NFL team that broke the anthem protest policy now wants $750K taxpayer handout
One of the most maddening things about the national anthem protest controversy in the NFL is that every time the narrative cools off a bit, an event comes along to heat it right back up.
Colin Kaepernick started protesting the anthem in 2016 and influenced several other players to join him.
At the beginning of last season, Kaepernick was out of the league and the number of anthem protesters had dwindled.
But then President Donald Trump lambasted anthem protesters at a rally and nearly the entire league chose to protest in some way (via linking arms, kneeling, sitting or raising a fist) in Week 3 of last season.
The narrative cooled off again, as there were only a handful of anthem protesters still protesting by the end of the season. At that point, all attention was turned to a genuinely fun and exciting postseason.
Things immediately heated back up when the NFL owners introduced a spineless and pointless NFL anthem policy that mandated players on the sidelines to stand at attention for the anthem, but giving them the option to remain in the locker room for the anthem.
There was initial backlash and the issue was back in the public spotlight, but for the most part, the media hullabaloo quieted rather quickly.
That didn’t last long because Tennessee Titans star Jurrell Casey publicly defied the new rule, saying he would willingly pay whatever fine to protest on the sideline. That type of defiance seemingly sparked the Miami Dolphins to adopt a team policy that would allow them to suspend anthem protesters for up to four games.
The backlash and swift retraction to the Dolphins’ policy eventually led to the league scrapping the new anthem policy altogether. In effect, the league drummed up several months of controversy for absolutely no reason.
But now the Dolphins, after being in the eye of the storm, are moving onto an even more shameless endeavor — grabbing some more of that sweet taxpayer money, according to the Miami Herald.
The Dolphins already reap a hefty benefit of up to $5 million in hotel taxes, which the citizens of Miami-Dade country cough up. Now, the team wants to move its practice facility about 10 miles from its current location and the new deal proposed to do so could cost the taxpayers another $750,000.
That’s not even counting the $500,000 the team wants refunded due to the higher property tax of the new potential facility.
The reasons why the Dolphins consider this a “good” thing for the taxpayer is the usual rubbish from publicly funded sports venues.
New stadiums are cited as economic generators by billionaire sports owners, but that’s a claim that’s been refuted numerous times by economic experts. Besides, even given that a new sports stadium is an economic generator, it’s beyond dubious to think that a practice facility is any sort of economic boon.
Yes, there will be some jobs created, primarily involving construction. But those jobs dissipate when the project is done.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to come to terms with the fact that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, personally worth $7.6 billion, needs help from the American taxpayer to build a new practice facility.
Unfortunately, for American taxpayers in areas with major sports teams, that’s a problem that’s all too common.
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