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The Honest Truth Behind the NFL's National Anthem Policy

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This is the honest truth about the NFL's new national anthem policy.

The NFL, the owners and the vast majority of NFL fans don’t care why players kneel during the anthem. The issue of police brutality is simply not something that resonates with or impacts the NFL's top target demographic of white males between 18 and 49.

The league and owners do care that most of the fans who did boycott the league and cause numbers to drop in 2017 did so because they didn’t like players kneeling during them anthem.

Yes, some of these same fans bought food and beer in the concourses during the anthem. These fans buy and wear merchandise with the U.S. flag on it or instrumental in the design of the product -- both violations of the flag code -- sold by the NFL.

The NFL teams and fans don’t care that you point out that hypocrisy.

What most of them do care about is that everyone in the stands or on the field is standing and honoring the flag during the national anthem.

It’s that simple.

I am an active duty member of the U.S. military. I do not think any American should be forced to stand during the anthem. And right now, nobody is being forced to do so.

Instead, a private employer is executing its right to enforce standards of behavior within its workplace -- regardless of whether or not you think it's right. The NFL is not violating a single law.

I also believe that private employers have the ability to set rules for their organizations that do not violate laws. They can demand you wear a blue shirt. They can demand you wear sandals. They can demand you not protest on their time.

Again -- simple.

And let's not forget, the NFL Players Union is free to strike if they feel this is a violation of their collective bargaining agreement. That's one of the reasons that you unionize. But they won't -- not for this -- because their paychecks are bigger to them and their families than a cause.

The NFL’s new policy of asking players on the field to stand during the anthem is a risk-reward financial move. Despite what you believe to be right or wrong, the NFL is banking on the idea that more people will boycott the sport if they see people kneeling than the number of people who will boycott as a result of this policy. And there's a good chance they're correct.

This is not about right or wrong. This is not about justice. This is not about your personal views in the theater of social justice. This about about the law and the freedom of private businesses in America to make decisions that impact their own perception and bottom line and allowing the public to freely adapt their patronage to those decisions.

That's how capitalism works. That's how America works. That’s the story.

The majority, the money and the law rules in this country. They have always ruled and will always rule.

You can accept that, navigate your own own path through life around it and live your own pursuit of happiness based on it, or you can complain, rebel or move to another country.

Those are the options of every American citizen.

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