President Donald Trump was greeted by a booming chorus of cheers mixed with a few boos (according
to liberals) as he took the field Monday for the singing of our nation's national anthem
ahead of the college football title game between Georgia and Alabama.
The president, who was surrounded by military personnel stood near the 40-yard line with
his hand on his heart as the anthem played on.
Another wave of cheers and some jeers followed him as he left the field.
It was reported that the President arrived in Atlanta around 6 p.m. local time to attend
the all-Southeastern Conference matchup between the two NCAA powerhouses.
His motorcade caused gridlock, some confusion, and long lines outside the sold-out stadium
but most of the fans didn't mind and were happy to see the President in attendance.
Before arriving in Atlanta, President Trump took the time to once again criticize the
ungrateful ball tossers who refuse to stand during the presenting of our nation's colors
and the national anthem.
He also told attendees at an agriculture meeting in Tennessee earlier today that "we love
our flag and we love our anthem and we want to keep it that way."
He added to thunderous applause: "We want our national anthem respected, too."
The remarks came at an appearance at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting
in Nashville, which he attended with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
The president attended the game with Perdue, a former Georgia governor who was a former
Bulldogs football player, and Nick Ayers, a Georgia native and top aide to Vice President
Mike Pence.
Via OZY:
OZY POLL: THE NFL BOYCOTT IS REAL — AND BIG
Because controversies — and politics — are taking their toll on America's most popular
sport.
It remains a $14 billion business with a central space in American life, but temblors of controversy
have shaken the National Football League in recent years.
This season, serious cracks have appeared in its foundation as it became the focus of
divisive racial politics.
Players' silent demonstrations during the national anthem to protest the mistreatment
of Blacks by law enforcement surged after President Donald Trump described a protesting
player as a "son of a bitch."
Meanwhile, no team has hired protest-instigating quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Amid a hot-take fest about patriotism, people on both sides of the aisle have called for
a boycott of the NFL.
An exclusive SurveyMonkey and OZY poll reveals that the movement has caught on:
33 PERCENT OF FOOTBALL FANS SAID THEY PURPOSEFULLY STOPPED WATCHING OR ATTENDING NFL GAMES THIS
SEASON.
Those who sat out had multiple motivations, but the most common one: "in support of
Donald Trump," a reason given by 32 percent of surveyed boycotters.
Another 22 percent said they stopped watching or attending in solidarity with players kneeling
during the anthem, 13 percent had no interest in the teams playing, 12 percent acted in
solidarity with Kaepernick, 11 percent were troubled by the devastating long-term effects
of traumatic brain injuries on players and 8 percent said the games were boring.
Another 46 percent chose "other" as their reason for boycotting, with replies specifying
the national anthem, the American flag and opposing players' kneeling.
(Respondents were allowed to give more than one reason for boycotting.)
This SurveyMonkey/OZY online survey was conducted Dec. 8–11 among a national sample of 1,726
adults ages 18 and older, including 1,223 people who said they are football fans or
watch the Super Bowl.
Respondents were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey
platform each day.
Data has been weighted for age, race, sex, education and geography using census data
to reflect the demographic composition of the United States.
The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The full results can be found here, and cross-tabs can be viewed here.
TELEVISION CAMERAS HAVE CAPTURED ABYSMAL IN-GAME TURNOUT IN SEVERAL STADIUMS.
The protests had a sharp gender split.
Men were more likely than women to boycott the NFL overall (39 percent to 26 percent)
and more likely to do it to back Trump (35 percent to 25 percent), while women were more
likely to opt out in solidarity with kneeling players (30 percent to 17 percent).
OZY and SurveyMonkey also probed views about taxpayer-funded stadiums, an issue that helped
spark two recent franchise moves.
When taxpayers would not help foot the bill for new football palaces in St. Louis and
San Diego, both the Rams and the Chargers, respectively, departed for Los Angeles.
People across the country side with St. Louis and San Diego: 70 percent of respondents oppose
taxpayer subsidies for stadiums, including 46 percent who strongly oppose them.
Only 6 percent strongly support subsidies.
But support rises among superfans: 43 percent of those who identify as big football fans
back publicly financed stadiums.
On television the NFL has slipped, but not dramatically.
Jon Lewis, founder and editor of the website Sports Media Watch, says the ratings are generally
mediocre, and the highs are not as high as in recent years.
"These are not necessarily bad ratings," Lewis says.
"I haven't seen any numbers that would say, 'Oh, my goodness, the NFL is free-falling.'"
While Lewis says the league's top sports competitors, Major League Baseball and the
National Basketball Association, had a strong fall, nonsports ratings are plunging in the
age of Netflix and cord cutting.
NFL games still cram the roster of the most-watched TV programs each week — a critical metric
for advertisers.
Paid attendance has been down slightly — the Sports Business Journal reported a 2.5 percent
decline through Week 12 — but television cameras have captured abysmal in-game turnout
in several stadiums, an indication that many presold season tickets are going unused.
The effect of the fan boycott might be more a softening than a cratering of support.
Consider the case of Chip Lake, who lives outside Atlanta.
He's still an NFL fan and fantasy football obsessive.
But for the first time in about 15 years, he didn't attend a Falcons game.
"I didn't want to spend my money in a stadium and watch people disrespect the national
anthem," Lake says.
"I don't know consciously that I sat down before Week 1 and said, 'I'm boycotting
the Atlanta Falcons' … I just didn't make it a priority to go."
Although some ball tossers and one rapper voiced their displeasure at President Trump
at the game, for who knows what reason, not one of them had the guts to kneel during our
national anthem.
Which goes a long way in showing just how powerful the presence of President Trump really
is.
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