The Jacksonville Jaguars

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I had no thoughts on the NFL players "protests" until I saw a shot of Jerry Jones kneeling with the players. I was nearly brought to tears.

Life changing.

I can't tell if you're being serious or sarcastic..

Pro tip:

[KenFSU]

Once again, Ron Littlepage nails it.

Ron Littlepage: Really, folks, we've got more important concerns than kneeling football players

People see things very differently.

I get that.

There is an outpouring of outrage from many over what the Jacksonville Jaguars and team owner Shad Khan did during the playing of the national anthem before Sunday's National Football League game in London.

What they saw was an act of disrespect for the U.S. flag and an affront to the members of the military who fought to preserve freedom in this country.

Ironically, part of their patriotic frenzy was egged on by a commander-in-chief who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.

What I saw was Khan locked arm-in-arm with members of his team, standing straight, as a sign of unity with those players who chose to kneel to protest what they believe are injustices in how African-Americans are treated.

The right to peacefully protest, which is what these players were quietly doing, is one of those freedoms soldiers have fought to preserve.

But exercise it, and you should have a profanity hurled at you by the president of the United States and a demand from him that you be fired.

Really?

All of this frenzy is a sad reminder of just how far we have not come in race relations.

A recent story published by PolitiFact recalled what Jackie Robinson — almost universally admired for breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947 — wrote in his 1972 autobiography "I Never Had it Made."

"As I write this 20 years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem," Robinson wrote. "I cannot salute the flag; I know I am a black man in a white world."

The African-Americans in the NFL protesting today are echoing that same feeling almost a half century later.

And that's something whites cannot fully comprehend because they have not lived as a black in a white world.

Those who believe that race isn't still a problem in this country aren't dealing in reality. Unfortunately, we now have a president who is stirring that division.

For those of you vowing to never watch another NFL game on television or to never support the Jaguars again, fine. That's your right.

I could understand dropping out because the game is too violent or because too many of the players do stupid things off the field or because you have better ways to spend your time.

But wrapping yourself in the flag and turning off your TV set or refusing to buy game tickets because some players are exercising a right guaranteed in the Constitution behind that flag is a contradiction.

I can't help but wonder how many of these now furious patriots had previously got off their couches, put down their beers, pushed away the bowls of chips and stood at attention with their right hands over their hearts as the national anthem played on their televisions at the start of a baseball game, a NASCAR race, a soccer match or a NFL game.

Why are sporting events turned into a display of patriotism to begin with?

They are just games.

Do movie theaters play the national anthem before the start of each show?

But this is what the national conversation — or perhaps better described as the yelling — has become.

At this moment, we are dangerously close to a nuclear war.

Our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico are struggling from the effects of grim devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

One of our neighboring countries, Mexico, is recovering from a deadly earthquake.

Race relations in our land are souring and growing more toxic by the day.

And we actually have a president of the United States who called an African-American football player who quietly protested what he sees as discrimination a "son of a bitch."

Really?

Article:http://jacksonville.com/opinion/ron-littlepage/2017-09-26/ron-littlepage-really-folks-we-ve-got-more-important-concerns

[Keith-N-Jax]

People are really short sighted, look around all sports venues during the anthem and see just how many people are texting and talking during them anthem.

[JaxJersey-licious]

The other side claims ratings are down because they're boycotting Kaepernick being blackballed. In the meantime, the NFL's still raking in tons of cash. Ultimately, I find it truly interesting the divide is literally as black and white as can be (although it's always been...it's just out in the open now) and now it's so politicized that no one is even talking about the issue for Kaepernick's original reason. Nevertheless, for those offended by the action, Trump certainly isn't helping the matter. I wonder how Jags fans in general feel about Khan's actions and statement yesterday?

Yup, 19% of people in last year's poll said they'd be less likely to watch if Kaepernick wasn't signed. A much smaller number than the people mad at Kaep, but it adds up.


Interestingly, the same poll found little difference in opinion on the protests between blacks, whites, and other minorities. I find that a bit hard to believe based on earlier polls that showed Kaep and the protests as being more popular among African Americans than the general population.

The whole thing is a just another wedge issue that divides people. The folks that care line up on one side or the other along the same fault lines. Trump's playing that up and making more and more people weigh in than they ever did before. I guess it helps distract people from the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico.

Either way, it's a minority that's tuning out so far. All together, non-protest reasons are a much bigger factor in people tuning out, so that's probably a long-term worry for the NFL.

