[otw_shortcode_dropcap label=”W” font=”Ultra” background_color_class=”otw-no-background” size=”large” border_color_class=”otw-no-border-color”][/otw_shortcode_dropcap]hat better place to share your feelings that the flag of the United States of America is “irrelevant” than with The New York Times? That’s exactly what San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich did. In an interview with The Times’ Maureen Dowd, Popovich expressed his disappointment in the way NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell handled Kaepernick and other players kneeling at NFL games in protest.
“A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great – all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich said of Goodell. What does a smart man like Popovich understand that Goodell and others don’t? “The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons, just like (Dick) Cheney back in the Iraq war.”
Popovich paints a very militant picture of Americans who value the symbolism of our flag. Additionally, he paints supporters of that flag as cowards, saying that Goodell “folded” under President Donald Trump’s criticism against the kneeling protesters.
Popovich then got very personal, political, and vindictive when he called out Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who were amongst NFL owners that donated a reported $1 million to Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.
Popovich added, “It’s just hypocritical. It’s incongruent. It doesn’t make sense. People aren’t blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don’t get it. I think they put themselves in a position that’s untenable.”
