WHEN YOU CALL NFL PLAYERS “SONS-OF-BITCHES”, WHAT DOES TRUMP EXPECT?

…This was an Eagles pre-game prayer, not a demonstration

The NFL is composed of over 70% black players, the kneeling demonstrations aren’t going to stop

Boy, our president sure has an issue about crowd sizes.

Last year when Trump had invited the Super Bowl Champs, the New England Patriots to the White House, and the Quarterback Tom Brady bowed out of attending, and the group of players that did attend was so much smaller than those that showed up for President Obama, Trump later had one of his fuming tantrums.

This year when only 6 of the Super Bowl winners of the Philadelphia Eagles had agreed to visit the White House, Trump had another temper tantrum and cancelled the whole celebration.

It is true that those NFL Players that took a knee to protest the nation’s police killings of young black men, and President Trump called them, “sons-of-bitches”, no wonder that since over 70% of the NFL is composed of black players, what did the president expect?

It is the right of those American football players to demonstrate in public, just as it was for those Olympic black men decades ago to demonstrate with raised clinched fists on the Olympic awards podium.

The team owners, in trying to play up to the president, they tried to keep the demonstrations back in the locker room, and they are now reaping the hell from the players and the fans from that decision.

What is really bad about all this brouhaha is that no one in the Eagles ever took a knee last season in any of their games.

Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz called out Fox News for falsely using photos of Eagles players kneeling in a pregame prayer and calling it a “demonstration”.  Fox had also claimed that the White House cancelled the event because of the Fox false “propaganda” about the Eagles pre-game prayer.  The Fox network later apologized for showing the prayer footage, which was totally unrelated to the NFL’s national anthem kneeling demonstrations.

However, to show how Trump is accelerating his cause of the kneeling demonstrations by other black athletes, now the issue has gotten to the National Basketball Association (NBA).  Now LeBron James, of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kevin Durant and Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, they all agree.  They have all said, “We don’t want a White House invite regardless of which team wins the Championship.”

(Please note: When Steph Curry hesitated to attend the White House event last year, President Trump un-invited Steph.) 

The statement by the White House was totally disgusting in regards to their calling off of the Eagles visit.  The statement said that “the great majority of Eagles players were not planning to attend the scheduled White House celebration and that the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans.  That was totally false.

Trump has used these pregame kneeling demonstrations as a rallying point for his base, and Vice President Pence even departed early from an Indianapolis Colts game last fall when members of the San Francisco 49ers had taken a knee.

Malcolm Jenkins, an Eagles safety who demonstrated last season by raising a fist as he stood for the anthem, tweeted an essay with the hashtag “#TheFightContinues,” listing work that his Philadelphia players had done to improve their communities.  “Everyone, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, deserves to be treated equally. We are fighting for racial and social equality,” he wrote in part.  “Simply Google: ‘How many Philadelphia Eagles knelt during the national anthem last season?’ and you find that the answer is zero. A similar Google search will show you how many great things the players on this team are doing and continue to do on daily basis.  Instead the decision was made to lie and paint the picture that these players are anti-America, anti-flag and anti-military.”

The Eagles’ trip was called off less than 24 hours before it was to take place, with Trump saying in a statement Monday that he would instead appear with only the team’s fans and the United States Marine Band and Army Chorus, and that the US anthem would be played “loudly and proudly.”

I find it interesting that when the national anthem was played, the camera on Trump showed that the prsident didn't know the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

Trump’s decision to cancel came after some Eagles players said they would skip the ceremony in protest.  A senior administration official told The Post that only 10 to 12 people might come as representing the team, which would of course create a meager celebration.  As it was, only 6 players sent an RSVP and Trump then went berserk.   The president just has a big “thing” about always needing the largest crowds.

Former Eagles wide receiver Torrey Smith, who now plays for the Carolina Panthers, called Trump’s cancellation a “cowardly” decision and he tweeted that the president’s statement contained “so many lies.” Smith, who had not planned to attend the White House celebration, tweeted that “not many players were planning to go” and added: “No one refused to go simply because Trump ‘insists’ folks stand for the anthem. The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti-military.”

Smith also said, “So many lies’ in Trump’s statement on Eagles’ nixed White House visit.  Trump canceled it, not the Eagles. The NFL would rather bury anthem protests [in the locker room] than address the issues behind them. NFL owners approved the new national anthem policy of staying in the locker room, hoping to end the controversy.”

This is only going to get worse for both Trump and the NFL.

Copyright G.Ater  2018