The Battle Between Trump and Nfl Player’s

In the article, “It’s actually very strange for sports games to begin with the national anthem,” written by Beauchamp, he talks about the protest going on between NFL players kneeling or sitting during the national anthem and President Trump. This protest started when NFL player, Colin Kaepernick started protesting because of racism and police violence against african americans. “We will not stand for the injustice that has plagued people of color in this country,” Kaepernick stated in a Sunday article. The protest got really heated when President Trump called Kaepernick a “son of a bitch,” at a protest rally. Trump views the issue with kneeling during the national anthem isn’t because of racism, it’s because they want to disrespect the country, flag, and national anthem. The authors opinion is that playing the national anthem before sporting events is actually “strange.” Beauchamp goes into depth about the history of the national anthem beginning to being played at sporting events. It all started during WWI and WWII because they needed the public to help the war effort. Playing the national anthem only continued because it infused patriotism within sports which was great advertising. (Beauchamp).

A different article called, “4 Reasons Why Trump Thinks NFL Players Are a Good Target (and 1 Big Reason He’s Wrong), by Chris Cillizza argues that Trump is only continuing this battle between himself and NFL players because it is a good distraction from other newslines. Trump is only targeting NFL players because they’re just rich people who get payed big bucks to play a game, when other people in America would do that for free. Another reason Trump continues this battle is because the players are doing for racism and police violence for african americans in America, Trump is turning it around and using it as a battle for patriotism. Disgrace against patriotism is more of a disgrace to the country, as the people in America see it. (Cillizza).

Both these articles talk about the same topic: the battle between Trump and NFL player’s protesting by kneeling during the national anthem. Personally I’m against Trump but I think all this protesting is nonsense. It’s not that hard to just stand during the national anthem like everyone else does in America. I understand why some players are protesting, but during a sporting event isn’t the right place to do this. I don’t really agree with the first article because the author says that playing the national anthem before sporting events is “strange,” we’ve been doing it for so long, it would just be weird if they suddenly stopped. I can agree more with the second article by Cillizza because I can see how Trump is avoiding other storylines that are more concerning to America as an excuse not to talk about them. Parts of our country is in flames, destroyed by water, and citizens killing many innocent citizens at concerts, and not to forget the whole situation with North Korea, which are all way bigger issues that Trump should be trying to fix but yet he is battling with NFL players because they’re kneeling during the national anthem. This shouldn’t be as big of an issue at it has become. NFL players need to protest their concerns somewhere else that’s more important and Trump doesn’t need to get involved with little issues when he should be trying to fix our country.