What do you get when you put a Think Progress sports reporter, a Canadian sports activist and a Hofstra professor together on the same podcast? One capitalist-hating, Trump-hating, NFL protest-loving group of far Left women. On the most recent edition of Burn It All Down — "the feminist podcast you need" — Shireen Ahmed called the NFL a cesspool of misogyny, xenophobia, racism and capitalism. And the women on the podcast have no love lost for far right people, President Donald Trump and NFL owners either.
Ahmed is a freelance writer and sports activist in Toronto. In a discussion of the NFL and its national anthem policy with Lindsay Gibbs and Brenda Elsey, she said:
"The crux of the issue with the NFL is this is a cesspool of, like, misogyny and, like, xenophobia and racism and a lack of understanding on how to deal with anything important. And it's a hugely capitalist-based organization, and it's not about a love of the players. ... It's owned by businesses, and do they care about bettering society? No, not really."
Overlooked by Ahmed, the NFL gave $89 million to the SJW group, Players' Coalition, to fund its progressive attempt at bettering society.
Gibbs, a sports reporter at Think Progress, criticized the NFL for continuing to get in its own way when it comes to the anthem policy. She said the league is an organization in which "rich white millionaires can continue to be assholes." She also said:
"The owners are afraid of this narrative that protests are killing the NFL. ... We found out this week that while NFL ratings are down just a little bit, actually this was the highest revenue year in NFL history ever! So the NFL doesn't even need to be doing anything because it's not losing money over this. It's so stupid."
Gibbs isn't the first liberal to overlook the plain truth that television revenue is separate from ticket sales, TV viewership and league approval ratings. In fact, television viewership dropped by a staggering 9.7 percent last season, certainly cause for alarm. In Texas alone, the NFL has a 47-percent disapproval rating compared to a 26-percent approval rating. And that's a state that loves its football.
Elsey, associate professor of history at Hofstra University, said those who say the protests are disrespectful to the national anthem are "like toddlers," whom you have to teach to count: "It's one, it's two ... they say it over and over."
Gibbs countered the NFL "is a business up until it's about putting Colin Kaepernick on a team and then you'll be better. To a certain point, and then it's racist." She praised New York Giants' owner Steve Tisch (above photograph) for assuring his players they won't be punished for protesting. Then the Trump bashing commenced.
"The president is taking advantage of any narrative to punish black athletes. ... Trump uses this (protest) issue to rile up his base," Gibbs said. "Tisch said Trump has no understanding of why players who take a knee or protest, and when the new season starts he hopes he (Trump) has a new understanding of it. The NFL has to get out of own way, stop being afraid of Trump's tweets." And "he's never gonna stop this, so the NFL has to stop this and worrying what far far right people are doing."
Of Trump, Ahmed said: "Then of course you have 45 playing in, and I'm not even going to read you his garbage."
