It seems as though ESPN has constantly been in the news this past month. The latest issue that has arisen was one of the network's show host Jemele Hill calling out Trump for being a white-supremacist on Twitter. Many viewers of ESPN have already condemned the network for being 'too political'. This has caused ESPN network's president John Skipper to send a memo to employees stating "ESPN is not a political network...ESPN is about sports." Whether viewers see the network as liberal or conservative, there is a common disdain for the inclusion of politics within the network's domain.
Some call this the 'Kaepernick Effect.' When Colin Kaepernick first began protesting by kneeling for the national anthem, NFL broadcast networks felt the effect. NFL ratings plunged by double-digits over the first quarter of the 2016 season. In fact, ratings fell so far that the league's TV networks were forced to provide free commercial time since the promised ratings were not met. This cost the TV networks hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue. NFL programming is the most expensive programming on TV, with CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN paying a combined $5 billion per year for the right to air games through 2021.
Although many factors were driving down TV ratings last season, including the presidential election and the absence of three major quarterbacks (retired Peyton Manning, suspended Tom Brady, and injured Tony Romo), the effects of Kaepernick's protest should not be discounted. A small group of fans who were enraged by Colin's protest urged millions of football fans to #BoycottNFL. Some fans are angry because they see these protests as an insult to police officers, members of the U.S. military and family whose loved ones have died in the line of duty. Others are mad because they feel Kaepernick is politicizing the NFL.
Within the 2017 season, many players and teams have refused to stand on the field for the national anthem. Whether that be kneeling while the song plays or not coming out of the locker room, the protest has spread far and wide within the NFL. However, some players, such as Alejandro Villanueva of the Pittsburgh Steelers, stood for the flag against the wishes of their team. Villanueva's jersey became the highest-selling gear of any player in the NFL the following 24 hours after his standing for the anthem. This decision to stand or kneel for the national anthem has created a sense of division between both the NFL players and the fans themselves.
Politics has become increasingly present within the NFL's narrative. It has even received attention from Donald Trump. Trump responded to the current protests tweeting out: "Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"
With national attention being drawn from the actual game of football, the NFL's commissioner and the teams' owners face a serious choice: do they stand by their players and risk losing a large population of their viewership? or do they reject players' right to freedom of speech and block players from protesting for their beliefs?
Politics has become increasingly present within the NFL's narrative. It has even received attention from Donald Trump. Trump responded to the current protests tweeting out: "Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!"
Trump's tweets on the players' protests caused a sweeping wave of protest and defiance from the league, including those who are usually friendly to President Trump. What had been a modest protest involving Kaepernick and a handful of other players mushroomed to become nation and league wide condemning Trump and his decisiveness. These acts further highlighted the dividing force politics is bringing to the league. What were promoted as acts of unity might have exacerbated a divide and dragged yet another of the country’s institutions into the turbulent cross currents of race and politics.
Fans of teams such as the Eagles were seen yelling at anti-Trump protesters at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia. “I’m a Republican who voted for him, but I think this is a battle he doesn’t need to get into,” said Greg Zaccaria, 61, from White Plains, who said he had been a Jets season-ticket holder since 1978. Yet he objected to the anthem protests, saying, “I understand what they’re trying to get at, I just think there are better ways of expressing yourself.”
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