The BLOG: Culture

The Painful Truth About The Anthem and the NFL

Time for some real talk about NFL players vs. our nation’s warriors who are being disrespected by them.

These players protest inequality while making $10 million a year throwing a ball in a country protected by men and women who make $35k a year and risk their lives for these players to be able to do so.  All they are doing is showing fans what hypocrisy looks like. Taking a knee does nothing.  Contributing your paycheck does something.  Stand up and man up, whiners.  You aren’t making a point.  You’re making a fool of yourselves.

Players sprain their wrist — they take a month off.  Warriors lose a limb … they fight to go back to battle.  

Players have a bad day … they get a concussion.  Those who serve have a GOOD day and they don’t die.  Let’s not forget that.

And the hypocrisy … oh, the hypocrisy.  Players get fined for demonstrations of faith in the end zone or altering uniforms to show unity with those who hold the thin blue line or protect our country.  So why would we give these men who are apparently “role models” a soapbox with which to disrespect our nation?

Now, onto you keyboard warriors.  Man, am I sick and tired of snowflakes sitting around on their butts talking about “free speech” like they actually understand what it is.  They don’t.

Free speech doesn’t protect NFL players from getting fired for not rising for the anthem.  It prevents the government from passing legislation to force them to stand.

It also protects actual Patriotic Americans who want to call these entitled, self-centered idiots for what they are.

Now let’s talk about the market for a minute.

The free market determines everything.  Ratings are way down.  Attendance is way down.  Merchandise sales are way down.  Speech has a cost.  It’s the lives of those who fight for it … and hopefully it will also be the jobs of some of these players.

There are two reasons why these players haven’t been fired:  1) owners are afraid of the free market implications; and 2) owners are afraid to lose talented players.

But here’s the thing.  At some point every boss needs to make a decision.  You run your mouth enough and you begin to give a company (or team) a bad name and/or cost them money, eventually the boss cuts his losses.  If these players worked for my company, it wouldn’t matter if they were our most valuable players — they’d be fired.

So as far as the market goes, ad revenue will dry up as people like me move big advertising dollars elsewhere.  As we refuse to give paid endorsements to these hyprocrites. As we publicly speak out against these disrespectful Americans.  Your average American will weigh in by changing the channel.  People like me will weigh in by moving millions of dollars out of their market.

They think America is bad?  My company will be happy to book one-way tickets to North Korea for anyone who wants to take a knee.


Kyle S. Reyes is co-host of The Whiskey Patriots and the Chief Executive Officer of The Silent Partner Marketing. Reyes is also an 
acclaimed keynote speaker on entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and social media. You can follow him on Facebook.