TLDR - John Tortorella is the coach of the US Men’s hockey team. He says, “If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game.”
Personally, I don’t think this is out of line. If you are an athlete representing the US in international competition, you should pay respects to the flag and the national anthem. If you can’t at least show that much national pride, you should not represent the US.
This is different from a commercial enterprise such as the NFL or whatever the women’s soccer league is. If they want to allow players to sit during the national anthem, then they’ll have to deal with the consequences, whether they be good or bad.
We’ll send a strongly worded email right away notifying that Greenman does not approve.
His players have a right to sit and he has a right to not play them because of it. That’s the beauty of freedom.
^ This
Well, we do need to show a united national front against that Soviet team.
Here we go with GreenMan thinking this is North Korea.
“Symbols are for Symbol-Minded” - Carlin
But I see his point. Representing the US in sports means that you are a representative of the country. So you must show that you support the nation. This is more important than actually winning. In fact, the only reason to win in an international tournament is to create national pride (it’s not like countries make money from sending athletes to Olympics, for instance). So if your conduct does not show pride in the country, you shouldn’t be there.
It’s different, of course, if you play in NHL or other domestic private league, in which case, the motivation is different. (the benjaminss)
Most of the time the national anthem is not televised.
Exercising your right to freedom of speech to bring attention to an issue that you feel affects the nation is supporting the nation. Allowing a member of a national sports team to exercise that right demonstrates to the world that we hold true to our values even when it can be uncomfortable.
I believe expectations are slightly different when you are not actually in the same physical location as the flag. If you have a flag in your living room though, I would expect you to stand, unless of course you are exercising your 1st amendment rights.
screw country and screw race. it is a team sport. don’t act like a pansy individual and take away from the team. if i were coach, i would cut any player who did anything like this. choose an individual venue to make a stance. like on your days off, when you’re not with your team. if a tennis player wants to make this stance, go for it. on a team, you’re a selfish a$$hole.
But… then why would he be playing for a sports team to win for the country? Protest by not playing. But that would hurt their career, so…
Doesn’t change the point when it is (ie Super Bowl / WS).
Maybe they think having their statement put to an audience boosts impact. I mean, that’s their call. Or maybe they’re playing for the love of the game and not love of country? Who cares, it’s their choice to protest in their manner. At the end of the day, anything an athlete does to protest or exist outside of mindless obedience will be criticized by those such as pundits and other athletes who have taken no stance, so I think they’re right not to care.
I love all the other QBs and guys that came out and said, “I agree with his concerns over BLM and that something needs to change, I just don’t like his methods” while doing nothing. So basically, “I agree something needs to be done, but I’m not doing anything about it and I’m going to criticize someone who is.” Good to know.
With respect to Kaepernick, the guy donates all of his jersey sale precedes to charity now too. So I like that he’s addressing the criticisms of not walking the walk. Of course that won’t be enough for people, but still…
^ I support his right to protest, but why wasn’t he donating his share of the jersey sales before the media storm that arose from his protest? It’s great that he’s now putting his money where his mouth is, but seems to me that the donation thing is more PR than real altruism.
Jersey sales spiked in response to the protest so in response he took that show of support and forwarded it to charity. Even if it was in response to the criticism, big deal. Maybe he actually does care and is taking the criticism into account and trying to address it. There are worse things going on.
“NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Colin Kaepernick jerseys were the top-selling jersey on the National Football League’s official online store on Tuesday, after he protested racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.”
guy’s still being a pos to his coaching staff and the players on his team. sitting on a bench isn’t going to change anything. sitting on a bench and not listening is how my kids protest. given he has plenty of money and a massive audience, why not organize events/marches/etc and participate in them with other influential people like all other successful protests of the past?
That’s his choice. I would guess organizing massive marches with his time would be criticized as not fair to his team as well. People would say, he just needs to focus on football, yada yada yada. Or maybe it’s as simple as the fact that marches are already being organized by more qualified organizations and he feels this is his best way to make a statement. Or maybe he’s simply doing it because just like Jackie Robinson, he feels it is his conscience not to?
Or maybe he’s actually really smart and realizes that by one simple action every media outlet from news channels to facebook to finance forums run by butt hurt keyboard jockies would be lit up for weeks on end (which is the idea of most protests). Far more publicity than most marches have had with no violent spill over and only requiring his simple action. And now the entire Seattle Seahawks are allegedly joining his stance in addition to athletes in other sports (WVU volleyball, WNT soccer).
http://usuncut.com/resistance/entire-seattle-seahawks-roster-will-protest-national-anthem-sunda/
The fact is, he’s actually having a major impact across a broad audience (at least as much as any previous BLM protest… which have been unsuccessful to date) so I don’t get the criticism against him for trying new methods and using the avenues available to him.