After unleashing a protest bonanza last week, which featured nearly 200 players, coaches, and executives, demonstrating against the national anthem. This week, it appears that the NFL has decided to take a knee, on taking a knee.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell, a reporter who focuses on the business and financial side of sports, has compiled the numbers and figured out how many NFL players have protested this week, as opposed to last week.
Rovell shared those results on Twitter:
Last week, about 180 NFL players didn't stand for the National Anthem. This week? 11. pic.twitter.com/L1NAIXKyZx
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 1, 2017
Yeah, that’s going to leave a mark. There’s no way to spin these results, other than as a complete victory for President Trump, who called the players out and galvanized public opinion against the league. Some sign of just how bad the NFL blew it last weekend by embracing the protest movement, surfaced this past week. A national survey found that Americans not only strongly disapproved of players protesting the anthem. Moreover, a majority also agreed with President Trump about how disrespectful the protests had become, and wanted it stopped.
The other clear winner here is capitalism. Ticket sales and ratings have been cratering for the league ever since they embraced the utterly toxic, cancerous protest movement launched by Colin Kaepernick.
While some protesters will remain, Sunday’s early games show that “the struggle” ultimately became a little too real for the players, and their wallets.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.