With Super Bowl LII fast-approaching, many football fans are making preparations for the annual spectacle. “Big Game” sales on big screen televisions are showing up in all the local big box and electronics stores. The NFL’s marquee event is kind of a big deal.
Uncles around the nation are dusting off those trusty BBQ-certified leather sandals and cleaning off the grill. The demand for pizza and wings, chips and dip and football-shaped confections are through the roof.
Corporations are going crazy for the matchup between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles also, shelling out north of $5 million for a 30-second ad spot.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Adam Schwartz, director of national broadcast for Horizon Media, expects the Super Bowl LII audience to drop approximately five percent this year. That will still amount to well over 100 million viewers tuning in to see whether the Eagles defense can contain Tom Brady and company.
However, that expected five percent decline will include two groups of people who have decided to boycott the NFL over vastly different reasons. These boycotts surround the kneeling protest of police brutality started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The anti-Kaepernick community consists of mostly conservative Caucasians who completely disregarded the stated reasons for Kaepernick’s protest. Instead, they view the actions as disrespectful to military veterans. The group includes the American Veterans (AMVETS) organization.
According to USA Today, AMVETS submitted an ad with soldiers carrying a large flag with the message, “#PLEASESTAND.” The NFL rejected the ad, citing the long-standing policy that the league does not accept political ads for the Super Bowl. The league suggested some other tag lines for the advertisement, but AMVETS rejected those suggestions and began calling for a boycott.
The other side of the coin features people who have decided to boycott the NFL over the league’s treatment of Kaepernick. Many people believe that Kaepernick, who could not land a NFL job this season, was blackballed by NFL owners for taking a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner.
Full disclosure, I am in the pro-Kaepernick camp. I originally began my own private boycott of the NFL when Stan Kroenke decided that the Rams were going back to Cali. As the feelings of dejection subsided, last year’s Super Bowl was the first NFL game I watched since the Rams skipped town. Once NFL owners played Kaepernick to the left though, I went back into full boycott mode.
Another pro-Kaepernick boycotter is BET News and CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill. Despite being a Philadelphia native and a die-hard Eagles fan, Hill has stood strong on his decision not to watch the NFL, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Hill was asked whether his boycott would continue for the Super Bowl even though his beloved Eagles are vying for a championship.
“Absolutely,” he responded. “It wouldn’t be a protest if I only did it when it was easy. It’d be like a hunger strike right after you’ve eaten. Now is the test.”
XFL to return
Another potential test looms for the NFL in 2020. WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon announced plans to relaunch the XFL. Of course, the XFL would not be a direct competitor for the NFL as it is likely to play its games during the NFL’s offseason. However, it’s very likely that the league will attempt to recruit players and coaches from the shield.
While some football and wrestling fans are excited about XFL 2.0 (despite the fact that the original league was an abysmal failure), it appears that McMahon is targeting his league to a specific beige khaki- and white polo-wearing audience.
“As far as our league is concerned, it will have nothing to do with politics. Absolutely nothing,” McMahon stated on a conference call. “And nothing to do with social issues either. We’re there to play football. We want really good football and I think that’s what fans want. When they tune in, I don’t think they want to be dealing with political issues.”
Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina asked McMahon whether Kaepernick, Tim Tebow or Johnny Manziel would be invited to play in the XFT reboot.
“One of the things, when I said the quality of the human being is very important—and just as important as the quality of the player, what I mean by that is, you want someone who does not have any criminality whatsoever associated with them,” he said. “And in the XFL, even if you have a DUI, you will not play in the XFL so that would probably eliminate some, but not all of them. If Tim Tebow wants to play, he could very well play.”
Note in McMahon’s response that only Tebow, the clean-cut, white, Christian player was mentioned by name. Manziel, who is also white, was seemingly disqualified as he’s had numerous run-ins with the law. A reasonable person might interpret that McMahon was inferring that Kaepernick, who has no criminal history, might not qualify under the political and “quality of the human being” standards.
It seems like Kaepernick, who was named GQ’s Citizen of the Year, was a finalist for the TIME Person of the Year award and received the ACLU’s Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award would be the perfect stand-up guy for the XFL’s lofty character standards. But I have a hunch that the man who started the kneeling movement won’t be welcome the league that has the apparent goal of making professional football great again.
There’s no word yet on whether Charlottesville will field an XFL team.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
