On a big news day for the NFL Thursday, the league and the NFL Players Association issued a joint statement indicating they've reached a "standstill agreement" that temporarily freezes the league's ban on national anthem protests. Prior to the announcement the Miami Dolphins informed the league they were planning to instate a four-game suspension for protesters, and a star player for the Tennessee Titans said he will protest during the national anthem.
The joint statement reads:
"The NFL and NFLPA, through recent discussions, have been working on a resolution to the anthem issue. In order to allow this constructive dialogue to continue, we have come to a standstill agreement on the NFLPA’s grievance and on the NFL’s anthem policy. No new rules relating to the anthem will be issued or enforced for the next several weeks while these confidential discussions are ongoing."
Under the new policy enacted by the NFL in May, each team was to submit their anthem rules and no on-field protests were going to be tolerated. The Dolphins announced their team policy today.
The Titans' all-pro defensive end/social justice warrior Jurrell Casey (photographed above) had caused a stir yesterday when he unloaded on the NFL's protest ban and vowed to violate it by raising a fist to protest during the anthem. The story quickly proliferated over the internet, with many media criticizing owners for adopting the new policy and going soft on Casey.
“I’m going to take a fine this year, why not?” Casey told CNN Wednesday at an NFL promotional event in London. “I’m going to protest during the flag. That’s what I’m going to say now. It is what it is, I ain't going to let them stop me from doing what I want to do. If they want to have these battles between players and organizations, this is the way it's going to be."
Last year none of the Titans took a knee, but Casey and some teammates raised fists in defiance. Casey says he's being respectful, and, "It's not necessarily about the anthem, that's where everybody's messing up. ... The way that the justice system treats minorities is the issue that we have."
Sports media have been universally critical of the protest ban. Frank Schwab, of Yahoo! Sports, wrote it wasn’t worth the tone-deaf league’s time or effort to adopt a policy stopping visible protests:
"The NFL can’t seem to stay out of its own way, and somehow it turned the anthem issue into a story that overshadows football for the third straight season. Well done."
Ricardo Hazell, of The Shadow League, ripped the policy as well, saying "everybody is in a lather over it, understandably so, though." Casey "is the most prominent athlete to say he'll protest during the upcoming season. Though you wouldn't know it from the way these billionaire owners are quaking at the thought of widespread anthem protest this season ... ." And Hazell adds:
"The historical record will reflect that Colin Kaepernick was indeed effectively banned from the National Football League, but it's clear from Casey's proclamation that his example has inspired others to continue."
Sports Illustrated's Charlotte Carroll wrote up Casey's complaints about Kaepernick:
"For all these trash quarterbacks you see that get a shot, that come in and sit on the bench all day, you got a starting quarterback that's out there that can go out there and play.
"You know he has the skill set to be a starting quarterback, and you hold him out just because he is speaking his mind. At the end of the day it speaks (volumes) on what these people really think about you."
John Breech at CBS Sports posted still more Casey rants: "Most players have been relatively quiet about the new anthem policy, but that's only because they're unhappy. Around the NFL, guys are definitely not happy about it. I feel it's not right, I don't think it was a good decision for the NFL to come up with that ruling. But they have their reasons for what they've done."
"There is always going to be blowback, that is what America is about. They always like to go on social media and go hard. It is what it is, at the end of the day, I don't pay no mind to it. I'm going to do what I do that's going to bring light to my community. At the end of the day we got to do a job. But I will continue to use my platform to keep on speaking up."
The tepid Titans quibbled about semantics, saying they would inform Casey that, under the policy issued in May, only the teams would get fined for player protests, not the players themselves.
