On an NFL Sunday filled with protests against the American flag and national anthem, the most indelible image might have been former Army Ranger and Pittsburgh Steelers Offensive Lineman Alejandro Villanueva.
The Army Ranger veteran stood alone with his hand over his heart. His team could not agree on a unified means of demonstration — stand, kneel, or sit — so they opted to remain in the locker room. The team’s leadership, however, was willing to make an exception for Villanueva, given his past military service which included three tours in Afghanistan.
In the debate over national anthem protests — or others involving patriotic expression — we often treat the military as a protected class. As a veteran, I’m reflexively inclined to embrace the designation. After all, my brothers and sisters — with American flags stitched to their arms or draped over their caskets — fought and died to protect our freedoms and ideals. They are the Churchillian few that have done so much for so many. Who would want to offend them?
But what happens when a benefactor appreciates his gift more than the beneficiary does? If we truly value the service the military provides, then everyone should be equally protective of the institutional and symbolic expressions of that service.
Proponents of the protests would counter that one of America’s greatest institutions is our right to free speech. Waving the flag and singing our songs are collective expressions of national pride. But they’re entirely voluntary. If someone refuses to participate due to their feelings about racial inequality or presidential bombast, they are free to do so. Unity under the banner of individualism has always been the great American paradox.
Still, how the players have chosen to express themselves is undoubtedly telling. They aren’t wearing “Black Lives Matter” wristbands or other protest paraphernalia. That would be in violation of the NFL’s “Uniform Conduct Policy” and incur a hefty fine.
In 21st-century America, we eschew any institution as soon as it becomes inconvenient to us. On his radio show “Mike and Mike,” ESPN commentator Michael Greenberg defended the protestors by declaring that freedom means each individual having the ability to “create the America of our own choosing.” We normally choose our self-interest and pocket books, not principles and ideals.
When the individual is the unquestioned sovereign, we might imagine a pregame ritual where every player and fan stands one-by-one to sing their own personal anthem. But then, TV sponsors would surely loathe such a time suck.
It’s easy to dismiss the players as petulant millionaires denigrating the very institutions that afforded them the path to their fortunes. But they simply do not think about these things. The America for which the anthem and the flag stand — or did stand — is not that important. There’s no grievance too small to tear the whole thing down.
When viewed this way, the players’ actions are not protests; they’re merely an exhibition of self-absorption. They claim to be resisting President Trump or speaking out against police brutality, but they have risked nothing for either cause. And they have made very few attempts to change any injustice — real or imagined. Thus, the demonstrations, as risible as they may be, should also be too meaningless and facile to elicit our rage.
The only remaining question is whether the NFL is still a useful institution to the consuming public. It’s been said that football is the athletic manifestation of America’s 20th Century ethos. In the age of the military-industrial complex, football — a violent game where individuals subordinate themselves to grand strategic plans and factory-like specialization — blew past more pastoral sports like baseball to become our undisputed national pastime.
In the 21st century, none of that really resonates. We only play if we’re making too much money to avoid it. And we only watch if the spectacle is too much fun to resist.
Even if we didn’t spend much of this century disabusing ourselves of supposedly outmoded ideas, football — insofar as it was wedded to our culture — was never more than expression of something more intrinsic. We were conveying something that everyone already believed to be true — that ours is a great country because of the ideals we aspire to uphold. As a veteran of the Army and the war in Afghanistan, I submit to you that this shared belief is the only institution that has ever really mattered. Football and the NFL do not exist without everything the flag represents.
Because of that, I will not support players or anyone else that decides to #takeaknee. But it’s not worth my condemnation, either. I simply will not watch.
Jack King is a former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer and graduate of Cambridge Judge Business School. He currently works as a consultant in the Washington D.C. area.
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