President Trump has been fierce on the National Football League, ripping owners for allowing players to disrespect the national anthem by kneeling in protest.
The NFL finally corrected that PR nightmare this week by banning players from kneeling during the anthem. Owners voted unanimously on the measure (with one abstention).
And now we find out why.
“The answer remains clear, according to a variety of league sources: an intense fear of President Donald Trump,” writes Bleacher Report.
This is a fact. This is the truth. This is the core basis for the NFL’s decision. This has been told to me before, and it was reiterated by several people Wednesday.
“Our league,” one team official said, “is f–king terrified of Trump. We’re scared of him.”
What does the NFL fear? It fears boycotts of games. It fears people not watching its product on television. It fears people not buying its products.
And rightly so. Ratings plunged last year as the protests spread, dropping ad revenue for the league.
Under the new rules, the NFL will allow teams to keep their players in the locker room during the Star-Spangled Banner, a move Trump didn’t like. And he once again railed on protesting players, even after the NFL compromise.
I don’t think people should be staying in locker rooms,” Trump said. “You have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there, maybe they shouldn’t be in the country,” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday morning on “Fox & Friends” on Fox News.
Trump said the NFL owners are “doing the right thing” to ban kneeling, giving angry Americans who objected the credit for prompting the move. “I think the people pushed it forward. This was not me,” he said. “This country is very smart. We have very smart people.”
Here’s the full statement from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:
