Just in time for the Super Bowl, a conservative watchdog group launched Thursday a social-media ad campaign blasting the NFL over the players’ take-a-knee protests and left-wing activism.
“We’re reminding the NFL that fans want football, not politics at the Super Bowl,” 2ndVote spokesman Robert Kuykendall said in a statement.
The 60-second video on YouTube urged the NFL to “choose veterans over politics” and referred to a proposed American Veterans ad for the Super Bowl LII program that was rejected over the phrase #PleaseStand.
“We’re also reminding Americans that the NFL chose to institutionalize and fund left-wing activism over the past season, and yet the league told veterans their request for fans and players to stand for the national anthem was ’too political’ for the game program,” Mr. Kuykendall said.
Super Bowl LII caps a season that saw game ratings drop by 9.7 percent as the NFL became mired in a political scrum between players who refused to stand for the national anthem in a statement against social injustice, and fans who condemned the protests as unpatriotic and disrespectful to the military.
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Critics were alarmed when ESPN reported in November that the NFL had entered into an agreement in principle with the newly formed Players Coalition to spend $89 million on various causes, including the Dream Corps, a progressive advocacy group co-founded by former Obama White House adviser Van Jones.
Other beneficiaries would include the United Negro College Fund and the Players Coalition, which has reportedly filed for both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) status. The latter would allow the group to engage in activities such as lobbying.
The NFL has declined to confirm the details, but spokesman Joe Lockhart has said there has been no final decision on any agreement. The next owners’ meeting is scheduled for March.
“No decisions have been made on where the money will go yet, much less all the money over the next 7 years,” Mr. Lockhart said in a December email. “Those decisions will be made by the working group that has not been formed yet.”
For years, the NFL Players Association, the union affiliated with the AFL-CIO, has been active in supporting left-of-center causes through donations to groups backed by Democratic mega-funder George Soros such as the Center for Community Change Action.
“The NFL has lost its way,” Mr. Kuykendall said. “Not only were controversial kneeling protests incorporated into pregame ceremonies earlier this season, but the league is now funneling millions of dollars to left-wing activists at the behest of the players, the same players whose union donates to so-called ’resistance’ groups tied to liberal billionaire George Soros.”
The NFL announced on Jan. 22 the launch of Let’s Listen Together, run by a joint player and ownership committee aimed at “highlighting the player-led work on social and racial equality.”
Last week, the NFL Network debuted the first feature, a discussion between Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and Upper Darby [Penn.] police Superintendent Michael Chitwood on “social justice issues affecting police and community relations, including details of a new intelligence training program to improve policing in their community.”
In addition, the NFL Foundation announced the launch of a grant program “for active and retired players who develop social justice programming or partner with local non-profit organizations committed to this work. A similar grant will be open for club foundations later this month.”
So far there’s been no quid pro quo. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has not required players to stop sitting or kneeling in return, although he has said he would prefer that players stand and that he wants to focus to shift from “protest to progress.”
It’s possible players will take a knee during Super Bowl LII, but not likely. Only about 20 players on a half-dozen teams were continuing to kneel or sit during the national anthem by the end of the 2017 season, and none of them play for the Philadelphia Eagles or New England Patriots.
Mr. Jenkins, a leader of the Players Coalition, said in November he would stop raising his fist during the anthem in response to the NFL’s social-justice efforts, although other players, including San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid, have said they will continue to kneel.
“[O]bviously through this year and talking with the league and what they’ve kind of proposed, I feel like he has presented a bigger and better platform to continue to raise that awareness and continue to fluctuate positive change,” Mr. Jenkins told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Not only with the money that they’ve put up, because I think that’s probably the least important part of the deal, but with the resources and platform that they proposed to build.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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