Multiple Florida police unions pushed back against the NFL and the Miami Dolphins following the Dolphins' preseason game last Thursday against the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Broward County Police Benevolent Association (BCPBA) called on its members, as well as the Dade County and Palm Beach County PBAs, to “no longer participate” in a Dolphins ticket program that offers discounts to the police unions members.
Here’s the BCPBA’s Facebook post concerning the call to not attend Dolphins games:
The call to not attend Dolphins game by the BCPBA came after two Dolphins players, wide receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson, took a knee during the national anthem of their first preseason game of the 2018 NFL season.
BCPBA Vice President Rod Skivin expanded on his union’s call to return tickets, request a refund and not participate in the Dolphins ticket-discount program.
“This is a league that punishes players for writing on their cleats, and they’re not going to punish players who won’t stand for the national anthem?” Skirvin said, according to the Washington Examiner. “You’ve got to be kidding me. So we told our members, return your tickets, don’t buy their merchandise.”
The call to boycott the Dolphins ticket-discount program — and the Dolphins in general — makes sense considering the unions entered the program under the impression that the Dolphins organization would require their players to stand. The Dolphins obviously went back on that agreement, so the police unions are more than justified to take their entertainment dollars elsewhere until there is a concrete stance taken by either the Dolphins or the NFL.
"It’s a slap in the face,” Skirvin told the Miami Herald. “We have a lot of police officers in the county who are ex-military. It’s not just a slap in the face to our military — past and present— but to all law enforcement officers across the country. As long as the protest continues, we will protest our attendance at the Dolphins games and continue to stay away from the NFL and its products."
The NFL has waffled on their national anthem policy this year. The league announced in May that they would require all players on the field to stand during the anthem. Those that didn’t want to stand during the anthem could stay in the locker room.
Two months later, the NFL backpedaled on their initial decision and suspended the policy until the league and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) could come to some sort of understanding.