Houston Texans avoiding free agents who protested during national anthem: report

As a Stanford University Law School graduate in constitutional law, I would argue that I may know more about constitutional law.

 

Well I simply ain't buying the "official" Texans' PR because this is totally in Clueless Bob's wheelhouse to do something so stupid. And despite Jerome Solomon's protestations to the contrary, I see the Texans organization taking on a decidedly "alt-right" stiench thanks to Bob who's decided this is a good time to channel Bud Adam's dumbassery.

 

I think if the owners and league officials stop talking about the protest, the talks about the protest will go away. I fully support an American citizen’s 1st amendment right to peacefully protest to get their message across and as an African American man I understood and agreed with the message. The message was put out there by the players and while progress is slow, there has been progress. Most players have mentioned that they prob won’t protest anymore, but owners and the right side of the media keep bringing it up. While I agree with the message, if they let it die it will die.

I also don’t agree with Bob McNair refusing to sign players simply because they protest. The pressure is on for him to start winning, I don’t think he compromises that for anything else sans a felon at this point.

 

Now they have to sign Malcolm Butler to prove this report wrong.

 

Judging by the content of your posts, I'd say it's more likely you aren't a graduate of anything.

 

#SellTheTeamBob

 

Why are we still talking about this fake news?

 

As a graduate from Northwestern School of Law I would argue that you don’t know your head from your ass if you believe the NFL protests last year are even remotely unconstitutional.

 

As somebody who does not give a **** where you went to college, I would argue that you can go **** yourself.

 

As someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, seriously, why are we still commenting about this fake news?

 

Everyone I have ever met that went to Stanford makes it their top priority to let you know they went to Stanford.

 

Yep.

 

As a person with a functioning brain, but who (thankfully) is neither a lawyer nor attended any law school (but who, full disclosure, has lawyers all throughout his immediate family), I would like to weigh in on this 'issue'.

Anyone who says that this kneeling thing is a matter of 'Free Speech' is completely ignorant of the meaning of 'The Right of Free Speech', as outlined in the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

That's it. The CONGRESS will not make LAWS prohibiting the exercise of free speech, or the right to free assembly, or the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

THAT IS IT.

The 'freedom of speech' phrase which people throw around has ZERO to do with workplace rules put in place by an employer. It just doesn't. Think about your own job. Can you just suddenly decide to stand in the middle of your workplace, during work hours, and 'exercise your right of free speech' to say or do whatever you please? No, of course not. That 's not a legally protected activity. On your own time, sure. But at work, no. You do not have the 'right' to do that, no matter how many vapid people on TV tell you that you do.

The NFL is perfectly within its rights to require certain behaviors as a condition of continued employment. Owners of teams are perfectly within their rights to hire anyone they choose, for any reason they choose; likewise, they are within their rights to NOT hire who they choose (with the obvious limitations of illegal discrimination, of course, and which does not apply in this issue anyway).

The only REAL limitations they have is how their income if affected by all of this, either positively or negatively. And there is no doubt at all that these 'protests' have done serious substantial harm to the league. Currently, the league is so hyper-sensitive to anything it perceives as 'bad PR' that they are willing to cave on almost every 'hot button' issue, to the point of ridiculous draconian over-reactions (as in the case of Elliot last year), to absolutely bending over backwards to accommodate these 'national anthem protests'. They just don't seem to understand that the people giving them 'bad PR' are not their fans anyway. The FANS - you know, the people who spend money on the NFL - on the whole do NOT like nor want these protests in their football-viewing experience.

If the league does not do something other than what it has done to date about this, it will continue to hemorrhage viewers and fans, and could genuinely be in serious jeopardy. It's time for these owners to say to the players, 'If you would like to continue earning these millions of dollars you are being paid to play a game for the purpose of entertaining our customers, then you are required to follow our rules. And those rules include standing during the National Anthem. If you do not wish to follow our rules, then you are perfectly free to return a pro-rated portion of your signing bonuses and go find employment elsewhere.'

They can protest and be socially conscious and active all they want when they are not 'on the clock', so to speak. Absolutely no one has interfered with any player's 'right to free speech'. Because Congress has made no law doing so. It's that simple.

Here's what I would like to see happen: I would love for every fan in the stadiums to stand during the anthem, and watch to see what the players will do. If any player decides to kneel during the anthem, I would love for every fan in attendance to turn their backs on the players, facing away from them, and not looking at them at all until after the anthem is over, just looking at a flag elsewhere in the stadium, as they are all over the place. No need at all to be forced to even see the players during the anthem. Just don't look at them, don't give them any attention at all. That would be a great thing to see. If the players can protest all they want without limitations, then so can the fans.

Now just to be clear, I am offering no opinion one way or another about whatever issues the players are protesting ABOUT. I am strictly and narrowly talking about erroneously using 'freedom of speech' as a weapon to bludgeon and bully others. It's wrong, it's done out of ignorance, and it needs to stop.

Anyway, that's yet another $0.02 .

 

Not sure if you're addressing anyone in particular, but I did not say that the constitution gives freedom of speech. In fact, I said there could be consequences for kneeling. My point was that it is not traitorous to protest just because someone doesn't agree with the manner of the protest.

 

Nope, not addressed to anyone here at all, more generally at the media and talking heads who clearly don't understand what they are talking about.

 

A whole bunch of the logic I see regarding the belief that the NFL can unilaterally impose workplace rules because that's how they do it where they work fails to take into account that NFL players operate as a union and the owners' ability to institute new rules is limited by the collective bargaining agreement. This is why Rodger Goodell had to wait for the old CBA to expire in order to get his "judge/jury/executioner" powers over player off-field conduct. The NFLPA had to agree to it.

I've never read the document, but if they could just institute a new rule to force the players to stand, they would have done so by now.

Unions and organized labor FTW.

 

What does this have to do with freedom of speech?

Employer across all sorts of industries regularly terminate or decide not to hire based on things people say or do that is not strictly job related.

 

I agree with this 100%. If the Texans decide they won't hire players that express themselves or stand up to discrimination that's their right.

I also think that the choice should be made completely public and the team should not complain about the backlash. Companies get Boycotted for less so we'll see how this affects the Texans brand worldwide.

I expect this issue to dog the franchise when it comes to national and global sponsors soon. I'm looking forward to the McNair family response.

 

Pretty much this.

Now, if it some how violates the collective bargaining agreement, then that's between the Texans and the players union, and I'm sure they'll sort out whatever needs sorting.

This kind of stuff happens all the time, private employers are and should be free to make these sorts of business decisions, the public is free to react how they see fit, and employees (players) are free to not work for a company (NFL team) they don't want to.... it's just business.