President Donald Trump is a hard man to please. After taking issue with the NFL, as a whole, and numerous players within the league for kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, the NFL changed their policy regarding what players could and could not do on-the-field during the pregame ceremony, in part, to please Trump. Apparently, that wasn’t enough.
To avoid players taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem, as Colin Kaepernick had done many times before being blackballed from the league, players who wanted to protest were told that they could do so by staying in the locker room. That way, no one would have to see them. If players flouted the order, the team would be penalized on the field and fined. As far as forms of protests go, it is extremely mild, and everyone thought it would be more than enough to please Trump and keep his ire away from the NFL and its billionaire owners. However, when Trump was at his rally in Montana, he took aim at the new policy for reasons no one seems quite sure about as the new policy isn’t really all that new anymore. Some pundits have theorized he is still smarting from the Eagles snubbing his offer to visit the White House and is lashing out.
Fox News reported that Trump had plenty to say about the NFL while in Montana.
“Hey, how about the NFL. Look I don’t want to cause controversy. … I don’t want to cause controversy. They passed this stupid thing. You don’t have to do this anymore if you don’t respect the flag or if you don’t like the country or whatever it is, just go into the locker room. Just go into the locker room. I think in many respects that’s worse. Isn’t that worse than having them not standing?”
A month ago, Trump said the anthem policy was disrespectful, but at the same time seemed somewhat pleased that a group of billionaires bent to his will in some way. Now it would seem there is no pleasing him as he is on the attack again. In a USA Today report, it was noted that Trump wants all players on the field for the playing of the anthem, hand on heart, showing respect for the country. To this point, the NFL is not willing to go that far.
Trump also took shots at league commissioner Roger Goodell and took credit for NFL ratings being down because he is more interesting than football. It would seem that Trump can’t find anything about the NFL that he likes at all and that no matter what they do to placate his executive orders, he will never be satisfied.
