Traina Thoughts: Jerry Jones Is A Hypocrite Of Epic Proportions
1. It's not surprising that an NFL owner would take a stand against players taking a knee during the national anthem. But when the most vocal and ignorant owner to do so is Jerry Jones, it's hard not to be left in awe at the hypocrisy. Basically, if you're a Cowboys player, anything else you do is fine, but the line must be drawn at a silent and peaceful protest.
Everyone knows about Greg Hardy. The defensive lineman was arrested in 2014 after he was alleged to have assaulted an ex-girlfriend by grabbing her, throwing her into furniture, strangling her, and threatening to kill her. When his victim failed to appear in court at his trial, the chargers were dropped. Deadspin, though, gave us a pretty good idea of what happened between the two. Of course, this did not stop Jones from signing Hardy to a one-year, $11.3 million contract in 2015.
It's not just Hardy, though. The Cowboys, with tough-guy Jerry running the show, have had more suspensions over the past three seasons than any other team—106 total games lost to suspension. The next highest team? The Ravens at 55.
Dallas Morning News
But Jerry wants to make his friend Donald Trump happy, so he's playing ball and taking a hard stand, saying that, "we cannot ... in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag." In reality, anyone that wants to look at the protests objectively, knows that the players are kneeling to protest police brutality and racial injustice and not the flag or the military.
For instance, Dolphins safety Michael Thomas is a player who has kneeled during the national anthem to bring awareness to inequality. Yes, this Michael Thomas.
Of course, Jerry Jones—whose act of kneeling with his players BEFORE the anthem a couple of weeks ago and then locking arms with his players looks even more ridiculous now—and Donald Trump aren't interested in hearing about inequality or social injustice. They just want to spin the protests to make themselves look like heroes and beacons of patriotism. If that means taking a harder stance on a silent, peaceful protest than on domestic violence, drugs and other crimes, so be it in Jerry's Deranged World.
2. The single-best highlight of the entire weekend was the work of CBS Sports Network analyst Jay Feely on this field-goal attempt in the Eastern Michigan-Toledo game.
3. Thanks to Feely, Troy Aikman only gets the runner up award for biggest broadcasting blunder of the weekend.
4. With Angels superstar Mike Trout in attendance, the Eagles pulled out an A+ touchdown celebration yesterday.
5. You'd have to be dead inside to not feel awful for J.J. Watt.
6. Even if you hate the Yankees, you have to appreciate Aaron Judge preventing that really annoying foul ball guy Zack Hample from getting another ball.
7. In case you missed it over the weekend, this Saturday Night Live sketch on a famous NFL player was very solid.
8. RANDOM WRESTLING VIDEO OF THE DAY: Classic old-school WWF: Rick Rude hits on Jake "The Snake" Roberts' wife.
The best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts. And check Jimmy Traina's weekly podcast Off The Boardon iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher.
BONUS ITEM: I don't like tonight's game at all from a betting perspective, but if I HAD to pick, I'd say Vikings -3.5 only because it's Mitchell Trubisky's first career start and he's going against a very legit defense.
