MLB Network announcer and NBC Sports personality Bob Costas is no stranger to imposing his liberal politics on viewers, so he appeared on CNN Monday morning in light of the NFL protests to bemoan the National Anthem and patriotism being exclusively linked to the military and Trump supporters having brain damage.
“You're not going to find many voices of support outside his base, his extreme base, for these remarks,” Costas surmised, showing a shameful disconnect from the millions who have voted for the President and/or oppose the protests.
Costas agreed that the criticism of players who protested the President aka the National Anthem did have a racial element, noting that “70% of the players in the NFL roughly are African-American” with the “the initial impetus from it or for it came from Colin Kaepernick and it was about police brutality and mistreatment of African-Americans.”
He then continued concerning the National Anthem:
Now, if you want to make the point that the National Anthem is about something more than the nation's flaws and shortcomings, it's also about its ideals and that people can see some texture to what the National Anthem means, and you might prefer that people protest or make their point outside of the National Anthem, that's something that can be argued. But the idea this doesn't have something to do with race is preposterous.
On that theme, Costas played the role of a far-left college professor, stating that “[p]art of what's happened is that sports and patriotism and the flag have been conflated to such an extent that people can't separate out any nuance.”
“If you go to see Hamilton, which is about the founding of the republic, no one said, wait a minute. Don't raise the curtain until we hear the National Anthem. When you went to see Saving Private Ryan no one said turn off the projector Saving Private Ryan — no one said turn off the projector until we've had the National Anthem. It's in sports where this stuff happens,” he added, which was a giant Red herring.
Costas also foolishly claimed that everyone “respect[s]” the “sacrifice” military servicemen and women make seeing as how, if you’ve ever read NewsBusters in our 12-year history, celebrities and some in the media have opined otherwise.
Within that point, he went on a tangent complaining that the American flag, the National Anthem, and patriotism have become a symbol of the military. Costas argued that the patriotism of soldiers should be extended to other professions:
Sometimes movingly, sometimes I submit cynically, because wrapping yourself in the flag and honoring the military is something which no one is going to object to....We all honor their sacrifice, and yet, what it has come to mean is that the flag is primarily and only about the military. This is no disrespect to the military. It's a huge part of the narrative, but Martin Luther King was a patriot. Susan B. Anthony was a patriot. Dissidents are patriots. Schoolteachers and social workers are patriots and yet at Yankee Stadium, we can shift sports, not only do they play the National Anthem before the game but God Bless America at the seventh inning stretch 81 times a year at home homes and in every case, they say, please rise as the Yankees honor a military guest. I have no problem with that. I stand every time I'm in the ballpark no matter what it is, I stand and I certainly respect the military person they bring out there. But there’s never a schoolteacher, there’s never social worker. Patriotism comes in many forms[.]
“[A]nd what has happened is that it's been conflated with — with kind of a bumper sticker kind of flag waving, and with the military only. So that people cannot see that in his own way, Colin Kaepernick, however imperfectly, is doing a patriotic thing and so, too, are some other players,” he declared.
Costas also took issue with Trump’s take on targeting calls in football and, before he laid bare arguments used to declare football a dying sport, he mocked Trump supporters as having been stricken with brain damage themselves:
By the way, this is not as important. But in his comments in Alabama, Trump went on to say that they're ruining the NFL. There's not enough hitting. They're, I says, sissifying the game. You wonder how many times people who believe that have themselves been hit in the head?
Near the back end of his extended New Day appearance, Costas defended his political commentaries that he’s delivered throughout his career:
When I commented about various issues, only occasionally on NBC, be it on football, or during the Olympics, it was never during the action. It was never at the expense of the action and the drama. Always in a little niche carved out when nothing else was going on in terms of the game itself, but you have to acknowledge these things, and you have to address them. They're important, and very often, because sports appeals across demographic lines, like nothing else, we live in a niche world. But the one thing that draws not only a large audience but a varied audience, outside of the Academy Awards and Emmy’s, I guess.
Here’s the relevant transcript from CNN’s New Day on September 25:
CNN’s New Day
September 25, 2017
8:09 a.m. Eastern
BOB COSTAS: 70% of the players in the NFL roughly are African-American. Virtually every player who knelt in the initial stages of this was black, and the initial impetus from it or for it came from Colin Kaepernick and it was about police brutality and mistreatment of African-Americans. You can’t separate those two things. Now, if you want to make the point that the National Anthem is about something more than the nation's flaws and shortcomings, it's also about its ideals and that people can see some texture to what the National Anthem means, and you might prefer that people protest or make their point outside of the National Anthem, that's something that can be argued. But the idea this doesn't have something to do with race is preposterous. Michael Steele, African-American, former head of the Republican National Committee, was unsparing in his remarks about what Trump had that say. Bob Kraft, who contributed to the Inaugural Committee. You're not going to find many voices of support outside his base, his extreme base, for these remarks.
