Your “Wait – Is The ‘Victory Formation’ Now An Anti-American Protest?” Monday Night Football Open Thread

NFL News:

• Anthemgate update: (Anthemgazi? 9-11them?)
  • Roger Goodell told latte foam inhaler Peter King he is “proud” of the League’s response to Donald Trump’s “divisive words”.
    • “Aren’t you bothered that the president might be on a crusade against your league?” I asked.“No,” Goodell said. “We live in an imperfect society. A public discourse makes us strong.”
    • King also notes that the protests had nearly died out, with only 10 players participating the week prior, so Sunday is more Trump’s fault than anyone’s.
  • Josh Norman dropped a “not my president” as one of his responses to a reporter’s question.
    • which should absolutely curry favour with the #MAGA types who said that about Obama.
  • A Louisiana lawmaker wants the state to withdraw all funding & support the Saints receive for using a state facility like the Superdome.
    • since the Saints pay no rent & keep all gameday profits, plus retain the naming rights, it would be a tidy sum.
      • The New Orleans Times-Picayune valued the state’s contribution to the Saints $1.5 billion in value at $165 million.
  • nfl.com also has player & coach responses to yesterday’s action. Comments are, not surprisingly, turned off.
    • including Dreamboat, who went on WEEI and expressed his opinions about supporting his teammates, and how the people booing have the same speech rights as the guys who kneel.
      • Count Matt Light as a non-supporter, because kneeling goes against “the Patriot way”.
      • Also, consider these stories a reminder never to read the comment sections of online articles

• Finally, a Bills stadium employee quit on Twitter yesterday in protest of the kneeling, and became a #MAGA hero in the process. I refuse to post the tweet because it’s just stupid.
• Oh, and a drug addict had something to say about his beloved Steelers:

Remember – until 2009, teams stayed in the locker room during the anthems.

Real NFL News:

• One of my favourite players, Darren Sproles, managed to both break an arm & tear an ACL on the same play yesterday, and is now out for the season.
  • The guy was always late-round fantasy dynamite.

• Positive news: Teddy Bridgewater is eligible to return to practice in three weeks.
  • Given the Vikings next two games are against the Bears & Lions, if they go 1-1 with the feared Bradford-Keenum connection, the team might go slowly with the rehab, given that a healthy Teddy is still their future.

Finally, as a coda to the weekend anthem protests, John Oliver rightly points out that “when you have lost the moral high ground to Roger Fucking Goodell,” he said, “something is horribly wrong.”

https://youtu.be/BClD17Z_3tk

Game preview:

Tonight’s game is expected to be closer than many imagine. The current spread is Cowboys by 3, mostly on the basis of last week’s drubbing by Dallas at the hands of Denver. Plus, many prognosticators are pulling for old man Palmer to finally get a chance to light up a secondary, and for Fitty to be the beneficiary.

Me? I expect Palmer may finally actually get Fitty killed this week, as he tries to lead him over the middle, and either Sean Lee (close to the line) or Orlando Scandrick (deeper in the zone) do what they can to avoid fines for hitting a defenceless player.

Look for Zeke to get a whole bunch of yards, as the Cowboys look to avoid too many deep balls that run the risk of getting picked off, since Arizona actually has a secondary that can keep up with Dez Bryant.

I’m tuning in early to see if freshly pardoned felon Joe Arpaio rambles onto the field during the anthem to arrest players disrespecting the flag.

Over/under on Pat Tillman references:

• By ESPN: 4
• By fans in the stands: 26

Tonight’s sports:

• NFL:
  • Cowboys at Cardinals – 8:15PM | ESPN / TSN
    • en español en ESPN2
• WWE:
  • Monday Night Raw – 8:00PM | USA / Sportsnet360
    • the night after “No Mercy”
      • Cesaro lost two teeth during his match.
• Invictus Games:
  • Highlights show – 10:00PM | TSN2
• MLB:
  • Blue Jays at Red Sox – 7:00PM | Sportsnet

I want someone to come up with the Venn diagram of where #MAGA & #UpForAnything meet. DON’T SAY “WAL-MART”!