During a Wednesday town hall, Green Bay Packers star Bret Favre and President Donald Trump spoke about the need to keep politics out of professional sports.
During the Q & A segment of the event, moderator Eric Bolling told the president that a “friend” had a special question via video kink. That friend turned out to be former Packers quarterback Brett Favre who noted that the NFL has struggled to get fans to tune into their woke games this season, the Washington Post reported.
“The NBA and the NFL are struggling with lower ratings, as fans clearly do not want political messaging mixed with their sports,” Favre said, adding, “So how should the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without becoming political and alienating fans?”
The NFL has gone all-in for the Black Lives Matter agenda with sloganeering on helmets and jerseys, BLM painted on the sidelines, a virtual avalanche of race-baiting posts on every social media platform, and tens of millions donated to various BLM-styled organizations and programs.
The NFL is, of course, not alone. The ultra-woke NBA has also indulged constant political activity on and off the court. So has pro soccer and hockey. And even Major League Baseball jettisoned its decades-old reticence to get political by going all-in for the Black Lives Matter agenda.
But every single pro sport has seen crashing ratings this year as the leagues immerse themselves in proclamations of left-wing, anti-American politics.
Trump replied, saying that fans are tired of being beat over the head with leftist politics.
“People don’t want to see all of the politics. They’ve got enough politics, with me and with everybody else. And they don’t want to see it with football or sports, on Sunday or whenever they happen to be watching,” Trump said.
The president added that the NBA’s ratings were “down 70 percent, more than that,” and added that the political indulgences of pro sports have had “a huge negative impact on sports.”
“I think that football ought to get back to football and basketball to basketball. And let politics remain separate,” Trump said.
“If people want to protest, they can. But they shouldn’t be protesting on the sidelines during the football game, especially when they are making $10 million a year for something that they’d be doing anyway, for free if they weren’t in the NFL or in the NBA,” the president added.
The president also said that fans “want to have these players stand and salute, or put their hand over their heart, or at least stand for the national anthem and salute.”
Trump concluded by suggesting a way for pro sports to get the fans back: “They’re going to have to start respecting our country. It’s very simple. And you start by respecting our flag.”
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