In 2015 and 2016, many of us kept believing that things would catch up with Trump. Something he said would bite him in the ass or some scandal would destroy his campaign. After all we’ve seen many campaigns wrecked by scandals both real, non serious, or imaginary. Trump changed the rules. Although, constant scandals didn’t sink Hillary’s primary campaign…
I was also incorrect in relying on the accuracy of polling. But to be fair, polls used to be reliable. The same phone call polling methods used for decades just isn’t as reliable of way to get a representative sample. On top of that, pollsters do not always act unbiasedly. So I incorrectly thought Trump would lose last November.

Analysis

Right now, I’m admitting that my argument made in an earlier piece of mine Don’t boycott the NFL, boycott ESPN is no longer the position that I hold. In the article, I argue that ESPN became a liberal commentary outpost, a line the NFL had not seriously crossed. I show that the NFL let the free market determine Colin Kaepernick’s fate and the NFL franchises determined that his bad attitude, poor performance, and high price, just wasn’t worth the distraction of signing. In truth, some players paid no respect to the anthem before Kaepernick. He was just asked and gave his factually challenged answer. Thus, this toxic movement originated. Yet a couple of weeks ago, kneeling players were fewer and farther between. Therefore I argued that protests against the NFL were not yet warranted.
But then Trump made his comments. Admittedly, I am slower to anger on this issue than a lot of people. However, despite the media perception, football fans don’t want to watch players protest when they should be doing their jobs. Fans don’t appreciate players disrespecting the country and what it stands for. Trump simply pointed out that if we fans made a large enough impact, via boycott, the protesting in the NFL would cease. I’m not going to recap what you already know happened. The NFL doubled down. Roughly 20% of players protested the anthem.
Since Sunday, the NFL has not changed its ways. In fact, they seem to be embracing the protests. Only five teams stood for the anthem in unison. The Baltimore Ravens, the team I grew up cheering for, traveled to London and protested America’s anthem on foreign soil. I find joy in them losing an embarrassing 44-7. The day afterwards coach John Harbaugh had the audacity to wear a salute to service jacket. As a result, I’m reluctantly abandoning the team I’ve rooted for my entire life. My family was an original PSL owner for the Ravens. The PSL is up for sale as are the rest of the season tickets. For NFL tickets, it’s a buyer’s market.
People are angry. Before, I urged calm, blaming the media for the coverage, insisting that boycotting them could eventually make the issue go away. But Trump poured fire on the issue, elevating it to the top issue of the country. In doing so, Trump gave a powerful voice to disgruntled fans. The players can lie about protesting “racial injustice” but in reality, they were trying to spite the President who was speaking on behalf of the fans. So as a result, they were kneeling and dropping a metaphorical turd on all the fans that want football without the politics. I can’t tell people not to boycott that.

The Takeaway

Do what you feel comfortable doing. I can’t in good conscience identify as a fan of a team that protested the anthem on foreign soil. I’ll still watch (I’m way too invested in fantasy football to abandon that ship), but you respond to these protests in the way you see fit. If it means boycotting the NFL, you have my support. If it means boycotting their sponsors, have at it! The NFL didn’t listen when Trump said what we were saying. Let their business suffer.