Following Saturday night’s fiery exchange between the President of the United States and a few disrespectful athletes, the country waited to see how athletes would respond on football Sunday. Since the season has been riddled with kneeling and other sideline antics during the nation’s anthem, this weekend became the main event for flipping off our flag and the Commander-in-Chief who expects players to show some respect.
The Denver Broncos is one of the teams in the NFL who haven’t protested yet this season. That all changed on Sunday ahead of their game against the Buffalo Bills, after Donald Trump announced his opinion that sports are not a place for political protests. Following his remarks, the defiant message turned from anti-cop rhetoric and justice for black citizens, to showing a complete disrespect for our president to asked athletes to stand.
While many players and teams have already protested this season, the Broncos was not among them. They’ve now been added to the long list of disrespectful franchises after what a good portion of the team did against Trump on Sunday. Perhaps leading the pack, was the star player who could have used his influence to empower players to not involve politics in the game, but went the opposite direction instead.
Defensive linebacker of the Denver Broncos, Von Miller is likely wishing that he never took that nasty path now, since it led him to the worst news of his thriving career.
There are consequences to actions and part of the problem with protesting athletes is that they none of them seem to realize or even expect this. By arrogance or entitlement, they think that they can act any way they want in their workplace and the ramifications aren’t the same as they are for “regular” people. Unfortunately for Miller, this assumption was incorrect, which his teammate could have told him based on a bad experience last season.
The Denver Channel reports:
“Just a day after only 19 Broncos players stood for the national anthem to protest controversial messages by President Donald Trump, some of the team’s leaders are already seeing consequences.”
“Star outside linebacker Von Miller was one of the Broncos who took a knee, and Phil Long Ford dealership took issue with that. They said they dropped their one-time spokesperson on Monday morning, although in a late-day statement, the group said they feel Miller is a ‘good person.'”
The dealership went even further than just terminating their contract with the now controversial player. Since there were several advertisements already featuring Miller in high circulation, given that the football season is in full swing, dealership officials contacted local news outlets and informed them to cancel their ads featuring Miller effective immediately. However, this appropriate move was more than just a slap in the face to the player – it also comes across as a counter to Ford Motor Company’s statement on the matter.
While the Dever Ford dealership was scrubbing the state of Miller advertisements, Ford Motor Co. was sending a clear message of their own.
“Ford Motor Co., a major sponsor of the National Football League, issued a statement in support of free speech after player protests and President Donald Trump’s call for a fan boycott,” Bloomberg reported.
“We respect individuals’ rights to express their views, even if they are not ones we share,” Ford said in an emailed statement. “That’s part of what makes America great.”
It’s a strange stance for a company that’s as American as apple pie and has certainly benefitted from their patriotic reputation. Thankfully, at least one of their privately own dealerships feel differently as they know they stand to lose a lot in profits in the state of Colorado from avid sports fans who don’t want politics mixed in with game days. This was first seen last season after player Brandon Marshall followed in Colin Kaepernick’s lead and took a knee. It didn’t end so well for him then. What happened immediately after proves that inflicting consequences solves the problem.
Miller and Marshall protesting at Sunday’s game, on September 24, 2017
One of Marshalls biggest sponsors happened to be the Air Academy Federal Credit Union at the time he decided to take a knee. All it took was one protest for him to lose that lucrative sponsorship. This was a good move on the credit union since Marshall learned his lesson and stood for every game the rest of that season.
However, Marshall seemed to be empowered by the team leader, Miller, on Sunday and fell back into his old ways, kneeling for the first time since that fallout. Seeing that Miller has now lost a major deal should serve as a reminder to Marshall and all other disrespectful Broncos that sponsors aren’t so passive in the Mile High state and expect you to stand up for the National Anthem.
Since most coaches and even the NFL commissioner refuse to do anything about these protests, it’s up to sponsors to really send a message to these players that
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