There’s something else. Trump understands this about the NFL. He and the majority of the 32 owners are literally on the same team politically. They are conservative Republicans who often generously bankroll GOP presidential candidates, and with some, that included Trump. So, when Cowboy owner Jerry Jones demanded that Cowboy players must stand, presumably at rapt attention, during the playing of the national anthem, it was in keeping with Trump and the NFL’s long standing, deep rah rah of the military, the flag, and endless ritual patriotic displays before games.
Trump is holding Kap captive to the NFL’s rigid, unbending and unyielding arrogance of power, insular structure and mindset that is virtually immune from any outside influence. This was evident in every challenge to the NFL elite, be it the threat of player strikes, contract negotiations, the dust up over CTE trauma and dangers, the criticism it gets for shaking down cities and states to put taxpayers on the hook for everything from luxury boxes to new stadiums. Then there’s Washington owner Dan Snyder’s nose thumb at anyone who tells him he must drop the offensive “Redskins” moniker.
The NFL has the muscle to keep their books hush hush, demand the players play two more games, thus radically increasing the hazard, knock down every chance it gets to slash the player’s revenue take, and not guarantee any long-term health benefits to the players.
Trump hasn’t uttered a mumbling word of criticism about any of that. And he won’t. Because he is in lockstep politically and emotionally with the NFL and the way they do business. And they are with him. If Kap is an SOB to Trump, he’s an SOB to the owners, even if they’d never say it publicly. And since many fans aren’t shy about calling Kap that publicly, and much worse, that effectively seals the deal insuring that he’ll never play another down in the NFL.
Trump will do everything he can to make sure it stays that way. His name call of Kap just punctuated that.
(Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is an associate editor of New America Media.)
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