With all this talk of these so-called controversies killing interest in the NFL we need to look at the real causes  for the inevitable decline of NFL fandom. This isn't my original analogy, but someone I respected compared the interest in sports to a tree. Starts out small but because you see it on TV or have friends and family really into it or personally participate in it, you see that tree start to grow. And over months and years you may find more ways to not only maintain it but make it grow faster, taller, stronger. What inevitably happens for most people is life and when you factor in things like new jobs, school, moves, tragedies, falling in love, your kids' activities, etc. you look at this massive tree you've cultivated and may find it too unwieldy. Yes there may be incidences within sports like strikes, overpaid athletes, greedy owners, high prices, off-field run-ins with the law, (high profile) domestic violence incidences, and maybe the occasional protest that causes you to do some instant tree-trimming particularly knowing how full you life-plate can get. However, for most people who have for years cultivated big ornate living things, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain - and all that energy you used to use to nourish and continue upkeep on that specific tree is used to help maintain other trees in your life.

As these sports trees continue to bear less fruit and start losing leaves, its up to another generation of fans to start planting and growing their own sports trees. The questions isn't just if they are enough people to replenish a species quickly dying off, but would they  care and maintain their trees like the previous generation? This is the problem baseball has been dealing with for the last 20 years. With all this talk of people boycotting the NFL because of the protests or the blackballing, you don't see them paying more attention or start talking up the heated MLB Wild Card races currently going on, do we?

This does not imply that all these recent micro-aggressions to football won't cause any damage to the sport. Keeping with the tree analogy, what people truly vested in and/or trying to make lots of money from a sport would really be concerned about is years of fan neglect and indifference causing a once lush fertile and well-visited forest of fanhood turn into spindly decaying stumps littered by fallen leafless branches. But because the roots of football run so deep, the desperate ramblings of a chief-of-staff who relies on attention the way 5.10 level mountain climbers rely on oxygen calling for the overnight deforestation of the sport will have little to no effect. Most of these trees will remain standing and will likely recover well after their supposed guardians get tired of taking an axe to them.

[MusicMan]

I'd be shocked if the same pro-Trump supporters who are "outraged" at people (who happen to play football) participating in a silent protest for 60 seconds before the game also showed the same "outrage" when Trump assaulted the character of a sitting US Senator who also was a decorated Vietnam War Vet who also spent years in a Vietnamese POW Camp after being shot down while flying combat missions during a War that Trump artfully dodged and spent the entire time partying in NYC.  Or if they were "outraged" that Trump's companies continues to manufacture clothing in China while espousing "America First " at rallies and the UN.  Trump isn't a patriot. He's a con man.

There's a reason folks like myself cannot take them seriously, in fact, several................

So to those "folks", shut the f%ck up and stay away from the games. It's your right. Just like the folks who respect the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of these players to silently protest any thing they like.

Stay home. Stay home. Stay home. 

(And YES, the Ron Littlepage article absolutely nails it!)

[KenFSU]

Word on the street has it that the Jags are totally changing their uniforms next season. Coughlin supposedly isn't a fan of the current unis. He likes teal.

[Keith-N-Jax]

That helmet , please melt that helmet!

[pierre]

Hands down the worst helmet in the history of the NFL. That two-tone look is a disaster. No chance it stays.

And the jerseys are way too goofy. That tacky shoulder doesn't make any sense.

What I suspect will happen is the helmet is returned to all black. And the uniforms are altered but stay close to the look they are now.

What I would love to see is a return to the inaugural uniforms.

[Jim]

2005 had the best all around set of uniforms.

[ben says]

Loved the all black unis. Wonder what happened to those!

Also loved the inaugurals!

[Wacca Pilatka]

I rather like the current uniforms, including the infamous helmet, but would prefer a return to the teal, with the gold accents and the gold full body jaguar on the shoulder, and the gold and black trim on the numbers.  I know I'm biased but I thought those were very aesthetically pleasing.  I also thought they had the nicest, cleanest, most readable fonts for the name lettering of any NFL jersey.

Still think the current uniforms are superior to the very bland 2009-12 model.

[KenFSU]

^I'm with you, the new uniforms have quite grown on me.

[Papa33]

They can do whatever they want with the uniforms, I don't care.  Just win.

[Adam White]

Remember this abortion?

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Yes!  The best thing that came of Jaguar suing the franchise over the leaping cat logo was that we didn't ever use that uniform.

In the late 90s they considered changing to some really horrible, almost unreadable number font too.  There was a TV Guide cover with, I think, Brunell and Jimmy Smith wearing the prototype for that.