In an ESPN.com story that will also run in ESPN The Magazine Oct. 30, resident liberal Howard Bryant says NFL flag/anthem protesters have succeeded in the tactical decision to center their grievances against police brutality around the American flag. But they have lost the language battle and allowed themselves to be labeled as “traitors.”
Bryant writes: “The players have gotten the attention of a public largely unused to political demands from athletes; of owners who now resort to collusion and intimidation to counter the rising power of players and the perceived threat to their business model; and of a president who brands his disregard for the first stop in the Bill of Rights with a hashtag, #StandForOurAnthem.”
The field-position battle of language, Bryant writes, is where America’s most contentious social struggles have been fought. And here’s where the defiant players have lost and lost badly. He says these players have gotten the world’s attention, but when it comes to articulating injustice to the public, the “players’ captive audience is watching them lose not just badly but Cleveland Browns badly” – READ MORE
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