- with the league & players making more money than ever -- how is the NFL being 'hurt' by the protests?

exthrower wrote:

@where've you been? wrote:

The point is ratings are down in other sports, and you have to question the reasons people give for not watching the NFL. It's too easy for people to blame it on the protests when they weren't going to watch anyway.

Same with claiming ESPN's ratings are down because of their "liberal bias". I'm sure some people are actually not watching for that reason, but the majority of the decline is because cable and satellite companies no longer require it for basic packages.

I guess all the booing at the players who are sitting must be a coincidence....

Can't boo if they're not there. Do you ever get tired of being wrongm

why am I not shocked that twat Peppers was in the middle of all this.

They're kneeling down to a melody that was blatantly ripped off from a British drinking song (with sexual references). It's funny to see people get really bent out of shape about it. Granted, I am mildly disappointed at their lack of respect, but it's their right, and the cause is just (in their eyes, anyway).

Why Play the anthem at all? Do americans forget what they are of they dont here IT everyday?

I'm no expert, but is offending former and active duty military personnel while trying to stereotype the men and women of law enforcement as militant racists the best way to gain support for your cause? People are tuning out. This in turn will cost all NFL players, coaches and personnel money and jobs. Nobody should be more upset about these ineffective protests than the other players who will be making less money as the league loses popularity.