Will NFL Ban on Kneeling Matter in MN Congressional Race?

The NFL’s self-defeating experiment with enabling players to kneel during the national anthem ended just in time for  Memorial Day. Ultimately the league’s open-minded tolerance of players’ patriotic petulance came at too high of a cost in ratings, ticket sales and fan loyalty.

Tin-eared  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell rediscovered his patriot zeal, seizing the opportunity to repair and rebrand the league’s tattered image as America’s game.  Could the timing of the announcement that players on the field will be required to do what everyone else does during the national anthem or remain in the locker room be more obvious?

So where does that leave the countless politicians and public figures who jumped on the kneelers’ bandwagon?

The Washington Free Beacon raises that question by noting that the endorsed Democratic candidate running for Congress in southern Minnesota went long in his support of players who took a knee when the controversy first broke out.

Democrat Dan Feehan, who is running for Congress in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, in 2016 strongly supported former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem.

Feehan had tweeted repeatedly his support of Kaepernick when the quarterback and then other players refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem before games.

“He should sit as long as he feels compelled,” Feehan tweeted. “It is the precise use of freedom that I fought for on foreign soil. #veteransforKaepernick.”

The Free Beacon also noted that Feehan retweeted other posts praising Kaepernick’s antics.

It should be pointed out that Feehan is a veteran and was a Pentagon employee under the Obama administration. But you have to wonder how coming to the defense of Colin Kaepernick and other players who refused to honor the national anthem will play out in the largely rural First Congressional District.