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Football in a bananas republic

4 min read

It’s a rare day indeed when Hollywood, U.S. history and the NFL collide to make an absurd situation even more so. Yet two such days occurred within the last two weeks.

On May 23, the NFL instituted a policy that requires players to stand if they are on the field during the playing of the national anthem but allows them to remain in the locker room if they so choose. The owners’ decision supposedly was prompted by patriotism, but actually was a somewhat frail attempt to appease President Trump, who has been incessant in his condemnation of players and the league over the flag flap that started in 2016 with Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling.

It’s nearer the truth to say that owners acted not in defense of the flag but of their own financial bottom line. If owners thought more people would attend and watch NFL games if players knelt, they would have required all players to kneel on the field – probably while holding Papa John’s pizza boxes over their hearts.

President Trump, who initially said he approved of the NFL’s new rule, reversed course last Monday and called out owners and the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles by saying he had canceled a celebratory reception for the team, originally set for last Tuesday.

“The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House,” Trump announced on Twitter. “Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event.” Then, taking aim at owners, he added, “Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!”

In a statement issued earlier, the White House had incorrectly said Eagles players would not come to the reception because they “disagree with their president because he insists that they proudly stand for the national anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.”

But no team member or spokesman gave this as a reason for non-attendance. In fact, no Eagles player knelt during the playing of the national anthem during the 2017 NFL regular season or playoffs. Only 10 Eagles would have attended the reception, it’s true; but several members of the New England Patriots did not attend a similar ceremony last year for “personal reasons” that, for all Trump knew, could have been cleaning the toilet. Yet, the ceremony went on as scheduled.

Trump’s insistence that players be forced to stand on the field for the national anthem and, if they will not, be fired or expelled from the country echoes Woody Allen’s 1971 film “Bananas,” in which Esposito, the Fidel Castro-like president of the fictional South American nation of San Marcos, issues rules he seems to be making up on the fly:

“From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside, so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now 16 years old!”

Esposito’s speech makes as much sense as the decisions of NFL owners and the statements of Trump, all of whom apparently have forgotten that in 1773, a group of New Englanders dumped tea into Boston Harbor to call attention to inequitable rules being imposed upon them by the British Parliament. Peaceful dissent is as much a part of the fabric of America as our flag.

Forcing people to stand lays the groundwork for forcing them to kneel to the king.

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