John Elway: You think maybe we should get back to focusing on football?

Feckless owners brought this on themselves with their mealy-mouthed, PR-approved statements over the weekend. Now they see that they've got themselves in a mess and they need a way out. Maybe John Elway has the standing to lead the way:

President of Football Ops/GM John Elway to @BroncosTV on players’ National Anthem statements: pic.twitter.com/Q6F9rszh4x

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) September 26, 2017

Let's review how we got there. Last year's Colin Kaepernick protests were mainly a one-man show of disrespect toward the country and slandering of police officers. A few joined in after Kaepernick couldn't get a job this year, but it wasn't until after President Trump spoke up that suddenly every owner felt the need to denounce him (some implicitly, some more overtly), and more than 250 players decided to do as Kaepernick did. And three entire teams refused to even take the field during the national anthem. The case of the Pittsburgh Steelers is especially enlightening. The Steelers are catching it from the public for not only skipping the anthem but for coming down on Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva and apparently pressuring him to issue a hostage video style apology. Now the Steelers complain they were trying to "not get involved" by staying in the tunnel for the anthem. Bolshevik. If you want to not get involved, then just come out and stand for the anthem as you normally would. That's what their opponents the Bears did, and no one is talking about the Bears except with regard to the Bears' beating the Steelers. I can't remember the last time I was happy the Bears won a game when it wasn't against a certain backwater village from Wisconsin, but I loved this one. Steelers owner Art Rooney Jr. and head coach Mike Tomlin are peddling quite a tale here about how everyone supposedly misunderstood their intent. I don't think anyone misunderstood anything. So here we are. The NFL needs a way out of this, but public pressure will mount from the media and celebrities to continue the protests, even as the fans and most of the public are getting awfully tired of it, and don't appreciate the Kaepernick-pushed insinuation that we don't care when black people are the victims of undeserved violence. Elway has the right idea. Whether the rest of the NFL is even capable of following it, I am honestly not sure.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

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