How the NFL Players' Union Can Block the League's New Ban on Protests

[Judi Lynn]

FRIDAY, JUN 1, 2018, 12:50 PM

BY KATHY WILKES

On August 26, 2016, then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem, triggering a national debate around First Amendment rights of speech and issues of racial injustice.

The very next day, the National Football League (NFL) and the 49ers issued separate statements about the incident, and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) executive director DeMaurice Smith did an in-depth interview with The Nation’s sports editor Dave Zirin.

"Players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the National Anthem," the NFL said, echoing existing policy in the NFL game operations manual. The 49ers emphasized that "respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose to participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem."

Smith's interview responses generally supported freedom of expression and unequivocally backed Kaepernick. "There is never going to be a day where this union is going to sit back idly and allow anybody to trample our players’ rights," he said.

More:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/21178/nlf_players_union_protests_kaepernick_trump_football

[msongs]

1. so what are they gonna do about it...now t

[RockRaven]

2. Here's one thing they should do based on the policy as announced so far:

supposedly the players can stay in the locker room or be on the field but if on the field they must stand for the anthem. If there's a violation, the team is penalized 15 yards on the kickoff, the team may be fined, and the teams can decide how to penalize the player.

The union should get the highest profile/highest paid/most valuable player from each team who is willing to participate and have that 1 player from each team kneel. The 15-yard penalties would cancel, and the teams aren't going to bench or otherwise alienate their best player (or one of their top 5-10 players even).

[msongs]

3. if the whole team kneeled would that be like 1000 yards in penalties, out the door and past

the parking lot, over the freeway and all the way to the river? sweet (70 players X 15)

[RockRaven]

4. Usually they can only enforce one penalty at a time, sort of

if there are multiple penalties on the same team at the same time, they enforce only one -- generally the longest; and if there are penalties on both teams, they cancel -- not cumulatively, just outright canceling them all.

One sort-of exception is that they differentiate between a penalty during the play and also after/between plays; so if a team gets a penalty during the play and then after the whistle blows then they enforce both.

But as the anthem is not during the play, it really only takes 1 player on either team to cancel the penalties on ALL the players on the other team. I think.

[SCVDem]

5. Nothing but net.

Swish!