Michelle Quist Mumford: Peaceful protest is as American as football

I’m not a big football fan. The games are long and take up coveted weekend time. The rules are obscure and the violence jeopardizes future brain health. I know I’m in the minority here.

The most fun I’ve had watching football was when my cousin, ex-Saints player Kyle Turley, ripped off another guy’s helmet and threw it down the field in a ferocious and tantalizing statement that you can’t rip off his teammate’s helmet and get away with it. That was great fun.

But I do know that football is a great unifier, as most professional sports teams are. Deep divides exist between red and blue in this state, but on Jazz game nights, we’re all on the same team.

Which is why the recent controversy over football players kneeling during the national anthem is such a waste. This once-apolitical unifier now demands that you take a side. Maybe that isn’t so bad.

Last year, while issues of police brutality against black people simmered on the national conscience, San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick chose to protest by refusing to stand during the pre-game national anthem. He was trying to raise awareness about racism in America, and he was unapologetic. Ticket sales and ratings went down.

Fast forward a year to a world with President Trump who picked sides last Saturday against players who chose to protest. Trump proclaimed to a rapt and feral audience in Alabama that team owners should fire a “son of a bitch” who “disrespect[s]” the flag. Either knowingly, or characteristically unwittingly, Trump cleverly aligned himself on the side of patriotism and national symbols of freedom.

It is unclear whether protests now stand for racial equality or are just anti-Trump. And that’s too bad. Because we need to hear the the racial equality protest.

The tide is quickly turning against Trump’s myopic view. Over the weekend the Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans stayed in their locker rooms for the anthem. On Monday the entire Cowboys team, along with their owner Jerry Jones, held hands and took a knee together before the anthem played. Both the Dallas and Arizona teams stood with linked arms while the anthem played.

People are starting to realize it’s absurd to claim that kneeling on the sideline during the national anthem disrespects the anthem or the flag. In fact, such actions are secured by the freedom those very symbols stand for.

There is a long history of Americans protesting symbols of freedom. Utah is especially familiar with this protest culture. The state itself was created by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were fleeing the United States in a protest, and an effort to build their own country. In 1885 Utah Mormons flew the American flag at half-staff in a protest agains the government’s prohibition on polygamy. Non-Mormons, furious, quickly stormed city hall and raised the flag.

After the Vietnam War, some veterans refused to stand during the national anthem as a protest against the way they were treated when they returned from the war.

Protest is in our blood. You can love your country and still think there are things about it that need improvement. Taking a knee is the essence of peaceable protest – of civil disobedience. And bending a knee is often symbolic of the most revered and honored relationships. People kneel to propose marriage, to pray and even on a field when someone on the other team is hurt.

Sure a team owner can decide not to re-sign a player who protests. Fans can stop watching football and stop buying tickets. People can claim football players are meant to entertain us, and they should stick to playing the game and leaving their politics out of it. But players have a national platform. Why shouldn’t they use it to express themselves? Because you don’t want to be reminded on a Sunday afternoon that our country has serious problems that need attention? Too bad. There’s a fire in your kitchen and you can’t ignore it anymore.

As my 12-year-old daughter said, “Patriotism is not loyalty to the government, it’s loyalty to the ideas that the country represents.” Freedom, equality, opportunity.

Let’s shift the movement away from an anti-Trump sentiment and back to the realization that as far as the country has come regarding race relations, we still have a long way to go.

Michelle Quist Mumford is an editorial writer for The Salt Lake Tribune who still won't watch football but supports a player’s right to protest how he wants.