In every situation there needs to be a voice of reason, and in recent years it appears that everyman TV host Mike Rowe is exactly that.
Whether you agree with President Trump’s assessment of the National Anthem protests, or you sympathize with the stance that some NFL players have taken in the wake of that assessment, Rowe brought up a point that virtually no one is espousing at the moment: We the People are in charge.
In a lengthy Facebook post in response to a fan’s question about Trump’s comments ahead of this past weekend’s docket of NFL games, Rowe addressed the entire National Anthem protest controversy in typical Mike Rowe fashion. In essence, he used common sense.
“Right now, The NFL, the players who choose to kneel, the networks who choose to broadcast their protest, the advertisers who sponsor the games, and the President of the United States, are all eager for our attention,” Rowe wrote. “And they are all using football to get it.”
We know that people who politicize every sphere of society do it to acquire some kind of power or control. As Rowe pointed out, football is merely the current vehicle for that power grab. The rest of us get bogged down with all the different power plays that we sometimes forget that we are ultimately the ones with the most power.
Rowe then brought up an interesting point that sidesteps all of the division currently splitting the nation in two.
“In my view, this controversy really isn’t about patriotism, social justice, racial inequality, or free speech. It’s not even about the flag or the national anthem,” Rowe said. “It’s really only about one thing – what we will tolerate, and what we won’t."
I was disappointed last night, to hear President Trump encourage owners to fire players who refuse to stand for the anthem. Not because I dispute the owners right to do so, and not because I would grieve the dismissal of anyone who chooses to disrespect our flag.
I was disappointed because the President’s comments presuppose that the owners are in charge of the game. They’re not. We are. We decide what to watch, and that decision - far more than any other consideration - will determine the what the owners choose to do. And that in turn will affect what the players choose to do.
Rowe is absolutely, positively 100 percent correct. You don’t like players kneeling? Change the channel. You don’t like what Trump has to say? Unfollow him on Twitter. It works both ways, but the end result is that the people have the power, no matter the current situation. We’ve just forgotten that.
Rowe closed with the following:
The fans of professional football are not powerless – we're just not yet offended enough to turn the channel. Should that ever change in a meaningful way – if for instance, a percentage of football fans relative to those players who chose to kneel during today’s games, chose to watch something else next Sunday – I can assure you...the matter would be resolved by Monday.
He’s right. At the end of the day, football is a business. Much like any business, they answer to the almighty dollar. If those dollars stop flowing in, changes will be made in order to reacquire the dollars that keep the players kneeling employed.
For Rowe's full comments, see below:
