{"id":32352,"date":"2017-10-11T17:27:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T00:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=32352"},"modified":"2017-10-11T19:28:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T02:28:18","slug":"just-saying-jerry-jones-nfl-edict-trumps-poodle-and-playing-with-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=32352","title":{"rendered":"Just Saying: Jerry Jones’ NFL Edict, Trump’s Poodle and Playing with Matches"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BY RAUL HERNANDEZ<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Notebookventura@gmail.com<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Jerry Jones’ Red, White and Blue Edict<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would hire Attila the Hun if he believed Attila could take him to the Super Bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones recently said he would bench players who took a knee during the national anthem.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott, and Dez Bryant took a knee at a football stadium during the playing of the national anthem, Jones’ pretend patriotism and self-righteous Christianity would take a backseat to profits and posting wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones maintains that he doesn’t want anyone to disrespect the flag or our soldiers.\u00a0 But he is okay with players who beat women and are deemed too violent to be put on the rosters of other NFL teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Father Jerry Jones has a history of running an NFL’s Boys Town for troubled football players dumped by other teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some of Jones’ Boys Town members: Randy Gregory, Charles Haley, Leon Lett, Adam “Pacman” Jones, Alonzo Spellman, Dimitrius Underwood, Dez Bryant, La’el Collins, Michael Irvin, Greg Hardy, and of course, Terrell Owens, aka T.O.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Sports Day<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jones should have simply said that while the Cowboys Organization disagrees with the way some are protesting police brutality and abuse by taking a knee, this is America and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people don’t have to stand during the national anthem or salute the flag.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, the highest court in the nation also ruled that people can burn the flag as a form of protest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, although the Cowboys organization doesn’t understand or agree with what some are doing during the anthem, it respects their constitutional right to engage in peaceful protest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, Jones painted himself into a corner that will end up with him eating crow and worse, losing money and respect from his players.<\/span><\/p>\n

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CNN’S NFL’S CONTRACT EXPERT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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This week a so-called legal expert on CNN said the billionaire NFL owners can dictate through NFL contracts what players can and cannot do on and off the football field.<\/span><\/p>\n

I disagree. This is why.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The case, it appears, governing this national anthem and flag issue goes back to 1943 ( West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In a 6-3 decision, the justices in 1943 held that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects students from being forced to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court noted that free speech and constitutional rights are generally placed “beyond the reach of majorities and officials.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The CNN legal “expert” apparently has no clue that contracts cannot trump (excuse the pun) the Constitutional rights of people. <\/span><\/p>\n

This means that people have a right to free speech but you can’t voice your political or religious views at the workplace if the boss doesn’t allow it. That is understandable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also\u00a0<\/span>a clause in the NFL contract can prohibit employees from spouting racist views and comments on social media or engaging in immoral acts and conduct.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is also understandable.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I doubt that an employer can play the national anthem at work and fire workers who refuse to stand, place their hand over their hearts or salute the flag . Or require employees to say certain prayers or attend certain places of worship.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the NFL can’t take disciplinary or remedial action against a player or players who refuse to stand or sit on the bench when the national anthem is played to exercise their right to peaceful protest or silent disagreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is what Justice Hugo Black wrote in the 1943 Supreme Court case: “Words uttered under coercion are proof of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from willing hearts and free minds, inspired by a fair administration of wise laws enacted by the people’s elected representatives within the bounds of express constitutional prohibitions. These laws must, to be consistent with the First Amendment, permit the widest toleration of conflicting viewpoints consistent with a society of free men.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, Americans, as a form of protest, are allowed to burn the U.S. flag.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989<\/strong>)<\/a>, Justice William Brennan wrote the five-justice majority saying that Gregory Lee Johnson’s flag burning was protected free speech under the First Amendment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brennan stated: “We never before have held that the Government may ensure that a symbol be<\/span> used to express only one view of that symbol or its referents.”<\/span><\/p>\n

And, Jerry Jones, well, the Dallas Cowboy owner seems to love blacks who keep their mouths shuts, restrict and choreograph their protests to NFL standards that are set up by billionaires and conform to Donald Trump’s Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blacks who go deep, make game-winning catches and run over defenders while heading for the goal line.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was a Cowboy fan many years before Jerry Jones bought the team. I bleed Cowboy blue and root for my Cowboys at full-lung capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if the players on America’s team comply with Jones’ no-kneeling edict during the anthem and have no balls to stand by their convictions, I will give the team the middle finger and put them on the rearview mirror of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s over.<\/span><\/p>\n

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TRUMP’S AND HIS POODLE’S PUBLICITY STUNT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"Trump’s poodle and publicity whore Mike Pence<\/span>\u00a0spent $200,000 of the taxpayers’ money for an NFL stunt.\u00a0 Pence is a creepy human being who tries to pimp himself as a Christian to please the “faith” community, the evangelical cheering section and the right-wing loons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vanity Fair<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>made this observation about Pence’s stunt\u00a0wrote: “In case you didn\u2019t see this coming from several miles away,\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0notes<\/a>\u00a0that a member of Pence\u2019s staff told the pool reporter traveling with him not to enter the stadium because there was a\u00a0chance<\/em>\u00a0the V.P. would make an early departure. And of course, no stunt would be complete without a breathless (and definitely not pre-meditated) Twitter statement.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I love GQ’s Keith Olbermann’s comments on Pence’s stunt:<\/span>
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