SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

What do the NFL players want to see happen?

Sep 26, 2017, 4:59 PM

national anthem, NFL...

The Seahawks elected not to participate in the national anthem on Sunday. (File, Associated Press)

(File, Associated Press)

A military friend of mine said that Trump’s comments on the NFL were the words of a commander in chief speaking on behalf of his troops. My friend went on to say that the media doesn’t understand the troops and that they think that they only signed up to the military for college money.

Photos: NFL reacts to President Trump’s national anthem remarks

Now, I don’t like presidents getting involved in these kinds of issues. The president is not the answer to everything and he is not the barometer on the NFL. The president is our employee.

My military friend says that the National Anthem is for the entire nation, including babies just born. It is not just for the troops, it is an opportunity to celebrate a nation where everyone is free to do what they want, which includes putting a fist in the air. But people are also free to disassociate themselves from the NFL.

And you are not able to make these kinds of protests in many other countries.

I want to hear specifics from the people who are protesting. I want to know what they want changed. People feel that the flag has been disrespected, so, for a lot of people, the conversation has been shut down.

Pete Carroll: Seahawks’ demonstration was ‘for the flag,’ not against it

We need to have real dialogue and real discussion on data that we can all agree on. People have taken knees and put fists in the air before and there may have been a bit of evolution but not revolution.

The knee is not going to do anything. The media is already polarized. The conversation has not happened yet.

As always, please listen to the full audio clip for complete context.

Algeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Attaf addresses the 81st session of the United Nations ...

Associated Press

We’re in this together, Earth’s leaders told each other at the UN. But how does that work, exactly?

NEW YORK (AP) — There is doom. There is gloom. There is mistrust. There is insistence upon shared power and the prevention of political and military bullying. And there is a growing cry for permanent seats at the table of power — for island nations threatened by climate change and, more than anything, for Africa. […]

33 minutes ago

President Donald Trump listens as North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley s...

Associated Press

GOP doubts about Georgia and North Carolina have Republicans shifting focus in battle for Senate

ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans once saw Georgia and North Carolina as promising pieces of their strategy to keep control of the Senate. But hopes of winning the two states have been fading, and the GOP is increasingly focused on playing defense elsewhere with five weeks until the midterm elections. Republicans haven’t abandoned the Southern battlegrounds, […]

36 minutes ago

Cassie Reed, center, sits for a photograph with her son Kian Reed, left, and daughter Evie Reed out...

Associated Press

Head Start preschools serve parents, too. Under Trump, advocates fear that will change

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cassie Reed and her two young children had just moved from a domestic violence shelter into a third-floor apartment in Spokane, Washington, when she spotted a soon-to-open Head Start preschool on the building’s ground floor. Much of Reed’s first three decades of life had been shaped by abuse and neglect: first, she […]

38 minutes ago

The flags of Canada and the United States fly over a stadium in Ottawa, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026. (...

Associated Press

From motorcycles to booze, US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian imports goes into effect

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles. The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of a two-way annual trade […]

38 minutes ago

Defendant Lindsay Clancy looks at the jury after Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Clan...

Associated Press

Lindsay Clancy set to return to court for first time since murder trial ended with deadlocked jury

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Lindsay Clancy is set to return to court Tuesday for a hearing that could help decide whether she will face a second trial in the killings of her three children. It will be Clancy’s first return to the courthouse since her first trial ended Sept. 4 with a deadlocked jury. A […]

39 minutes ago

FILE - Law enforcement vehicles sit parked outside the Florida state prison in Starke, Fla., on Tue...

Associated Press

Florida is set to execute a 77-year-old man convicted of a 1995 murder

MIAMI (AP) — A 77-year-old Florida man convicted of beating a woman to death with a hammer is scheduled Tuesday to become the 16th person executed this year in the nation’s busiest death chamber. Curtis Wilkie Beasley was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft auto in a 1995 […]

39 minutes ago

What do the NFL players want to see happen?