Why NFL players' national anthem protests aren't working

If the point of consciousness-raising is persuasion rather than publicity, football players protesting the national anthem is tactically unwise

Eric Reid of the San Francisco 49ers kneels during the National Anthem before a preseason game.
(Image credit: Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Football is back — and with it the controversy over players kneeling during the pregame national anthem to protest racial injustices in America.

The number of NFL players who are participating in these demonstrations is growing, even though the one who did the most to popularize them, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, is still unemployed. Green Bay Packers star QB Aaron Rodgers speaks for many when he says plainly that these two facts about Kaepernick are related.

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W. James Antle III

W. James Antle III is the politics editor of the Washington Examiner, the former editor of The American Conservative, and author of Devouring Freedom: Can Big Government Ever Be Stopped?.