Why Reasons to Kneeling Have Gone from Police to Politics

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In what has been one of the most controversial weeks in recent sports history, the men and women within the world of professional sports have decided that enough is enough. All of the drama that has come out of the past couple of days started with President Donald Trump stating that Stephen Curry, one of the most recognizable figures in basketball, had his invitation withdrawn after some hesitation about whether the Golden State Warriors would visit the White house in February of next year.

In the end, that didn’t matter, as Golden State elected not to go to the White House. Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James came out in defense of Curry, as did quite a number of high profile NBA players. In result, President Trump went on to speak upon NFL players, and that if they kneel, they should be fired, calling them a “son of a bitch”. In fact, a good majority of the tweets he has put on his personal twitter account in the past 48 hours have been related to the NFL, the fans, and the players who have decided to kneel for the National Anthem. On Monday, Trump tweeted seven times, and four of those have been about NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem.

Here is one of the interesting things about players kneeling. This past weekend, during the NFL match-up between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens, not one player knelt during the playing of “God Save Our Queen”, the Anthem of England, yet players knelt for the American National Anthem.

This is no longer a matter involving police brutality, nor is it taking related to taking a stand to racism at a local level, as it was originally originated by Colin Kaepernick. These are 150+ high profile players in the NFL who have decided that enough is enough, and they are tired of the President of their own country giving his input on issues he has no knowledge of. In fact, the first MLB player to kneel was rookie Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell, who’s father had served for the American Armed Forces.

Are the issues about racial profiling, police brutality and stereotyping still prevalent? Absolutely, but the difference between when Kaepernick did it and now is that Kaepernick was doing it for a different cause. He did it because he was standing up for his beliefs, and in the end, while it caused one of the biggest uproars in recent history, he got his point across.

Unfortunately, this also means he is unemployed. Now, individuals are doing it because they are taking a stand against the person who arguably has the most power in the world. The comments that are coming out of the President’s mouth are appalling. The most powerful politician in the world is more worried about kneeling, which is a part of the constitutional right to free speech, rather than the ongoing issues related to North Korea, even though his veterans overseas that fight for the rights of everyday Americans.

Put simply, politicians need to stay away from sports as much as they can. Obviously there will be times they must step in, such as to bring in laws about financial misconduct, systemic doping, legislature about head trauma, and medical care on the field.

However, they have bigger things to worry about. My personal thoughts on players kneeling do not matter, and even though I disagree with them execution, I can respect why they are doing it. I respect the fact that they have the right to do so. There is a case to make that it is disrespectful to those who have served, fought and died for this great country. However, in the end, this is no longer about inequalities within American society. This, here and now, is about a President who should stick to his job and worry about the bigger issues at hand.