NFL: Third and Long: Injuries, Debuts, Unacceptable

The NFL is making great strides towards regular season half-time, the first five matchdays are over – and once again politics in the USA is getting involved in the sport in an unattractive way.Meanwhile, Bears fans finally see Mitch Trubisky for the first time, Deshaun Watson has his first real endurance test and injuries dominate the picture after Week 5.SPOX editor Adrian Franke looks back on the past days in the NFL.

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The news leaked after the defeat against Green Bay: Cowboy owner Jerry Jones has announced that no cowboy player who “treats the flag disrespectfully” plays:”If anything disrespectful to the flag happens, we’re not playing.It also shows again that the actual message simply does not arrive, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

The protests – as I wrote two weeks ago – are not about the anthem or the flag.It is about inequality, racism, arbitrary police violence.No one treats a flag or anthem with disrespect because they kneel down.One treats a flag disrespectfully, however, by trampling underfoot the values for which it stands and which the military, which is so important to the same flag defenders in the world, is supposed to defend.That’s exactly what Jones is doing here, even if he doesn’t forbid the general protest.

The fact that he then defended the embarrassing appearance of Vice President Mike Pence, who had visited the Colts-Niners game just to go after the anthem, because players had been kneeling down in the meantime, put the crown on it all,”If our vice-president feels that the flag was treated disrespectfully, he should be allowed to express it as he pleases.He also has rights,”Jones emphasized.Oh, the irony…

The fact that someone like Jones is now swinging the looming club is hardly to be outbid in ridiculousness.The same Jerry Jones has not so long ago committed a player like Greg Hardy to several incidents of extreme domestic violence and has repeatedly publicly defended this decision.But in peaceful protest, Jones seems to be pulling the line.

You shouldn’t overstate it – first start, prime time, one of the best defenses in the NFL on the other side – but the debut of Mitchell Trubisky was eagerly awaited.At least some things became clear:

Page 1: Jerry Jones, Seattle, Kizer, Trubisky and Watt

Page 2: Vikings, Giants, Cowboys, Packers, Watson – your questions