Protesting President Trump’s condemnation of NFL athletes who kneel during the national anthem, on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers remained in their dressing room as the national anthem was played. That is, except for Alejandro Villanueva, who recognized the nation is more than one man.
Still, it’s a shame the other Steelers showed such ignorance.
Don’t get me wrong, I disagree with Trump’s decision to inject himself into the kneeling controversy. Whatever his intentions, the president’s words will only foster greater division.
Yet two wrongs don’t make a right, and that’s exactly what the Steelers did by staying in the dressing room. Explaining the team’s decision, coach Mike Tomlin stated that “We’re not going to let divisive times or divisive individuals affect our agenda … we’re not going to play politics with football players, with football coaches, we’re not going to be participating in the anthem today.”
Those words are delusional. When you say “we’re not going to play politics with football players,” but then boycott the national anthem in support of a political protest, you’re most certainly playing politics. But the central issue here is not that Tomlin’s confusion, but rather the affront to the nation that this boycott represented. Whatever the Steelers organization might think, their action is not an affront to Trump, but to the republic that the anthem heralds and the flag represents.
And in terms of political order, Trump and the nation are very distinct things. Trump is the elected, temporary leader of the nation, but the Constitution and its careful balancing of powers represent the nation’s political identity. This is what separates America from many other nations, both democratic and authoritarian, where the leader and the nation are symbiotic. In Britain, for example, the ruling monarch is both the head of state and the embodiment of the nation. That’s why the current U.K. national anthem is “God Save the Queen” (it will be “God Save the King”, when the Dolphin takes over) and why, during the national anthem, British Army regiments lower their flag to the Queen’s feet. The Queen is the British nation.
Trump is not the American nation.
When the Steelers boycotted the anthem, they weren’t ultimately rebuking Trump, they were rebuking the nation and the heritage of those, like Alejandro Villanueva and Jesse Brown, who fight and die to ensure our flag is always still there. Athletes like any other citizen have the right to protest, but in what they did on Sunday, the Steelers embodied a sad ignorance.
