Should Football Players Should Be Banned?

Are peoples’ opinions that one disagrees with not allowed? This question has been heavily put to the test as football players have been swarmed with abhorrence. This anger has been brought to them through the protest that they have acted with, not standing or kneeling during the national anthem, in the past few years. Football players should be protected by the first amendment of the constitution, which is for free speech and protest. Football players should not be punished for their action about the issue in which they protest in the United States because it brings awareness to social issues, players that have high profile social status; consequently, people disagree about their way of protesting during the National Anthem. However,
This idea did not save them directly from facing consequences for their actions though. Consequently, it was the owners of the NFL who saved them; this is since the NFL is a private organization that could require if a player is to stand for the national anthem through a contract that would be signed by the said player. It was mentioned by The New York Times that President Trump stated that “the football player should be taken off the field and fired.” As stated by DeMaurice Smith, union executive director, “we will never back down it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of our players as citizens as well as their safety” (Bomboy 3). The NFL has shown true support of its players’ rights as citizens of the United States. Another reason why NFL football players should have the right to their protest is the fact that they are big public figures that can impact everyday society and start a movement better than an average citizen who is never on the televisions of millions of viewers. The football players are furthermore protected by the equal employment laws that prevent discrimination from affected employment, which was passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII. The Title VII was signed to “protect workers from retaliation when they oppose what they reasonably perceive to be racial discrimination, even if someone else can reasonably disagree and even if a court ultimately sides with the skeptic” (Sachs). Since this protest is heavily centered on racial and police discrimination against race, it becomes a slippery slope of how to handle the situation without being turned on by players after they were terminated for a possible discriminating