Greg Milam, US Correspondent for Sky News: "Trump sees the world as this reality TV game show"
Friday 29 September 2017 17:18, UK
The NFL were united on Sunday, united against a common enemy, and yet the country it calls home is never more so divided.
In a foul-mouthed address at a rally in Alabama a week ago, US President Donald Trump said: "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b**** off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired!'
Trump has been locked in a 'game' against the NFL that has dominated newspaper headlines since.
To Trump, the world is a game, there are winners, of which he counts himself one, and, as he so often likes to label those that cross him, there are 'losers'.
Though the NFL has been defiant in its response to Trump's latest Twitter tantrum, with players and owners alike condemning his 'divisive' words and united displays on the sidelines taking many forms - on one knee, arm in arm or in the locker room - Trump still feels he has won.
Greg Milam, US Correspondent for Sky News, has been following the story closely: "Trump sees the world as this reality TV game show - this, a man that hosted The Apprentice.
"In his latest statement on the issue, he was talking about it as being a win, that he'd won this debate with the NFL, pointing out that ratings are down.
"He likes pitting people against each other, getting everyone riled up and then picking a winner. That's what he likes to do - he sees that as a good way of doing business. He thinks that because he won an election doing it."
Trump won that election with the backing of multiple NFL figureheads, including Robert Kraft, owner of the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, who was one of seven team owners to donate at least $1m to his inauguration, but who was also the first of those to speak out and condemn Trump's comments.
"There is no greater unifier in this country than sports, and unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics," Kraft said. "I think our political leaders could learn a lot from the lessons of teamwork and the importance of working together toward a common goal."
So, what changed?
There is a feeling that the strength of the NFL's response strikes of hypocrisy. Former Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe certainly said as much during Fox Sports' Undisputed show.
"I'm disappointed. And I'm unimpressed. Because this is the tipping point. Of the 7,537 things that President Trump has said in the last 50 years, him calling an NFL player an S.O.B. is what brought the NFL, the owners and its players, together. And while some might be moved by the conscience of these NFL owners, it wasn't their conscience that moved them. It was the cash."
As such, has the intent behind Colin Kaepernick's original protest, been lost?
On Thursday, NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart suggested as much, saying the real issues at hand had been "overtaken by political forces."
"One of the impacts is to distort the views of the NFL and particularly our players," Lockhart added.
When Kaepernick spoke out for the first time more than 12 months ago, his wish was to highlight the perceived racial injustice and police brutality prevalent in America, saying: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour.
"To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way."
While some players followed his lead, it is Kaepernick who has been punished the harshest for his protest with the indirect loss of his job - the same NFL owners supporting Sunday's united displays on the sidelines, unwilling to take the public relations risk that would be his signing, since he became a free agent in March.
"There is a corporate aspect to this - how the franchises are treading this line of trying not to offend ether side and doing just enough," said Milam, who was in Arizona on Monday night for the Cardinals' game against the Dallas Cowboys.
"They don't want to alienate fans, or new audiences that are now suddenly watching what is happening before the game, if not during it.
"The core of what Kaepernick did, and where it comes from, remains the same - the issues of inequality, the social problems in the US.
"It has been easy to distract from that, to say it is about disrespecting the military, or the flag. That is not what anyone who was there at the beginning of this was intending to do.
"And, I spoke to fans on both sides in Phoenix - a lot of them, particularly in Arizona, are ex-military and the view is pretty similar - black, white, Hispanic - they fought to preserve the right to freedom of speech."
Trump's words have reignited a protest that saw just 10 NFL players refuse to stand for the national anthem the previous week, catapulting the numbers into the hundreds. But what lasting effect will his words have?
"It's hard to predict just what he'll do next," added Milam. "But when he thinks he's on to something that is winning him popularity, he'll keep on doing it. And then that leads us through the whole cycle again, another weekend of focus on what the players are doing, the booing and the reaction.
"He talks about creating unity a lot. But I don't think any of this advances that more subtle nuanced debate about race and social equality. They just send people further back into their own corners.
"It is kind of a function of how everything works here at the moment - you are either extreme on one side or extreme on the other. Trump perpetuates that."
With that in mind, despite such united displays on the sidelines, it appears the NFL, and the US, is just as fractured as when Kaepernick started this whole debate a year ago.
