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azcentral sports’ Jay Dieffenbach and Kent Somers discuss the Monday Night Football game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys.
EJ Montini: The Cowboys took a knee before the anthem was played or the flag was unfurled, so…
Prior to the playing of the national anthem and prior to the unveiling of the big American flag that was stretched across the field, the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night walked out onto the field at the University of Phoenix Stadium, locked arms and took a knee.
And fans in Glendale booed.
But … at what?
What offended fans so much?
The anthem was not playing, so no one could say the Cowboys were disrespecting the anthem.
The flag had not been unfurled, so no one could say they were disrespecting the flag.
The team later said that the idea of the gesture was to show the need for unity and equality.
Are fans in Arizona really going to boo that?
Or did fans come to the stadium with the idea they were going to be offended by something, anything, and they were going to boo something or somebody no matter what?
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after the game explained the team’s actions this way.
The statement was a ‘need for unity’
He said, “I’m proud of this team and the coaches who coached them. We all agreed that our players wanted to make a statement about unity and statement about equality. They were easily … very much aware that that statement, when made, or attempted to be made in and a part of the recognition of our flag can not only lead to criticism but also controversy.
“It was real easy for everybody in our organization to see that the message of unity, the message of equality, was getting well pushed aside or diminished by the controversy, and the circumstances that it was being made into a controversy. So that, to their credit, the entire players, coaching staff, our organization … it was planned that we could go out and kneel … and make the statement that there was a need for unity and a need for equality.
“Then we immediately turned around, stood up and walked over to the sideline, and that big American flag that came down that field, and we all stood and … recognized and respected the American flag and the national anthem.”
So, again, what were people booing?
It’s your right to boo them, but …
Fans in the stadium who are sticklers about respecting the flag actually did have something they could have booed.
It happened when that gigantic flag was stretched across the field.
According to the United States Flag Code, Chapter 10.176C: The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
Never horizontally.
Hmmm …
People are all worked up about President Trump’s rants about football players who have taken a knee during the anthem as a form of silent protest.
It’s OK not to like that.
It is our Constitutional right of free speech to boo a football player or an entire team for any reason we like. Or for no apparent reason. Which seems to be what happened Monday in Glendale.
But if it is our right to boo them, it is their right to take a knee.
The difference on Monday night is that the Cowboys were trying to made a statement in favor of unity and equality.
While fans in the stadium meant to say … what?
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