now, the line between politics and sports always sort of controversial, always critical of one side or the other for stepping over that line. that line has now been obliterated. the raiders, the owners have spoken out as have many owners around the league. one of the interesting parts is many of these owners i m losing my umbrella. many of these owners have in fact given political money to president donald trump who thought in alabama opening this fuse by criticizing colin kaepernick and others who have knelt against police injustment and brutality against african-americans. the raiders have marshawn lynch, a star running back. he s been sitting on a cooler during the national anthem. hasn t said exactly why, although everyone is inferring he s backing colin kaepernick s line. they have the only all african-american offensive line in the national football league. they have let it be known
country. as you mentioned, we saw earlier in the first game of the day in london, those players from both sides of the team taking a kneel, and others were standing locked arm in arm. even the owner of the jaguars stood there locked in solidarity. this is much bigger than just the nfl. this has also extended to the nba and also mlb. we saw the first baseball player take a knee yesterday. and those mega superstars like lebron james and steph curry, they jumped in to say, look, this is really about our freedom of speech. we re taking a stand for equality. we re taking a stand for inclusion. let s take a listen to what some of those fans had to say. i think the sports players, the nfl, the nba, and major league baseball players are completely validated in their protest, and all donald trump is doing is validating everything the players have been doing and everything that colin kaepernick has been doing for the last two years. what do you mean validating? there s inequality in the co
in the first amendment and president trump s heart that the peaceful protesting, but this is something that kind of bugs me a little bit as a business owner and who employs people. these players, since we re on the nymfl subject, they agree i this contractual agreements. it s not fair for someone to sign up saying hey, we re going to work out x amount of days, go out and play the game on sunday, but before we come out and have our huddle, we re going to do the national anthem, and this is what you agree on the terms and conditions for your contract to play for the nfl. which is they do work for an employer. they are employees. so i have to respectfully disagree. i don t think it s fair to the owner. i wouldn t see you, alex, go out and protest on msnbc because you signed a contract to be a fabulous news anchor here at msnbc. i think respectfully, giving respect back to the employer, and if you want to practice that, then for god s sake, start your own league, your own team,
these players, of course, they re risking in some cases like colin kaepernick, he doesn t play for an nfl team anymore. he s lost his ability to make a living as an athlete because of his stance on this issue, but they are courageous. they have a right to be heard, to protest, to disagree. and they ought to be heard. erin d., is there a sense in your mind that the president went too far this time? i m just going to speak based on the conversations i ve had throughout this day. they have been very passionate. and at least from the anchor desk, it feels like this is different. this has ignited a national debate. and when donald trump threw out this line in alabama on friday night, his supporters cheered. but he was there to advocate for luther strange, an alabama senate primary. he wasn t there to start a national conversation on this issue. and you have to wonder why the president chose to wade into this territory. this is igniting protests all over the country, emotions are high. a
people in our community. that s what i m talking about. what are you talking about? it s wrong. what are you doing about it? why won t the president say so? look, guys. there s so much here we can discuss, but i want to try to keep it based on what s happening today. currently with regard to the nfl, with the reaction to the president s speech on friday in atlanta, with his subsequent tweets both yesterday and today. i m going to ask all of you this last question. lebron james, the king, right, in the nba? he put out a tweet yesterday, and he called the president a bum. i m going to ask you first, william, then you, chris, and then you, bruce, your thoughts on that. did he go too far? or with this president, is it open season because of what the president, the vernacular he uses and the way he goes after people? william, you first. in other words, what the president has done is turned this into a locker room. a locker room brawl. that s what he s done. he s turned it into tha