Colin Kaepernick – Memphis Flyer

So, are you ready to start boycotting University of Memphis football and basketball games? Gonna burn your Tigers jersey? How about the Grizzlies? You ready to stay home this season? Turn off the television? Get rid of that sweet throwback Memphis Sounds uni?

You’d better be ready to do just that — in addition to staying away from FedExForum and the Liberty Bowl — if you’re one of those people who’s upset with the Nike company. Nike has contracts with all the teams you love in this town.

And why would you be upset with Nike? Well, unless you’ve been living in a cocoon the past few days, you know that the athletic super-corporation has launched a new national ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who inspired the ongoing player protest movement of kneeling during the National Anthem to make a statement against police brutality and racial injustice.

Because of this audacious corporate move, many irate owners of Nike apparel have been burning their Nike sweat socks — and presumably throwing away their expensive Jordan shoes and destroying all their $75 souvenir team jerseys. Though that may be a bridge too far.

It’s a real dilemma for fans who hate the Anthem protests — and the guy who started the movement — no matter their favorite sport. For example, the NFL is contracted with Nike for uniforms and apparel for all 32 teams through 2028. Nike also has the NBA’s apparel contract, and that of most of the top-tier universities, including Ole Miss and that orange-uniformed outfit over in Knoxville. Whatcha gonna do, Landsharks? Will it come down to MAGA versus Hotty Toddy?

This will get interesting on several fronts. How will the NFL’s mostly uber-conservative, millionaire team-owners reckon with their hired guns on the field wearing equipment provided by a company that has thrown in with the athletes, rather than the owners? How do you think Dallas Cowboys owner and MAGA-Trump fan Jerry Jones is going to handle this little development? Break out the popcorn.

And, of course, it will get even more interesting once the grand Tweeter-in-Chief sinks his ALL-CAPS fingers into this issue. It’s a perfect diversion from the gathering storm over the White House — and made to order for a president who loves stirring up divisiveness and outrage.

So why would Nike make such a provocative move? Why would any profit-driven company do something it knows is going to stir controversy and anger? One theory is the old saw that any publicity is good publicity. If the mass media and the entire social media universe — and the president — are talking and tweeting about your brand, it just enhances your company’s public profile. Nike becomes national news.

Another theory, posited by TheStreet.com marketing guru Brian Sozzi, is that Nike “skates where they think the puck is going.” In other words, the company is betting that the country is heading toward more enlightened attitudes, that the future will belong to those on Kaepernick’s side of history — folks who think his right to protest is legitimate. Nike is putting real money on the idea that the current poisoned atmosphere around the kneeling issue is a short-term political exploitation that will burn out, leaving the angry “boycotters” looking foolish — and probably wishing they had that cool Ole Miss jersey back.

If you think about it, it’s a brilliant power play: forcing fans to choose between their love for their favorite teams (and their own Nike apparel) and their distaste for Kaepernick and athletes who kneel during the National Anthem. It’s the ultimate “put up or shut up” move.

Upping the ante even further, Nike announced that it will create a new Kaepernick shoe and T-shirt and other apparel, and that the company will also donate money to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign.
Cue the presidential tweets, and maybe even a new MAGA hat: Make Adidas Great Again. It will be made in China, of course.

Oh, say, can we … have an adult discussion about the National Anthem without everyone getting all pissy about it? I understand that the sight of the stars and stripes means different things to different people. Some accept it as a symbol of the United States, while others don’t get the symbolism and revere a brightly decorated polyester stretch of fabric right up there with the Bible. I was taught in the Boy Scouts that the flag had to receive special treatment. It had to be folded a certain way, and if it touched the ground, the proper response was to burn it, which makes the topic of flag-burning more complex.

We were also taught from infancy that when the National Anthem was played, we were to remove any head coverings and stand with either one hand over your heart or both by your side. While some people have deeply held convictions that soldiers bled and died for that flag, others believe just as strongly that soldiers died to protect the freedom to protest, even if it includes the flag.

If you love the Second Amendment, you have to respect the First. But just let one professional athlete remain seated while the anthem is played, and social media explodes in anger and outrage. We have hurricanes, wildfires, zika, and a lunatic running for president, and people are upset because a football player chose not to stand?

Colin Kaepernick

The latest in the saga of San Fransisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s objection to standing for the anthem occurred at a pre-season game in San Diego, and who doesn’t love a pre-season game? San Diego was celebrating its 28th annual “Salute to the Military,” with over 200 servicemen and women presenting a “super flag,” while color guards from all four branches of the military presented the regular-sized one. If that weren’t enough jingoism for you, they played the repugnant and nausea-producing Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” with the stadium joining in. Even George M. Cohan thought it was a bit over the top.

Then came Kaepernick’s gesture, and the crowd erupted in rage. He was booed louder than an illegal immigrant at a Trump rally. He explained his singular act as a way to protest racial oppression and the near monthly killing of unarmed black men by the police. “I’m not anti-American,” Kaepernick said, “I love America. … I want to help make [it] better.”

Something about the public anger reminded me of the days when certain people expressed their patriotism by putting “Love it or leave it” bumper stickers on their trucks and flag decals in their windows. This is not the first time that this nation’s patriotic symbols have been appropriated by reactionaries and war hawks. Sometimes, it takes more courage to protest against what you believe to be unjust than to run to join the lynch mob.

From a songwriter’s point of view, the National Anthem just isn’t that great of a song. First, Francis Scott Key merely wrote a poem in 1814 called “Defense of Fort McHenry” while captive on a British ship watching the bombardment of Baltimore. Only later was the poem conjoined with a British drinking ditty called, “The Anacreontic Song,” whose last verse offered a toast, “with the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’ vine.”

It wasn’t declared the National Anthem until the Hoover administration in 1931. You’ve seen those ads that say, “Send us your poem, and for a nominal fee, we’ll put it to music.” I knew guys in Nashville that ran that scam for years, and it never produced a single good song. If F.S. Key had sent his poem to Nashville, it might have been difficult to put a peppy melody to his third verse, which reads in part, “Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution/No refuge could save the hireling and the slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.” Historians agree that Key, a slave-owner himself, was expressing his revenge over the deaths of freed slaves who fought with the British. We usually skip that verse.

I never understood why they play the National Anthem before sporting events in the first place. And why do different sports get to pick and choose who plays it? Football, baseball, and basketball all do, but you’ve never heard the anthem before tee-off time in professional golf. At Churchill Downs, they sing “My Old Kentucky Home.” At the Preakness, they sing “Maryland, My Maryland,” and at the Belmont Stakes, they belt out Sinatra singing “New York, New York.”

During the recent Rio Olympics, after the first 10 medal ceremonies, I started to mute the “Star Spangled Banner.” I mean, how many times can you hear the same song in a row? I like “Uptown Funk,” but I don’t want to hear it played 15 consecutive times. Is muting the National Anthem worse than sitting for it? I’ll bet all the incensed trolls who stormed social media were sitting on their asses too. Just because you’re in the Barcalounger in your underwear, why shouldn’t you stand for the anthem?

These days, the “Star Spangled Banner” has become a vehicle for aspiring pop stars to demonstrate their vocal pyrotechnics and attitude. (See Christina Aguilera). The three greatest versions of the song are by Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, and Marvin Gaye. YouTube “Marvin Gaye, 1983 NBA All-Star game,” and tell me I’m wrong. Since I respect freedom of expression, I stand with Kaepernick sitting. “America the Beautiful” should be the National Anthem anyway. If you lovers of tradition want something to really get mad about, be upset that the uber-patriotic “God Bless America,” has replaced “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.