Less than a week ago, President Donald Trump criticized athletes who knelt during the national anthem, saying their actions are “disrespecting the flag”. Now, he’s turned his attention to the NFL owners, saying they are “afraid of their players” and need to be “tough” on a Thursday morning appearance on Fox and Friends.
So will we see the owners kneel during the national anthem in response to Trump like the players did? There is no way to know for sure, but Adam Schefter shared his thoughts with Murph & Mac shortly after the president’s most recent attack.
“I don’t think they’re freaked out, I think their bothered by what’s going on,” Schefter said. “They’re concerned, that’s probably the best word, about what’s going on.”
To be fair, the owners have every reason to be scared, even if Schefter believes the opposite. This issue began when one player, Colin Kaepernick, knelt during the national anthem last season and seemingly over night it exploded into a league-wide issue because of Trump’s words.
“It’s the type of situation we haven’t seen ever in the league before, I don’t think not like this. Frankly, I don’t know what’s coming next, you don’t know, we don’t know what’s coming next because it’s so unusual for the president of the country to take this certain issue to heart, make it a cause at a time when there are so many other issues in this world that need more attention than that, but it’s become a big issue.”
Nonetheless, this is not the first war waged by Trump against the NFL . After missing out on buying the Baltimore Colts, Trump poured millions of dollars into the USFL, a rival football league, during the 1980s. His hope was that his team, the New Jersey Generals, would eventually be absorbed by the NFL.
Yet, the league disbanded after only three seasons and Trump was left without a USFL team and no where close to owning an NFL team.
“Listen, to think that this president would carry grudges and have spite, I don’t think that’s hard to imagine. I can’t tell you that’s what’s driving it here, I don’t know, but it’s certainly plausible.”
Schefter believes this issue is not going away anytime soon and he doesn’t “think we’ve heard the end of it at all”. With all the view points circling around the country, it is a tough topic to maneuver through without causing any offense.
“There are so many strong view points on this issue, from every side. There are people who have lost family members, friends in wars that would never want to do anything to take away from the anthem or flag. There are players who feel as if racial injustice and social inequality have gone on far too long. I understand everybody’s view point because everybody brings their collective view points to the table and it’s hard to deny anyone of their feelings here, and the league has the watch over it while the ratings drop and people cancel their DIRECTV subscriptions and revenues inevitably go down somewhere along the way. To me, it’s an issue for everybody.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 1:01 for Schefter on Trump.