From Newsgroup: alt.sports.basketball.nba

Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Brett Favre blamed "struggling" ratings
for professional sports on "political messaging" that has been infused
into games.

Favre appeared via video at a town hall with President Donald Trump on Sinclair Broadcast Group's "America This Week" hosted by Eric Bolling.
During the town hall, which aired Wednesday, Favre asked the president
how professional athletes and teams can balance sports and social
justice without losing their fan bases.

"The NBA and the NFL are struggling with lower ratings as fans clearly
do not want political messaging mixed with their sports, so how should
the leagues support and promote an anti-racism position without
becoming political and alienating fans?" Favre asked.

Trump responded to Favre by saying that people want sports to remain
about sports only. Most people use sports to escape from politics and
they do not want those political or social justice issues distracting
from the games, especially if the fans disagree with the stances of the participants.

"People don't want to see all of the politics. They've got enough
politics with me and with everybody else, and they don't want to see it
with football and sports on Sunday or whenever they happen to be
watching," Trump said. "I think it's had a huge impact on sports, a
huge negative impact on sports. I think the football ought to get back
to football and basketball to basketball and let politics remain
separate."

"If people want to protest they can, but they shouldn't be protesting
on the sidelines during the football game, especially when they are
making $10 million a year for something that they would be doing anyway
for free if they weren't in the league or the NFL or in the NBA," Trump continued. "But the NBA in particular, their ratings have gone down.
I've never seen anything like it. But the NFL, too. People don't want
to see it, and they want to have these players stand and salute and put
their hand over their heart, or at least stand for the national anthem
and solute. They want respect for the American flag, they want respect
for our country."

The NBA stepped up social justice messaging in the latter half of the
2020 season after it was paused mid-way through because of the
coronavirus pandemic. After the league restarted the season in the
Disney "bubble" in Florida, the NBA significantly increased activism
during the games by painting slogans such as "Black Lives Matter" on
the sidelines and replacing players' names on their jerseys with
phrases such as "Say Their Names" and "I Can't Breathe."

Social justice activism also spread through the NFL as many teams are attempting to walk a balance between protesting the national anthem and
not offending much of their fan base. A few teams have elected to not
take the field at all during the national anthem so fans cannot see
whether players are kneeling for the anthem or not. Other teams, such
as the Baltimore Ravens, have elected to put their activism on display
no matter the backlash.

--
Democrats and the liberal media hate President Trump more than they
love this country.

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2