Addendum to previous post:
The NFL, it should be noted, management, is not protesting because it supports players’ right to express their political views through the game. Management protests expressed over the past few days are about the president calling upon fans to act in ways that would hurt team and league profits. If the president had only taken aim at Colin Rand Kaepernick, the league and team owners would have done nothing to defend him or the other players who supported and emulated Kaepernick’s kneeling. A good number of those involved NFL management, a good number of team owners, are Trump supporters, many having shown up at Trump rallies and several having given him hefty donations to support his candidacy.
Of course league management and team owners were upset by Trump’s call to fire players involved in protest! They are the characters who draw people to the play, they are the stars whose performance people come to see, tune in their TV sets to watch. Their politics are irrelevant as long as they are innocuous, innocuous to their drawing power. If fans, as Trump said, were causing people to not watch the games, not buy the products that advertisers pay the league sell, then those players would likely be gotten rid of someway. Interference with political views has nothing to do with owner/league outrage at the president. It has everything to do with money.