In the first few games of the new football season, multiple NFL teams and players made sure to put on purely symbolic displays of “solidarity,” only for their displays to play out before empty stadiums, as reported by ABC News.
In the first game between the Seahawks and the Falcons, every player on both teams dropped to one knee and held up the racist “black power” fist after the opening kick. They remained in those poses for about 10 seconds before resuming the game. Other mostly meaningless gestures displayed by players included kneeling, locking arms, or being completely absent from the field during the playing of the National Anthem.
Following the displays, several of the players congratulated themselves in various statements to the media, with Atlanta receiver Julio Jones declaring that “collectively, we can move mountains.”
Another example was the Miami Dolphins, whose players released a video announcing that they would stay off the field whenever the National Anthem is played. They claimed that being on the field for the Anthem was a “publicity parade,” even though their actions in deliberately avoiding the Anthem itself is the definition of a publicity stunt. The video also bizarrely claimed that “this attempt to unify only creates more divide,” in reference to the Anthem, and that they would rather “skip the song and dance and…stay inside.”
The flurry of anti-American and anti-police gestures and protests have caused the NFL’s popularity to plummet, resulting in empty stadiums and declining viewership online and on TV. Similar reactions have met other sports leagues that have caved completely to the virtue-signaling on behalf of the far-left group Black Lives Matter, including the NBA and MLB.