Wealthy NFL owners, players are mocking fans

Everyone seems to have an opinion about NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. The battle lines are patriotism vs. social justice and free speech.

In 1966, Congress granted the NFL antitrust waivers to merge with the AFL, conduct a draft, and auction TV rights for the now 32 teams. According to Gregg Easterbrook, who wrote a book on NFL tax subsidies, the NFL earned $1 billion in 2015 on revenues of $10 billion.

And NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gets paid $34 million a year to limit how much dancing players can do in the end zone, how much air Tom Brady can have in a football, and to deny that players suffer concussions.

Professor Judith Grant Long of Harvard wrote that 71 percent of the capital costs of stadiums are paid by taxpayers. Many local governments also pay for operating costs, power, sewer, infrastructure cost, etc. Bloomberg estimates tax-exempt bonds that finance stadiums have cost the federal government $17 billion in lost revenue in the last 30 years.

In Pennsylvania, taxpayers paid off a debt of $260 million on Three Rivers Stadium so the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the wealthiest teams in the NFL, could build Heinz Field. The Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones doesn’t have to pay property taxes on his $1.2 billion stadium. Forbes estimates the Cowboys franchise is valued at over $4 billion.

The average NFL player makes $1.9 million a year.

So, the next time you watch your favorite team kneeling during the national anthem, remember the real victims of injustice. We are. The NFL and its owners, with the help of politician-enablers, take advantage of naive taxpayers, then have the nerve to preach to us about unity, racism, free speech, and why disrespecting our flag is OK. Really!

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Wealthy NFL owners, players are mocking fans."