(....)
8:12 a.m. Eastern
COSTAS: Part of what's happened is that sports and patriotism and the flag have been conflated to such an extent that people can't separate out any nuance. If you go to see Hamilton, which is about the founding of the republic, no one said, wait a minute. Don't raise the curtain until we hear the National Anthem. When you went to see Saving Private Ryan no one said turn off the projector Saving Private Ryan — no one said turn off the projector until we've had the National Anthem. It's in sports where this stuff happens. Sometimes movingly, sometimes I submit cynically, because wrapping yourself in the flag and honoring the military is something which no one is going to object to. We all respect their sacrifice. We all honor their sacrifice, and yet, what it has come to mean is that the flag is primarily and only about the military. This is no disrespect to the military. It's a huge part of the narrative, but Martin Luther King was a patriot. Susan B. Anthony was a patriot. Dissidents are patriots. Schoolteachers and social workers are patriots and yet at Yankee Stadium, we can shift sports, not only do they play the National Anthem before the game but God Bless America at the seventh inning stretch 81 times a year at home homes and in every case, they say, please rise as the Yankees honor a military guest. I have no problem with that. I stand every time I'm in the ballpark no matter what it is, I stand and I certainly respect the military person they bring out there. But there’s never a schoolteacher, there’s never social worker. Patriotism comes in many forms, and what has happened is that it's been conflated with — with kind of a bumper sticker kind of flag waving, and with the military only. So that people cannot see that in his own way, Colin Kaepernick, however imperfectly, is doing a patriotic thing and so, too, are some other players.
ALISYN CAMOERTA: What do you think this does this season for football? Do you think that it will it hurt rating?
COSTAS: No. It increases interest. Yesterday, every telecast, including Sunday Night Football on NBC showed the National Anthem. Generally speaking, and this is interesting. Generally speaking, be it baseball, football, whatever, the networks try to cover the National Anthem. They try to be in commercial. I've heard it in my ear, where the producer says, wait a minute. They may still be in the anthem when we come out of this commercial and sometimes they are and then you're just quiet the last few notes and note that the Anthem concluded. Now people want to see the Anthem. They're interested in it. How long it lasts, we'll have to wait and see. By the way, this is not as important. But in his comments in Alabama, Trump went on to say that they're ruining the NFL. There's not enough hitting. They're, I says, sissifying the game. You wonder how many times people who believe that have themselves been hit in the head? The science is clear, and the more that science emerges, the more it will become clear that football and brain trauma are linked. It doesn't matter how much you like the game. They are linked and to deny that is to live in a fantasy world.
JOHN BERMAN; When you hear people say sports is about entertainment. Sports is about distraction. Sports is about something other than politics. Politics shouldn't be in sports.
COSTAS: Largely true, but sometimes they intersect. Inevitably and to ignore it is to ignore the elephant in the room. When I commented about various issues, only occasionally on NBC, be it on football, or during the Olympics, it was never during the action. It was never at the expense of the action and the drama. Always in a little niche carved out when nothing else was going on in terms of the game itself, but you have to acknowledge these things, and you have to address them. They're important, and very often, because sports appeals across demographic lines, like nothing else, we live in a niche world. But the one thing that draws not only a large audience but a varied audience, outside of the Academy Awards and Emmy’s, I guess. The one thing that draws that across the board interest is big sports events and, very often, that's where these issues play themselves out.
CAMEROTA: I heard a little bit of relevant history yesterday I think is important to reiterate and that is, before 2009, the players often weren't on the field for the National Anthem. Something changed and patriotism became a larger component of all of this. Sometimes paid patriotism. And so, yesterday what did you think of the teams that stayed in the locker room for the National Anthem? They released statements saying we believe in patriotism, the flag, first responders but stayed in the locker room. What did you think?
COSTAS: I was okay with it and I think what Mike Tomlin said, the coach of the Steelers said a lot of sense. We don't want our players to have to choose. They may feel one way, they may feel the other, they may feel apolitical. We'll stay off. Villanueva, one of the the players for the Steelers who as an Army soldier came out of the locker room, stood on the edge of the field, but sort of at the lip of the runway that would lead to the field with his hand over his heart. And that was his decision to make and I would respect that, too.
BERMAN: What crossed the line, specifically, do you think — what broke the dam here?
COSTAS: Well, when you call people “sons of bitches” across the board, that offends everybody. White and black. They've stood shoulder to shoulder on those fields, in those locker rooms. What kind of a statement is that to make? And I don't think it’s irrelevant that, clearly, the President had more passion and conviction for those remarks than he did when he finally got around, aft equivocating, to distancing himself to some extent from white nationalists and neo-Nazis. He clearly had more fervor for this than for that.
