I think a code of conduct regarding a flag is silly but you seriously don't see a flag in every single one of those images? Seriously? 🙂

I don't even count those people as human beings. They are just turds mimicking human language and some feelings like anger and hatred. They are also a combination of parrots and lemmings.

To each their own. You were brought up differently from others. As was I. However im not the professional sports player making millions every year and doing nothing but kneeling.

"A sup par/mediocre quarterback started a trend of kneeling during an anthem. This led to other millionaire players doing the same thing, which in turn got everybody and their momma talking about it.
So ratings decline because an ineffective form of protest by millionaires makes the people that line their pockets, not want to watch the sport.
Meanwhile, the actual thing they're protesting remains unchanged because kneeling does absolutely nothing towards working towards fixing the issue... it just gets everybody bickering at each other; notice, most people aren't event talking about what they're supposedly protesting. Likely when election time comes around, the millionaire kneelers will buck dance for some politician who will pay lip service to the "reform."

Here's the thing. I'm not stupid, or at least I'd like to think I'm not. I'm also not an asshole.

I'm very interested in symbols and what the symbolism means in a given context, especially in media or literature. I can understand how for some people, the american flag is more than "just a flag". But the very thing the flag stands for, completely contradicts getting upset over not appreciating the flag. And this is what I find troublesome. You can be proud of America's freedoms represented through the flag, without being patriotic. In fact, teaching us to view the flag as a patriotic symbol is often contradictory in nature. 

I don't mind seeing the flag as more than a flag. But this is just idiotic. These players obviously at least in some way appreciate their country. They're just protesting what I assume to be injustices(I'm honestly not into sports so i'm not entirely caught up on this, sorry).  

I also think that flags as a symbol are way more meaningful in the context of standing together, but a national anthem during a sports game? Who gives a shit? This stuff needs to get out of the school system too imo, kind of creepy when you think about it.

It's funny because i'm entirely against patriotism but I think I have more sympathy for patriotic people then most. I can tolerate it and understand why it's there. I think the problem with our country is that we all complain too much. Instead of standing together and making change we have people that just say "Wow, 'Merica is so fucking stupid! God, I hate being american!" and then you have the people who in responce are too defensive of america. Neither group really gets anything done. 

People making a stink about this "issue" on either side of the fence are being ridiculous. The whole thing is just absurd and stupid as hell. Like seriously, THESE are the kinds of things we worry about in this country? Aren't there more important things to worry about? 

Athletes have every right to kneel if they want to under the first amendment. Serisouly, who the hell cares? It's not like they're not still playing the game. Likewise, consumers, teams, and yes, even the president, ALSO have the right to call them out if they want under the first amendment. It's litterally as simple as that. This is the beauty of the first amendment - EVERYONE gets to express their voice in a free exchange of ideas. Any free society should operate this way. 

Hahaha thats true. I played hockey when I was younger. Sports are hard work and very demanding. As the for the ratings I guess I could have cropped that out. I just quoted it from a post I liked. But I do not know if any ratings have changed. Football is big so I doubt it. But it be more meaningful if they did things off the field. Like I said I deal with it everyday id like for my one day off a week to beable to escape from the BS and just watch some football. These people are millionaires surely during break they could do something right? 

Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins refused to visit Obama and I don't remember him saying one thing about it.

What Trump fails to realize is that all NFL players are fortunate to be in a powerful union so the owners can't fire them for something as trivial as not standing up during the national anthem.

It's really ridiculous that so many consider patriotism to be something to judge a person by. Even more ridiculous is that being patriotic is seen as something POSITIVE.

NFL ratings made a huge decline last year (like a 10% viewership decline). I don't get why Trump is trying to make it seem like it's all about the anthem and flag when ratings have been in decline for a year.