Donald Trump Gives NFL Owners Cover for Their Own Racism

NFL owners are a racist lot, but Donald Trump threw them a lifeline by calling players who protest the National Anthem “sons of bitches” who ought to be fired.

Even though he has bigger problems to address — North Korea's rocket man and the pathetic failure of his health-care plan, to name just two — the race-baiter-in-chief couldn't shut up even when the entire Dallas Cowboys team and owner Jerry Jones took a knee before the National Anthem during this week's Monday-night game.

Yesterday Trump tweeted that “the booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger.” Then he praised the Cowboys for standing during the National Anthem: “big progress is being made.”

The president's beef with protesting players has allowed his billionaire buddies, like Jones, Robert Kraft, and Dan Snynder, to take advantage of the situation. Trump is a master media manipulator. He changed the narrative about why NFL athletes continued to protest the National Anthem after former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was blackballed by the very same franchise owners who donated millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign and inaugural committee but are now condemning the president’s remarks. Notice that none of them has called Trump out by name, instead putting out carefully crafted news statements about “showing unity” with their players.
The only owner with any sincerity is the Miami Dolphins' Stephen Ross, who has been trying to build bridges between protesting players, local police, and black community activists since last year when the Kaepernick controversy began.

The other 31 owners wanted to change the conversation Kaepernick started about police injustice against black people in America. The NFL’s 1-percenters banded together to make sure Kaepernick wouldn’t get signed, hoping to send a message that outspoken, uppity Negroes are not welcome.

Instead, the league faced a mountain of backlash from African-Americans across the nation. Thousands gathered for a Black Lives Matter rally outside the NFL headquarters in New York City a week before the season began. Kaepernick’s 49ers jersey remains one of the top sellers in NFL merchandise. Meanwhile, the league had its worst TV ratings during the opening week of the 2017-18 season.

The irony is that Trump has forced NFL owners to finally confront the racist shit they’ve been doing for years.

Follow Luke on Twitter: @unclelukereal1.