Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Last week, the U.S. and North Korea engaged in brinksmanship and Congressional Republicans struggled to avoid yet another failure to dismantle Obamacare.
In addition, two U.S. states and Puerto Rico were reeling from historically devastating hurricanes.
After navigating this harrowing week of crises, however, President Donald Trump decided it was just as urgent that he critique the National Football League.
He might have played a little football in high school, but meddling with the management of the NFL is way out of his league.
It’s like becoming the commander-in-chief without military experience. Wait. He is the commander-in-chief with no military experience, as was his predecessor.
For presidents, however, commander–in-chief comes with the title but not authority over entertainment, including sports.
Thank goodness for that.
But Trump jumped in. He called for the NFL to fire any player who kneels instead of standing for the national anthem, as several have done to protest police slayings of African Americans.
While the players have the right to make such gestures as citizens, it is purely up to the NFL or individual NFL teams, not the president, to decide whether they can do so and remain on their payroll.
Further, it seems that the teams have quietly registered their opinion of the kneeling protests by not hiring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who famously started the protests last year, out of free agency this year.
In a way, the president called for the firing of a guy who currently doesn’t have a job.
Trump compounded this venture out-of-bounds by calling for the end of rules against some high-impact contacts that help keep NFL players as safe as their inherently dangerous occupation can make them.
NFL players “like to hit,” he said, clearly implying that they should do so with impunity, no matter how much damage it causes and, worse, perhaps implying that hard hits are required to entertain the president.
And does he watch car races for the wrecks? Would his next step be to stand on a platform before each NFL game while the players chant “We who are about to die salute you?”
NFL players get big bucks largely because the rare skills they possess last, if they’re lucky, for only 10 or 15 years, and because the game is dangerous.
The NFL has decided the high pay should not come with a guarantee of mental and physical health problems from avoidable concussions.
Once, after interviews in the press box, TV cameras caught some retired NFL players struggling mightily down stadium steps to their seats. NFL players often give up working knees. That should be enough.
At any rate, these decisions should involve players, coaches, owners and league officials — not the president of the United States.
I think sometimes Trump believes we elected him chief executive officer, not president, and he should keep in mind that he is the leader of our country, not its boss.
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: