Dueling Column: Don’t politicize football

Ashley Verdugo/ Staff Writer 

The National Football League has become a new political party.

The 120-yard field was used to throw a football, but now it’s used to protest and make political statements.

It’s become so politicized that the national anthem will no longer be broadcasted during games.

During the national anthem, various NFL players have kneeled in protest of racial injustice and police brutality for the past two years.

The NFL has received backlash on trying to remedy the problem.

The infiltration of identity politics has affected America’s favorite sport. The NFL’s attempt at political correctness has tainted the national anthem to seem “racially charged.”

Since when were the words “land of the free and home of the brave” unjust?

Don’t get my words twisted: protest where you’d like.

The beauty of America is that we have the first amendment: “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

But protesting during the national anthem is disrespectful, unpatriotic and hasn’t resolved the issue in the first place.

President Trump turned what was a small movement into political polarization.

He said the NFL players were unpatriotic and should be fired. The left said fine, then we’re all going to kneel. And now we’ve politicized America’s favorite sport.

Political correctness is corrupting the love of a sport and country.

The purpose of the protest was to bring more awareness to racial injustice and police brutality, but instead, it’s given intolerance of political parties another platform to fight on.

The NFL is doing no one favors by not broadcasting the national anthem.

On one hand, NFL players who want to use their platform to protest will not have that option anymore. They can kneel, but won’t get media attention for it.

On the other hand, the NFL has proven to be weak and money hungry. Rather than have a conversation with the NFL players, they’ve sacrificed patriotism to get rid of the problem. But they haven’t resolved anything.

The NFL is more interested in ratings than the sport.

Read the other side: Athletes speaking about politics is important

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The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

Photo by Adrian Curiel on Unsplash.