Ah… Sunday in Wisconsin means Packer’s football! I missed last weekend’s game where the Packers beat the Vikings (Tim’s favorite team) because I was on the range.
While we cannot carry at most (if not all) football stadiums throughout the country, that doesn’t mean that the players are anti-2A. In fact, a lot of players own firearms.
From the article:
Lots of NFL players own guns. In fairness, lots of professional athletes own guns, and in even more fairness, lots of Americans legally own them. But athletes, more than any other segment of society, seem to have a love affair with weapons.
While I don’t necessarily agree that athletes are the largest segment of society to like their firearms, it’s an interesting, albeit somewhat strange, read.
It is estimated that more than 50% of MLB players and more than 60% of NBA players are packing heat. But as many as 90% of pro football players are believed to own some form of firearm, whether it’s a hunting rifle for sport or a handgun for self-defense. These guns are not illegal. The Second Amendment allows gun ownership in this country.
After all of the commotion surrounding kneeling for the National Anthem over the last few years, do you still watch football? What’s your opinion of players owning firearms?
Gotta go with Spence here, I never got into watching sports, especially football. These days I do keep up with Tiger baseball, mostly because it’s something we do as a family. I blame my daughter for starting it.
As far as players and firearms go, as long as they do so legally and responsibly I have no problem with it. They have the same rights as any of us do, and suffer the same consequences.
Have not been a fan of the NFL for a while, the kneeling thing was the final nail in the coffin for me. If I want to watch some football, I watch it on Saturday.
I don’t agree with the NFL players with the way they went above this kneeling thing. It could have been better handled by the league and those players. It wasn’t every player to be sure. They have the right to peacefully protest, but kneeling in front of a crowd of patriotic Americans was not the battle they should have picked. Personally I love sports,not fanatically but reasonably and have been watching CFL, Canadian Football (Oh Canada,-Oh Canada)Seriously But this season I think the message has been received by the commissioner.Roger Goodell. Sales fell way off during that period, as now. I think it’s up slightly.
I’m of the opinion that MOST professional team sports players are criminals just waiting on a conviction. That said they have the same rights I do and until proven guilty they are just as entitled to a firearm as I am. I don’t much follow sports or the drama that surrounds them, never really have.
I used to watch football with my dad, but it was mostly because… hanging with my dad. The team sports thing never caught me up.
If the players are over represented in firearms ownership percentages, it would be lovely if some of them spoke up on the 2A front. They have access to the pulpit.
I stopped watching NFL football over the whole Kapernick kneeling thing. I started really paying attention to what athletes were saying. It seems to me, that even though a lot of the athletes own firearms, they are ok with infringing on my rights to own firearms. It’s seems a lot of them, have an elitist attitude. Where I live, everybody is a sports fanatic. They are teaching the kids, that you must play 3 different kinds of traveling sports to be someone. I won’t feed that system either. Tomorrow, I’m signing my son up for 4H archery, and turning in paperwork to be the county 4H rifle instructor.
I was an avid NFL (Philadelphia Eagles - my hometown) until the kneeling started. I kept hearing that athletes were using their stage to protest police violence. I have 2 problems with that. The first is their claim of police violence. Without getting into the Michael White and BLM lies, police violence is not the problem it has been made out to be. Not to say there are not bad cops, but they are a small percentage of all police in the country. And yes, they need to be prosecuted if they commit crimes.
The bigger problem I have is the players, exceptionally high paid employees of their teams that make money by selling tickets to fans and advertising to companies selling products to fans. The way I see it, the stage ultimately belongs to the fans and the employers have the ultimate authority to regulate their employees on that stage. As a police officer, my first amendment rights were restricted by my employer. I knew and understood those rules and, while I was in uniform, I had to carry the company line. Even out of uniform, I had restrictions. Kentucky is an open carry state but department policy required all weapons concealed if not in uniform. I watched the Super Bowl when the Eagles won but I have not sat down to actually watch a game since the protest started. I cannot control what they put on TV but I can control what gets put on my TV.
Well put. I stand for our country and our police. The same ones “protesting” police brutality are the very ones who’d scream bloody murder if a cop was a minute late arriving when THEY needed one. Are there”bad cops”, sure, just like every other field of endeavor, however the overwhelming number are decent folks trying to do a very tough, dangerous, and thankless job. As a former firefighter I worked closely with a number of police officers and I have nothing but respect for them.
I read that article when it came out. If they own the firearm legally and do not use the firearm irresponsibly I don’t care what their profession is, it’s a constitutional right.
As for the kneeling, I obviously was not a fan, but I also don’t paint all NFL players or pro sports players in the same light as those that knelt. Most pro athletes come and go with little or no fan fare while a small minority demand media attention (good and bad). When a pro athlete does something I disagree with I don’t quit the sport, no differently than I want a non gun person to dislike me because some dude decided to strap his AR on and walk into Walmart shortly after a mass shooting. Those players who chose to kneel don’t represent the whole and for me I do not find it fair to judge the whole lot of people I’ve never met based on the acts of others.
