tennis star melts down, i ll explain why serena williams got it all wrong this past weekend, and i ll be joined by former tennis great himself. first, the n.f.l. fumbles on the anthem again, the focus of tonight s angle. last may n.f.l. owners announced policy requiring their players to stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room during the anthem. anyone kneeling or protesting would be fined. but what a difference a few months make, the n.f.l. has now announced it won t implement its own new policy. this weekend kenny stills and albert wilson of the miami dolphins took a knee during the anthem of the season opener. their teammate robert quinnstood with his fist in the air. what penalties will they face?
programs to this one. we didn t agree with that because we weren t trying to cut other worthy programs. well, whatever the case, the n.f.l. thought it could buy its way out of any further controversy surrounding the anthem, but basically paying off patchwork of left-leaning groups. but it didn t completely work. on the broadcast side of the issue, increasingly liberal espn has decided it will no longer air the playing of the star-spangled banner at all before monday night football. i hope colin and company are happy with that. the fans aren t. viewership of the n.f.l. season opener, at least, was down 13% from last year and reached the lowest rating for an opening game since 2009, they did better yesterday, though. i have a better idea of all this, if the players or n.f.l. were truly concerned about making life better for minorities in the united states, why not consider dropping the
and my committee finds they are unfairly treated, then we will pardon them or at least let them out. laura: my question is how many n.f.l. players have taken him up on that offer? reached out to the president? well, maybe some have used back channels, i don t know, to not do so confirm the suspicion the anthem protest is more about ideology than and that s the angle. joining us with reaction is vera, president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives, along with retired n.f.l. star burgess owens, great to see both of you. vera, right to you for your reaction to the angle given what s happened over the past few years and where we are today, why not the players turn this into an opportunity to work with president trump, especially
already, did it before colin kaepernick and after colin kaepernick. again, looks like from the outside and the more left-wing critics and people on the left who think you guys were bought off like this guy steven crockett, at the root, i ll put up the full screen. says, malcolm jenkins sounds like man who turned his back on harrie t tubman. please stop calling malcolm jenkins the face of colin kaepernick kaepernick s. you were too quick to take the money instead of continuing the protest and standing against what the n.f.l. owners are all about. you are getting hit by both sides, the left and the right, i guess. honestly, laura, i can understand how from the outside it may look that way. on the inside and you understand that generations of players
coming to this point and moving forward are going to be concerned about the issues that all americans should be concerned about, you understand money being donated was us and the n.f.l. coming together and negotiateing that and willing to support the cause. i think we can learn a lesson from what happened here because of on the outside again, when you watch the news and hear tribalism going on, there is a lot of back and forth, but no communication and what we ve done, come together to communicate, understand things, learning about it, they want to support our initiatives. laura: i get it. why not work with president trump, he s doing criminal justice reform, prison reform, he s reached out to you guys, given an olive branch, you have ideas, bring to my committee and i ll consider them. last word, briefly. this is president of the united states, he has ample resources, gone through thousands and thousands of people who need pardons. we wrote an op ed about systemic