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- Please no inappropriate usernames (remember that there may be youngsters in the room)
- Personal attacks on other community members are unacceptable, practice the good manners your mama taught you when engaging with fellow Dawg fans
- Use common sense and respect personal differences in the community: sexual and other inappropriate language or imagery, political rants and belittling the opinions of others will get your posts deleted and result in warnings and/ or banning from the forum
- 3/17/19 UPDATE -- We've updated the permissions for our "Football" and "Commit to the G" recruiting message boards. We aim to be the best free board out there and that has not changed. We do now ask that all of you good people register as a member of our forum in order to see the sugar that is falling from our skies, so to speak.
Comments
Btw, thanks to all that served and are serving... May God wrap His arms of protection around you...
I get like 90% of this. But "what ever may come" is an unfair thing to tell someone to accept quietly. Being benched for kneeling is the coach creating more distraction than the player. If you do nothing nobody has to care- you just play ball.
However, the part that I really take issue with is how open ended the "what ever may come" clause really is. There is totally a line of acceptable responses to people exercising free speech, especially in an inoffensive, non-violent manner. I'm all for expressing disapproval, but measures taken by people in a position of authority to silence a reasonable, non-incindiary demonstration would cross the line of acceptable consequences.
Shhmitty, if you bench a kid than you cannot say it is 'your decision' You are creating an impediment to a young formative mind from expressing his or her constitutional rights. Constitutional rights are for minors too.
You assume that anyone not standing is doing it to attract attention. I don't stand and it is not about attracting attention at all, I try to do it as discreetly as possible.
To put your assumptions on me or anyone else who doesn't stand is as unfair as me putting my assumptions on you for what you do. I would give my life for the right to kneel and for the freedoms my ancestors came on the Mayflower to find and that my ancestors fought for in the American Revolution, the same freedoms that I in effect don't have today and that is why I kneel, just to be clear as to why I kneel.
Also, kids cry based on how an adult bullies them and not because of repercussions. If you calmly and matter of factually (even though I strongly disagree with you doing it) bench a kid for exercising his constitutional rights and explain that he has the right to do it, but that you disagree and as the coach, you can't and won't stop him, but you will choose not to play him and if he believes in what he does enough to accept the consequences than that shows his statement in kneeling is done knowing that there is sacrifice than he won't cry. If you yell and shout in front of the whole team that any idiot who doesn't stand for the pledge of allegiance doesn't play on your team, well it wouldn't surprise me if a kid cries.
I realize this post is a bit direct. I also imagine your way of speaking to a kid is not on either of the extremes I used, but the extremes highlight the spectrum of addressing it.
Man I feel as though @shhmitty is getting taken to the cleaners. I agree with him that you should stand if you can do it. I also agree that you should be prepared for repercussions that may come your way. Now I'm not taking about anything violent, or any type of threats, and I don't think he was either. However there is going to be something. As a professional athlete it might be losing sponsors or not getting resigned. Those are the freedoms given to the sponsors and the team owner. As for kids, they also have to eventually learn that everything you do has a consequence. Should it be severe, NO. I admire then for standing up for something they believe in. But that is up to the coach. If parents disagree with it, again that is their right and they can do things differently next year when they volunteer their time to coach.
These consequences are not unprecedented. People get fired from their jobs all the time for posting their opinions/veiws on social media.
With the @shhmitty thing, I'd be fine with just telling the kids they have to stand or they don't play. Then if some kid seems like he's uncomfortable with it, you go and talk to him. And you explain that it's a matter of respect. If the kid insists and is just being bratty, you bench him. If there's some legitimate reason he feels like he or his family has gotten a raw deal from this country, you let him sit for the anthem with no repercussions. If it's some political abstraction he heard about on cable news that has him upset, you tell him "Okay, I respect that. But you gotta accept the consequences for your choices. You'll be sitting right here on this nice comfortable bench during game time. You're free to partake in Gatorade and water just like all the other players if you like. Good luck with getting the support you desire for your protest. For your sake I hope you succeed".
I am a Permanent Resident and I always stand as a mark of respect. I also stand for opponents National Anthems at international events for the same reason. I don't judge others that is up to them, however I strongly objected when the female of the national soccer team refused to stand. I find it totally wrong for someone to get paid for playing any sport for their country regardless of nationality, gender, sexual orientation etc. to then refuse to honor their country. If you want to protest don't play!
I have no problem at all for people making a statement, I encourage it. I think there is a time and place for everything and the football field is not a time to make it. I could go into a long explanation of why I think this way, but I can see from your response it will do no good. We will disagree here, but agree to pull for our dawgs on Saturday.