Why the NFL national anthem protests now more resemble a Hollywood awards show

OK, so now I’m lost.

We’re at a point where the national anthem at every NFL game has become an event. Whether it’s aired live or not, every highlight show has been forced to include clips of what happened during the “Star Spangled Banner” at every pro football venue hosting a game each week.

What’s next? Are we going to have a red carpet-esque show similar to what E! does before the major entertainment award shows?

Can you imagine tuning in to Sunday NFL Countdown and seeing Samantha Ponder, Randy Moss, Matt Hasselbeck, Charles Woodson and Rex Ryan each week do a roundtable in which they speculate on what players and teams will do during the anthem in similar fashion to when E! hosts gush over who is wearing what to the awards shows?

Man, what a spectacle it would be. Oh wait, they pretty much are already doing that.

But as lost as I am to where this whole thing is going, similarly missing seems to be the point of the anthem protests.

Remember Colin Kaepernick?

Yeah, he’s the guy who started this whole thing, and he did so to bring attention to what he believed to be racially charged police brutality.

So as we all look on with curiosity – and don’t kid me, not that many of you have tuned out of the NFL because of the protests! – is the message still the same?

Some are taking a knee, some are locking arms, some are holding up a fist and others are staying in the locker room. Some protests now come before the national anthem rather than during it. Some have included owners – the same ones whose teams chose not to sign Kaepernick in fear that it would cause boycotts and lost revenue.

Just last week President Donald Trump got involved, sharing his displeasure with the protests in an abrasive manner that only he can execute in under 140 characters.

That only upped the ante.

It’s gotten so out of control that Sports Illustrated on Sunday had a live anthem tracker going.

So now are we protesting prejudiced police brutality, the president or simply sharing our displeasure with politics in this country? Or are we now all standing united?

I’m sure it’s a little bit of each. Therefore, the original message is getting lost.

The question now is – have we gotten anywhere with all of this?

Two weeks ago I would have said yes. Now? Not so much.

I first chimed in on this subject when I gave the opinion that Kaepernick should be on a team. He’s good enough (check the stats) and he’s not the worst distraction in a league littered with domestic abusers and repeat criminals.

Yet now we are faced with owners who contradict themselves when they join the players in the protests that they themselves were so afraid of. Not one of those teams has signed Kaepernick despite the fact there’s some really bad quarterbacks currently employed.

Has racially charged police brutality gotten any better? Who knows? You seldom hear anything about that.

Are we more unified as a people? Nope. The teams may be more unified with the locking of arms, but this whole thing originally had nothing to do with locker rooms that were separated by politics.

From the get go I supported Kaepernick because he was enacting his right to protest – whether you or I liked it or not. I still stand by that notion.

But what this has evolved into is something different. The NFL pregame has become a political stage similar to the ones on display at entertainment awards shows, and that’s not a good thing.

The same reason many folks change the channel when those shows come on – you know, when you have to hear millionaires and billionaires share their political views and tell us how things should be, overshadowing their work – is the same rationale that has some folks either turning off the NFL or considering it.

It’s time to just get back to football.

This story was originally published October 2, 2017 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Why the NFL national anthem protests now more resemble a Hollywood awards show."