Trump’s decency takes a knee
I’ve never been invited to the White House.
I doubt if I ever will be.
If asked, though, I’ll decline the invitation, anyway.
So there!
I’m not unlike a growing number of athletes who’ve announced they don’t want to go there while Donald Trump is the president.
Ever since Calvin Coolidge hosted the 1924 World Series champs – the Washington Senators – at the White House, presidents have all basked in the glow of America’s latest sports heroes.
That’s changed since Mr. Trump has occupied the place.
Oh, several members of championship teams didn’t show up for the ceremonies honoring them during the eight years of the Obama presidency.
But last year, quite a few members of the Super Bowl winning New England Patriots backed out, including their superstar quarterback Tom Brady.
The South Carolina women’s basketball team and the North Carolina men’s basketball team both declined their invitations after they won their respective NCAA championships.
Then, after members of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors announced they weren’t excited about showing up, and being glad-handed by Trump, he decided not to invite the team.
Now there’s this business about Trump “disinviting” the Philadelphia Eagles from their visit to the White House.
It was reported that fewer than 10 players would have shown up for the event.
And there was a report on the NFL Network that only one player – quarterback Nick Foles – would have been the Eagles’ lone representative.
Imagine that.
So, Trump did what he always does when he feels that he could be about to get embarrassed.
He attacked first.
“We canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry,” he wrote in his announcement.
Problem is, no Philadelphia Eagle had taken a knee during the playing of the National Anthem.
And the bigger problem is that the Eagles never stayed in the locker room either. That was the Pittsburgh Steelers.
(I’m wondering if he knows the difference between the Steelers and the Eagles. He should know the difference between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia since he went to college in one of those cities. But you never know)
Later in the day, his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused the Eagles of staging “a political stunt.”
That’s rich.
It was Sanders’ boss who created “a political stunt” out of thin air last September.
At a rally in Alabama, Trump told the crowd that if any player didn’t stand during the National Anthem they should, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!”
Until then, there were only a few NFL players who decided to quietly take a knee on the sidelines during the playing of the National Anthem.
Their actions may have been an irritant to some fans, but they didn’t cause a national outcry.
Trump caused many more players to take a knee.
Curiously, three days later, Jerry Jones, the longtime owner of the Dallas Cowboys, went with his players to the middle of the field, locked arms with them, and kneeled – before the playing of the National Anthem.
It appeared, at the time, that an NFL owner was acting in solidarity with his players.
He was not.
Only two weeks later, on Oct. 9, Jones said any of his players who didn’t stand during the anthem wouldn’t be permitted to play.
What had happened?
Well, there’s a court case in which Jones gave sworn testimony that during a phone call Trump told him, “This is a very winning, strong issue for me…This one lifts me.”
In other words, the issue of unjust treatment by some police officers isn’t important to Trump.
What really is important is that he can whip people into a frenzy to gain wider political support.
He still refuses to acknowledge the real reason why those players decided to stage their silent protests before games.
He knows why they did it.
He prefers to sacrifice them for his own selfish reasons.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.