Neither Donald Trump nor the sports world has stopped sounding off on the president’s divisive rhetoric about the NFL and NBA the past 24 hours.
Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy put out this statement:
“It’s unfortunate that the President decided to use his immense platform to make divisive and offensive statements about our players and the NFL. We strongly believe that players are leaders in our communities and positive influences. They have achieved their positions through tremendous work and dedication and should be celebrated for their success and positive impact. We believe it is important to support any of our players who choose to peacefully express themselves with the hope of change for good. As Americans, we are fortunate to be able to speak openly and freely.”
Packers players also expressed their opinion on Twitter.
We’ll “stick to football” when we see progress. Our Nations leader can’t even set a good example of how it looks to be a great American
— Davante Adams (@tae15adams) September 23, 2017
Donald Trump is a pure idiot! #ImpeachThisClown.
— Michael Neal (@mneal96) September 23, 2017
The idea of @realDonaldTrump thinking that suggesting firing me from football, confirms that he thinks that it’s all I can do as a Black man
— Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) September 23, 2017
I’m ok with being fired for what I believe in.
— Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) September 23, 2017
Detroit Lions tight end Eric Ebron summed up the feud with this:
Does anyone tell trump to stick to politics, like they tell us to stick to sports? Smh.
— Eric Ebron (@Ebron85) September 23, 2017
This all began with the president saying at the rally Friday night that NFL owners should tell to any player disrespecting the flag, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired.”
The president continued on Twitter rescinding Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry’s invitation to the White House for having won an NBA championship – something that Curry stated multiple times that he already decided he wasn’t going anyway.
The back and forth is basically Trump yelling “You’re fired!” like he loves to do, while Curry saying, “You can’t fire me, I already quit!”
Today, despite the U.S. military sending B-1B Bombers closer to the North Korean border than ever this century, Trump has kept up the tweets against the NFL and NBA pushback, including the latest directed at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s statement.
Roger Goodell of NFL just put out a statement trying to justify the total disrespect certain players show to our country.Tell them to stand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017
Trump does, apparently, have one person in sports willing to voice his opinion kind of in favor of the president — 63-year-old Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
“It’s dangerous when folks in our country stop respecting the White House and the seat of the president,” Maddon said Saturday to the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s not a good situation.
“With all due respect to everybody, I just believe that we need to get our acts together collectively, all of us.”