I know where you are coming from @Jeff4 but there is a difference. When Kapernick started his protest, the team and the league should have stopped it. There was long standing precedent within the NFL that prohibited players, who are nothing more than employees of the team, from promoting causes on the field and in uniform. This should have been no different. The coaches, the owners and the NFL had the authority to stop this from the start, and had previously done so in the past for other causes.
And yes, I am judgmental. I judged those who stood, those who took a knee and those who chose to stay off the field. I judged the teams that decided to cater to the whims of a bunch of over payed children playing a game. I judge the league for bowing to a second rate quarterback.
The players had no right to protest on someone else’s dime, but I can choose where I will spend my time and my dimes and chose not to support the practices of the NFL, the teams and the players.
@MikeBKY I like what you say Mike exactly what I felt as it was unfolding at the NFL. The players, coaches, everyone involved except of course the share holders and owners are employees. They had the option to quit their jobs and forfeit their salaries if they were in disagreement with the bosses, the owners. I believe that the legal terminology is Employment at Will.
Everyone lost, nobody won. It was an exercise in futility.
I have some personal thoughts on this whole thing, but as a representative of the USCCA here, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself. (See what I did there? )
We know police cannot be everywhere at all times. We know that there are bad apples in every field - INCLUDING football.
I once heard you need to have ten positive comments to cancel out one negative comment. I kind of feel like it’s the same way for people.
@Dawn Good morning Dawn, Well I am of the option that a bad, or a comment that is badly thought out or a comment that is written or said out loud can never be undone. You (meaning all people), can think every comment about someone you want and wish somebody every nasty thing you want, however once it’s committed to paper, or print, or said aloud it is out there forever and can’t ever be undone. Yes, forgiven Maybe, apologized for Maybe, but never never Undone
Mike, you just don’t get it, Kapernick’s protest was not as disturbing as these:
In 2012 the NFL had an issue with Tim Tebow kneeling for each game to pray, they also had an issue with Tebow wearing John 3:16 as part of his eye-black to avoid glare, and made him take it off.
In 2013 the NFL fined Brandon Marshall for wearing green cleats to raise awareness for people with mental health disorders.
In 2014 Robert Griffin III (RG3) entered a post-game press conference wearing a shirt that said “Know Jesus Know Peace” but was forced to turn it inside out by an NFL uniform inspector before speaking at the podium.
In 2015 DeAngelo Williams was fined for wearing “Find the Cure” eye black for breast cancer awareness.
In 2015 William Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats to raise awareness for domestic violence. (Not that the NFL has a domestic violence problem…).
*In 2016 the NFL prevented the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a decal on their helmet in honor of 5 Dallas Police officers killed in the line of duty.
2016 the NFL threatened to fine players who wanted to wear cleats to commemorate the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
Edit: What I posted above are facts – if someone fact checks any of them to be wrong, please post and I will remove anything that is not factual.
My opinion is Kapernick has been laughing all the way to the bank since all of this began. It has worked out really well for him because he has collected a better income than most people without risking injury on the football field. I would honestly like to see one of the teams pick him again so we can see how good or bad of a player he is today. I wouldn’t wish it on him, but I suspect he wouldn’t survive many games without an injury.
From Black players in professional American football - Wikipedia “At the start of the 2014 season, NFL surveys revealed that the league was approximately 68% African-American and about 28% white, with the remaining 4% comprising Asian/Pacific Islander, non-white Hispanics, and those preferring a Mixed Race category.”
I think the NFL was too scared to alienate the demographic majority of their employees. At the end of the day the NFL is a business trying to make as much money as possible. I believe their agenda was hedging their bets against which way to go to minimize their financial losses; they were risking a potential player strike that would have been an immediate financial blow.
I did not make this a racial topic, Kapernick did:
Kaepernik said: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…. There are bodies in the street and people are getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
America’s agitators choose political agendas over progress. I say this because Kapernick had the platform to potentially progress racial issues forward, instead he obviously choose to widen the gap - very unfortunate indeed.
Don’t know if this was the direction you thought I was going
Wasn’t sure which agenda you were leaning towards, but I personally agree the NFL definitely have an agenda.
I love my Packers, but I think teachers and police officers should be seen as heroes and make more money than football players. But that’s just my opinion.
@Dawn It’s ironic that you say that Dawn when I was stationed at Ft Hood, TX I bought a house and a former Chicago Bears player and I became not necessarily friends but we were good acquaintances. He played for George Hallas so that tells you the time frame. Well once we got to talking about pay structure. He says that he was paid fairly for the times. Apparently all the players were paid $60/Game and it was a very part-time job and all the guys had a second and/or a third job if they were really living high.
Canada)Seriously But this season I think the message has been received by the commissioner.Roger Goodell. Sales fell way off during that period, as now. I think it’s up slightly.
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