This is a weird poll. If they are boycotting the team, they have already chosen. Personally, I think the main issue is being overlooked. The simple reality is that people don't want politics in their entertainment.

Imagine this: Blake Bortles comes out one day and refuses to stand for the anthem. When pressed, he says that he can't stand for a flag that doesn't represent justice for all people. Millions of people are killed each year because of abortion, and until Planned Parenthood is reformed, he won't stand. Emboldened by his approach, other football players start kneeling.

People on the left can look at this scenario and know immediately that they would not want to see this happening in the NFL. It has nothing to do with free speech or patriotism. Progressives would call for him to be fired, ask the NFL to stop allowing this type of protest, or they would stop watching the game (they would also attack his patriotism). This is exactly what's happening with the current protests. The difference is that the right doesn't function as a collective, so it took an authority figure to push thousands of people over the edge. Here's the thing, though: I would totally understand why progressives wouldn't want to turn on the TV to see conservatives kneeling to protest abortion. If I were a business that depended on revenue from people with multiple points of view, I would move to stop it.

In my opinion, one of the reasons why the NFL didn't stop the kneeling immediately is because the power the left has to create a publicity nightmare for Goodell, so he caved. He allowed it, not because he wanted it, but because he was hoping those with the power to influence (ESPN especially) would not attack the NFL. The biggest difference between the BLM protest and the hypothetical I presented is that the media would cover them completely differently. They most likely would not have  ignored it (since it would make them too much money), but the odds are pretty good that they would have absolutely condemned the NFL, almost unilaterally, for allowing it. The opposite is true of Kaepernick: if the NFL stopped it, Goodell would have been chastised ruthlessly.

While it's not stated explicitly, those on the right have very little ability to represent their position on a national platform (outside of Fox), and they have become accustomed to silently venting to like minded individuals and keeping their mouths shut otherwise. This is why Trump is such a wild card. He tapped into an emotional sentiment that he picked up from his base, mostly frustration, and he turned it into political leverage. Trump does a really good job of mobilizing his base as a show of strength, but is terrible at turning that into anything productive. In a world where he had some kind of media control, this could be effective. In reality, it is just divisive. If he was more concerned with solving the problem than creating an "other," I think I would be more supportive.  

I knew when this started that it was a bad thing for the NFL, because the real issue is to separate politics and entertainment. Unfortunately, Trump made it about patriotism. Now teams are trying to get around the kneeling thing, but it doesn't matter. The underlying issue is still there, which is keeping people from coming back. People just don't acknowledge it. They make it about the players when it's really about They don't care if it's before the anthem, during, or afterwards. Entertainment is an escape from the pressures of every day life. Players are welcome to voice their concerns and the owners are welcome to allow it, but they have to deal with the fallout or people who don't want to pay for it. This is happening across the entertainment spectrum right now. The merging of politics and entertainment is alienating a significant portion of the country.

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