Will the NFL punish Jerry Jones? You know the left-stream media hope so. The Dallas Cowboys' owner and friend of the Donald said his team will stand in respect during the playing of the pregame national anthem and nobody hides in the locker room. NFL teams are not allowed to discuss the ongoing efforts to resolve the national anthem issue, and NBC Sports' Mike Florio is itching to find out if the league will fine Jones for defying the gag order.
At a Wednesday press conference in California, where the Cowboys hold their summer camp, Jones said:
"Our policy is you stand during the anthem, toe on the line.
“Obviously I wouldn’t dare speak for any of the other owners, much less in general about 31 other owners. But as far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, you know where I stand. Our team knows where I stand on the issue, and that’s where we are.”
The Cowboys' director of player personnel and son of Jerry, Stephen Jones, told KTCK FM Radio he believes the team will honor the boss's edict: "If they want to be a Dallas Cowboy, yes."
Getting back to Florio, he says that Cleveland owner Mike Brown said the league office has told the teams not to talk about the ongoing effort to fix the anthem policy. Brown said:
“The league and the union are talking on this and we’re instructed to stand down while that’s ongoing."
Media loved it when the New York Jets said their players were free to violate the May policy banning protests. That policy is currently on hold, pending league and players' union negotiations. But Florio wants to know if Jones stands to incur a fine:
"And so the broader question becomes this: If there truly is a gag order regarding the anthem policy, will the league office punish Jones for violating it? Asked whether there’s a prohibition against talking about the anthem policy and, if so, whether Jones will be fined, the league office declined to comment."
Care to guess why Florio doesn't believe Jones won't get fined? It has something to do with the sports media's groupthink that the cowardly league and its owners tremble in fear of President Donald Trump's negative tweets about the league:
"The league won’t do anything, because to fine Jones is to invite a tweet from the Commander-in-Chief chastising the league for attacking Jones for trying to ensure that his employees show proper respect for the flag. If the guess is wrong, maybe it means the league is inching toward a position of no longer caring about the comments of the President."
Imagine the humiliation of a tweet from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue criticizing big macho football people! It's too painful to contemplate.
Most of the major sports media today are giving less internet real estate to Jones' stand-up-and-be-a-Cowboy comments than to Trump's most recent painful tweet and the Cowboys' refusal to cut ties with Papa John's pizza. Yes, these are the dominant story lines of the left-stream sports media as NFL teams open preseason camp. Only on the 29th question at yesterday's Jones press conference did the subject of football come up.
Media focused heavily on Jones' Wednesday comment that President “[Trump’s] interest in what we’re doing is problematic, from my chair, and I would say in general the owners’ chair. It’s unprecedented, if you really think about it. But like the very game itself, that’s the way it is and we’ll deal with it."
This stems from Trump's ongoing tweets critical of NFL protest and his latest social media blast from six days ago:
As for Papa John's, the Cowboys are not cutting ties with the company whose founder, John Schnatter, used a racial slur last year in a conference call. Dallas doesn't really have a choice; the Cowboys own all 50 Papa John's stores in Texas and Jones said the Cowboys are committed to the "thousands" of people they employ in those stores.
Nonetheless, USA Today's Steven Ruiz deep dished Jones for maintaining ties to Papa John's: "In other words, the Cowboys have way too much money invested in their partnership with Papa John’s to even consider severing ties. Jones isn’t even trying to hide the fact that money trumps morality in his world.
"In Jerry’s world, using racist language is unfortunate but not cause to split with a sponsor, but daring to peacefully protest before a football game is unacceptable behavior. America’s Team, indeed."
