Golden State Warriors are tossing the ideal of skipping the traditional WH meeting with the President. Now try to put the whole, "Well they're in a liberal city and their base"..blah,blah,blah aside, if you can. If that's the case, think of the Utah Jazz winning, would they go? Now as much as I despise trump, I feel Teams should go, if the schedules fit on both sides. I don't mind if a few players, for whatever reason decide not to go, in this case Stephen Curry or Tom Brady in the past...I get that. But the Team should attend, manager, second team players, shit the ball boys...just go and be graceful and non-political. In trumps case that would be hard...."You guys beat the Cavaliers as bad as I beat Hillary"...shit I can see it now.
Can't say I can answer what they should do. But, I think it should be a team decision. Normal I'd say that they should do so, not with the person of the president, his party and policies in mind, but rather respecting the office of the presidency in mind. However, since Trump has diminished the office of the presidency so much, I would no longer consider that as a valid reason to attend.
So I think it's a moot point.
Instead of being a ceremony to honor the champions at the home of our nation's President, the buildup to them has become nothing more than a stage for those people wishing to air their displeasure with whoever is the President at that time.
There were several players who were outspoken about visiting an Obama White House and it has really snowballed now with Trump in office.
It's sad to see but the time has come to abolish this practice.
...glom onto the popularity of the championship team in order to attract the voters who are fans of those teams.
They have become political footballs (no pun intended) and just need to go away.
On the sense of a political protest? I have never really paid attention when it came to the WH visits by the championship teams. Never cared on who didn't go and for what reason. Only when Brady didn't' attend did I say, "hmm, interesting". But I just shrugged my shoulders and said "fuck it". I don't recall any teams saying "no" because of political reasons. Or maybe I just didn't care to take notice.
refused to go in protest of President Obama after Boston won the Stanley Cup in 2011. There were some others that declined to go while Obama was in office. There may have been some while GW Bush was in office but the media didn't care back then like they do now in today's ridiculous world of media coverage.
Is anyone surprised the rules were different for Obama than they are for Trump?
What red blooded American would play that sport? Might as well be soccer..We Americans love our football, baseball and basketball..,they're our sports!!
Anyway hockey is a Canadian sport..dam softies . Where's my AK47...???
I wouldn't want to be anywhere near this racist scum..
"I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday," Kraft said. "I am proud to be associated with so many players who make such tremendous contributions in positively impacting our communities. Their efforts, both on and off the field, help bring people together and make our community stronger. There is no greater unifier in this country than sports, and unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics. I think our political leaders could learn a lot from the lessons of teamwork and the importance of working together toward a common goal. Our players are intelligent, thoughtful and care deeply about our community and I support their right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most impactful.”
It would be unseemly for him to welcome them to the White House as if they are doing him a favor by showing up. Like him or not, he is still the POTUS.
That said, I completely agree he blew it with the NFL, I don't care much for the washed up second stringer who is ONLY relevant because he won't stand for the anthem, but he has that right. If I can support the right for the KKK to march, I can certainly support the right of some washed up athlete to make whatever political statement he wants to make. Why Trump would want to make/keep this front page news is beyond me.
They disinvited themselves first so Trump looks like a chump when he says, "Well, you're disinvited anyway." It's kind of like the guy who says, "You can't fire me! I quit!"
As for Kaepernick being washed up, we may never know. Because he seems to have been blackballed by the NFL owners. He had a couple of great years, then a couple of crappy ones. And perhaps his poor performances were the result of a shitty coach or a poor supporting cast. He's certainly got raw talent. Personally, I'd like to see him with the Jets, who desperately need a QB, and they're not the only ones.
Beyond that, why did Trump do it? Once again, the headlines are about his popping off not about his support of Luther Strange. He always manages to step on his message. Unless he's simply trying to divert from losing his verbal smackdown with Kim Jong Un. If so, he succeeded.
Kaepernick was very effective when he had a great O line and running backs which left him with wide open receivers and space on the edges. Once he lost that, his lack of ability to read a defense, lack of accuracy was a problem.
Curry was the only one publicly mulling over whether he would come or not. Trump was completely justified in saying "offer withdrawn".
I don't believe Kaepernick was ever blackballed. I think each owner/GM simply came to the same conclusion that while his ability to play had certain question marks, his ability to disrupt their team was almost a certainty No smart executive wants to invite a potential cancer into their organization, but when the talent level or potential to sell tickets is indisputable like in the case of other rabble rousers and malcontents like Michael Vick or Terrell Owens sometimes the positives or at least the "potential positives" outweigh the negatives. I just don't see that being the case with Kaepernick.
As for the "why" Trump did this, of course it was to "feed raw meat" to his base, what is "beyond me" is why he thought this would be a net positive for him. Yes, I agree Trump fucked up and all he has done is poured gasoline on what was a very small fire. Of course it was already getting a lot more press than it ever deserved. I would have preferred to deal with Kaepernick the same way we have been dealing with the KKK until recently which was to ignore them in the hopes they would just go away. You know, kind of the way I was hoping things would have gone with LTM&L, but I guess that hasn't worked out too well either. lol
So even dumb ass Trump exposed the reason too!
-- Modified on 9/24/2017 7:01:54 PM
because he is childlike and so inexperienced at where he should spend his time focused. he has so much drama compared to the grace of President Obama when he addressed the People.
Really....so many?
I'm betting there are less than 5% of players who actually make any significant impact in the community. Most are sleeping all day simply because they were out all night partying it up with their posse. Most are rich uneducated losers who live in gated communities far away from the everyday struggles on the streets.
These clowns are just pathetic chumps looking for something to grasp onto to get their names in the newspapers. Do you think they really care one bit?
"I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday," Kraft said. "I am proud to be associated with so many players who make such tremendous contributions in positively impacting our communities. Their efforts, both on and off the field, help bring people together and make our community stronger. There is no greater unifier in this country than sports, and unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics. I think our political leaders could learn a lot from the lessons of teamwork and the importance of working together toward a common goal. Our players are intelligent, thoughtful and care deeply about our community and I support their right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most impactful.”
I would bet the correct percentage is way over 5%................probably 25-30% would be my guess. Most of the teams gives their guys a lot of ways to step up and a good number do that.
The NY Giants among other teams are proving you wrong!
-- Modified on 9/24/2017 6:39:16 PM
You show me an owner who doesn't back his players and I will showing a losing team..............
It does not matter that they won today.
They will suck for most of the Year.
-- Modified on 9/24/2017 6:37:14 PM
By taking out a low life individual. That's kind of funny.