Trump Critiques Football in the Name of Politics

     This week politics has crossed over from the white house to the sports field. Politics have started to infiltrate sports: especially football. The Washington Post wrote an article about how recently, several football teams have taken a knee during the national anthem. The president has told the American people that it was disrespectful to do such a thing despite the amendment right to do so. In the article he says, “That’s a total disrespect of our heritage. That’s a total disrespect of everything that we stand for. Okay? And I know we have freedoms, and we have freedom of choice and many, many different freedoms, but you know what? It’s still totally disrespectful.” The Washington Post then talks about how football has increasingly become more and more diverse and that athletes feel as though Trump is silencing their rights as well as taking them away. Should athletes have the right to voice political views? Should people perform outside of their designated roles in america?

     Trump often ridicules athletes for performing outside of their roles. Often times when people step outside their roles they are chastised or shown repercussions. Roles are a set of standards that outline how people should behave in a social position. Let’s first define the role of a football player. Football players play football, recieve interviews, have practices and most importantly avoid politics. The other role that a football player has is being an american citizen. American citizens have pride in their country and often show that pride by standing during the pledge of allegiance. That’s a norm that anyone who is an american citizen follows. Trump criticizes players when they perform outside their roles but is it possible that Trump is performing outside his presidential role by chastising them?  As a president he should worry more about the states of the United States as suppose to sports. The president fails to recognize that as people we have other roles to fill such as mother, father, brother and so forth. The reason the football players kneel is because they recognize their families and friends are in danger especially if they are a person of color. They also are not given the same rights they should be given as an american citizen.  

     In the same light, many people judge these football players based on assumptions and their own inner biases. Trump views these football players as disrespectful when they kneel instead of stand during the national anthem. This can be somewhat explained by the fundamental attribution error. The fundamental attribution error can be defined as the propensity to explain someone’s behavior by attributing a cause to his/her behavior. We either attribute it to dispositional aspects or situational aspects. The negative behavior according to Trump is the football players kneeling during the national anthem. The dispositional attribution is that they are being disrespectful to this country. This makes Trump and other americans believe that they are being disrespectful and that they behavior is linked to their personality. The football players view their behavior differently by looking at the situation attributions: racial tension is building, they have been treated unfairly or racially in america, and that they haven’t been given the same opportunities and rights as the typical white American. The football players believe that they are exercising their rights as americans.

NFL team owners blast Trump in solidarity with players’ protests

President Donald Trump continued his Twitter war with the National Football League on Saturday, this time taking aim at Commissioner Roger Goodell for permitting players to protest by kneeling during the national anthem.

 

Li, D. K. (2017). NFL team owners blast Trump in solidarity with players’ protests. Retrieved from https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/170925-nfl-protest-trump-feature.jpg?quality=90&strip=all

Scott, E. (2017). Analysis | Trump’s problem isn’t with athletes being political. It’s with athletes speaking out against racism.. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/25/trumps-problem-isnt-with-athletes-being-political-its-with-athletes-speaking-out-against-racism/?utm_term=.62a9684afd8b [Accessed 27 Sep. 2017].

Zilber, A. (2017). President Donald Trump continued his Twitter war with the National Football League on Saturday, this time taking aim at Commissioner Roger Goodell for permitting players to protest by kneeling during the national anthem. Retreived from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4914090/Bruce-Maxwell-baseball-player-knee.html#ixzz4ttGFV8mY Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook. Retrieved from http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/09/24/04/44A52F0200000578-4914090-President_Donald_Trump_continued_his_Twitter_war_with_the_Nation-a-6_1506225216291.jpg

Kendra L.

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