Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Bad idea to let players express their politics wearing a uniform

The St. Louis Rams will not discipline the players who made a political statement about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.  Naturally, the players are entitled to an opinion, but I don't want to hear it in a sports venue.

Frankly, I agree with those policemen who were offended by their actions:
The police officer’s association issued a letter late Sunday condemning the players’ actions as “tasteless, offensive and inflammatory” given a grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.
The Rams players were wrong for two reasons:

First, they have no business doing politics when they are wearing the team's uniform.  No banker can promote his politics at the bank branch.  No teacher can wear a political button in class.  We have always kept politics out of the workplace, especially one with thousands watching live and on TV.

Second, the players are part of a false narrative.  There is no evidence that the police officer shot a helpless young man walking with "hands up."  I think that Joe Scarborough tackled this nonsense on his show:
Guys came out, hands up don't shoot for the St. Louis Rams. Here's a video of it. And what is so remarkable is they might as well have come out with a flying saucer attached to all of their heads in solidarity with Michael Brown being transported to Venus on a flying saucer. Because that happened as much as that happened. That's according to grand jury testimony. That's according to witnesses. They are using his accomplice in the robbery that was with him at the time who also claimed that Michael Brown was shot in the back. And for some reason, the media attaches to these narratives that will stir up further protests. 
Professional sports teams benefit from a lot of people like me who watch the games and buy tickets.  The NFL needs to tell its players to do politics on their time and not on the job.

P.S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.


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