It’s easy to laugh at fans who overreact to national anthem protests by lighting fires in their backyards and throwing jerseys and season tickets into the blaze, but NFL team owners are reportedly viewing those actions as a warning shot.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says he was told by a source that NFL owners are “afraid” of fans giving up on football — whether by not watching games, not going to games, or both — because they are upset over players protesting during the national anthem. While NFL ratings remain strong and the league has continued to grow with each passing year, there is apparently real concern over fans perceiving anthem protests as disrespect toward the military or American flag.
As Florio notes, decreased ratings would lead to less profitable television deals. If that happened, the salary cap would also decrease because there would be less revenue to share. That means players’ contracts — which have seen their values rise in recent years — could conceivably take a hit.
Of course, many players and fans feel that the anthem protests are far bigger than the game. While the vehicle for protesting has gotten most of the attention, the message has nothing to do with the American flag itself or the military. The concept of kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” was started by Colin Kaepernick as a way to bring attention to issues involving police brutality and social inequality.
If NFL owners are indeed concerned about backlash from anthem protests, that could help explain why some teams seem to be going out of their way to come up with other ideas for making a political statement.
