NFL: “Everyone Should Stand”

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As more people tune out due to the protests, more people have been cutting the cable cord for years already. ESPN has lost 11 million subscribers, 10% of its viewers, since 2011.

Patriotism in the NFL

Football players being present for the national anthem is a recent practice. It was only in 2009 that players were encouraged to be present on the field for the Anthem.

The Department of Defense, it turns out, has a practice of paying the NFL for patriotic displays and events. The department spent $10.4 million in “marketing and advertising contracts with professional sports teams” between 2012 and 2015. Paid activities include enlistment ceremonies, providing national anthem singers, and color guard performances. Senator John McCain, who co-authored a report on the manner, wrote that “fans should not be unknowing viewers of a paid-marketing campaigns.”

The Defense Department’s involvement in paid patriotic ceremonies casts a new light on the controversy surrounding players kneeling for the anthem. The NFL has since severed (in 2015) its relationship with the Defense Department in this matter, after pressure from Congress. In 2016, the NFL actually refunded over $700,000 in tax payer funds used back to the Defense Department.