Trump and NFL Football, to watch, or not to watch

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

To be honest, I am a huge football fan.  As a football fan, it's been tough to remain a fan with the Colin Kaepernick wanna-be gang kneeling during the National Anthem, and everyone, except maybe the Dallas Cowboys, in the NFL doing nothing about it.  President Donald Trump recently sounded off about it all during remarks in Alabama, and he was right to tear into the National Football League because of their tolerance of intolerance for our system of liberty.  That said, I am fully in support of freedom of speech and expression, but your rights are natural rights, and the greatest threat to those rights, from the Founding Father's point of view, was the new central government.  That is why the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, has negative language.  The First Amendment begins "Congress shall make no law...", the Second Amendment ends with "shall not be infringed," Third Amendment begins "No soldier shall...", and the Fourth Amendment's center contains the words "shall not be violated."  The Bill of Rights is not asking the federal government to guarantee our rights, it is telling the federal government hands off our rights.

Our natural rights are ours to possess, pursue and practice, without government interference, but that does not necessarily apply to private industries or corporations.

Remember the sign in businesses, "We have the right to refuse service to anyone"?

If the NFL wants to allow their employees to refuse to participate in the National Anthem, that's their choice.  If they want to force their employees to stand and place their hand on their heart during the song, they can.  With either choice, as a business, they will then reap the benefits or the consequences of their decision through consumer response.

In other words, while the government cannot legally pass laws limiting our political or religious speech, a privately owned company can.  That said, just because they can does not mean they should.  That said, the employees must also realize the consequences of their actions, and how they've literally been duped into it by cultural Marxism and other anti-American influences.

In short, they are a bunch of tools, acting like the pawns being moved around on a board of political chess, and the side moving them from space to space is not the side that has their best interest in mind.

The NFL is a private corporation, and the players are the employees of the league and the team owners.  Therefore, if they wish to allow players, or not allow players, to kneel during the National Anthem, that is their choice.  As a business, however, consumer interest in a product is often influenced by such decisions.  Football games, when it comes to television audience, is at an all-time low.  People are ticked off that most teams not only do nothing over the disrespect to our National Anthem, country, and the military veterans who offered all to defend their liberty to be anti-American, but that in many cases the attitude is encouraged.

President Donald Trump was right to have an opinion challenging the NFL for their failure to reel in the disrespectful behavior, but since he is President of the United States, the stage he used, and his timing, may not have been the most prudent.  While I don't believe he wishes to use the federal government to unconstitutionally force the NFL into some kind of patriotic compliance, his tirade against the NFL definitely opened the door for his opponents to claim that is what he wants to do.

I agree with everything Trump said.  He's accurate in every detail.  And to be honest, if I were him, I would probably have wanted to use my position where everyone hears what I have to say to get the message across. But, even though I would have wanted to do the same, I am not positive it was wise.

I am not positive it was not wise, either.

But, he was right.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

For you football fans, I put my game predictions on www.douglasvgibbs.blogspot.com