A Super Bowl prediction
The "taking a knee" protest at the playing of our national anthem started by Colin Kaepernick will reach its obscene climax at the Super Bowl in February. It is likely that the protest will include players, advertisers, and possibly the halftime show, too. This protest is a fire that cannot be extinguished by sagging ratings and diminished fan enthusiasm for the game. It will have to burn itself out.
Fuel will inevitably be added to the fire because "aking the knee" nicely fits the narrative of the liberal media, the Democratic Party, Hollywood, and the rest of the entertainment industry. And now that President Trump has weighed in on the controversy, expect all the #NeverTrumps to support the protest, too.
The high-visibility Super Bowl, which is probably the most watched event on television, will be too tempting a target for the liberal coalition to pass up. The left will see the Super Bowl not as a football game, but as a way to get its message across to redneck country and all the "deplorables" that America is a racist country, maybe not explicitly, but surely under the surface.
The tactic I expect to be used by the glib-tongued liberal establishment is to create talking points and a storyline to make this protest seem wholesome and worthy of respect. To be against it will be taken as implicit proof of racist tendencies. Such propaganda will of course be lapped up by the media and spread thick, far, and wide by them. Most susceptible to it will be the young, who have the disadvantage of being embedded within the brainwashing factories of the universities and public schools.
Up to and including the Super Bowl, the "take a knee" protest will probably prevail. But after that, it's a different story. How much will depend on the critical thinking ability and intestinal fortitude that still exist among the American people. A marker to measure where we stand as a country will be viewership and attendance in the NFL throughout the 2017 season and the Super Bowl. The same goes for the NBA if it goes down the "take a knee" path.