First NFL player announces he will protest anthem despite new rules
Well, that didn’t take long.
Perhaps a level-headed and decisive NFL commissioner with a fleeting sense of logic could’ve handled the national anthem controversy in a timely manner.
Roger Goodell clearly isn’t that commissioner.
As Goodell is undoubtedly used to at this point, he has found himself with a sizable egg on his face after comments made by NFL All-Pro Jurrell Casey on Wednesday.
The Tennessee Titans star, fresh off three consecutive trips to the Pro Bowl, basically spat on Goodell’s new anthem protest policy and dared him to do something substantive about it.
“I’m going to take my fine,” Casey said at an NFL promotional event in London, per CNN.
Jurrell Casey (@Jurrellc) has landed in London. #TitanUp
The @NFLUK promo tour is underway. 🇬🇧🏈 pic.twitter.com/Qego5HopSG
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) July 17, 2018
“It is what it is,” he said. “I ain’t going to let them stop me from doing what I want to do. If they want to have these battles between players and organizations, this is the way it’s going to be.”
In May, the NFL passed a new anthem policy requiring all players on the field to “stand and show respect for the flag and the anthem.” It states that players “who choose not to stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room or in a similar location off the field until after the anthem has been performed.”
The league can impose fines on teams whose players don’t follow the new rule, and the violators themselves will face “appropriate discipline” from the commissioner.
Casey clearly doesn’t care about the new rule.
“I’m going to take a fine this year, why not?” he told CNN.
The Titans defensive player also made clear that he would be protesting “the flag.”
“I’m going to protest during the flag,” Casey said. “That’s what I’m going to say now.”
This was always going to happen to Goodell and his cronies. Many lambasted the new anthem policy as not being forceful enough, and those critics are turning out to be prophetic. A slap-on-the-wrist fine is unlikely to deter someone who just signed a four-year, $60.4 million contract (with $40 million guaranteed) like Casey just did. Goodell’s spineless policy probably won’t deter any but the lowest-paid NFL players, if that.
It also speaks volumes about Goodell’s authority that one of the better players in the league is so willing to break the rules. And to have that star player so brazenly talk about protesting “the flag” while on foreign soil? It shows just how much fear, or lack thereof, players have of Goodell.
Unsurprisingly, Casey is a staunch Colin Kaepernick supporter. Currently involved in a collusion grievance against the league, the former 49er was the impetus for anthem protests when he began kneeling for the anthem in 2016.
“I think he definitely deserves (a job in the NFL),” Casey said. “For all these trash quarterbacks you see that get a shot, that come in and sit on the bench all day, you got a starting quarterback that’s out there that can go out there and play.
“You know he has the skill set to be a starting quarterback, and you hold him out just because he is speaking his mind. At the end of the day it speaks (volumes) on what these people really think about you.”
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