The Football Flap

I am rather enjoying the controversy surrounding the NFL and the vain, obnoxious refusal by many of its players to stand for the national anthem.

There's the standard dollop of legal illiteracy that portrays the players as exercising their right to free speech, when there is no such right as against a private employer -- you may have the right to kneel, but you do not have the right to wear an NFL uniform or to seize the NFL spotlight while doing so. To dispel these notions, one need only recall the unceremonious canning of a Google employee when he exercised his supposed right of free speech. The fact that the NFL is protecting these overpaid goons even while ratings plummet helps demonstrate the double standard in effect today -- speech that defends traditional principles will be punished, while speech that attacks traditional principles will be sheltered.

But all this makes me rejoice because it slaps middle America across the face and forces it to recognize -- at long last -- that the barbarians are inside the gates. You cannot bury your head in the sand or take refuge in your puerile sports-watching any longer. You have to choose sides, and more people are doing so. All my life I've witnessed denial by those too weak to confront the ugly truth; now the truth is so ugly that even the lowbrows are getting it, so at least I'm no longer alone.