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Bengals' Brown Feels NFL Wants Owners To Scale Back Anthem Talk

Brown said that it saddens him that the NFL has lost favor with fans in recent yearsBENGALS

Bengals Owner Mike Brown "indicated that owners have been instructed to say little" regarding the NFL's new anthem policy while an "agreement is worked out" between the league and the NFLPA, according to Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. Brown said, "The league and the union are talking on this and we're instructed to stand down while that's ongoing. I'm not going to sit here and stir the pot. They don't want to hear from me right now. Let's see how this bubbles up and I hope they can come up with some kind of answer that is acceptable to not just the club and the players but more the public." Brown: "Let's not forget the president." Brown did not say whether he had "considered issuing a policy" similar to what the Dolphins and Owner Stephen Ross initially enacted last week. No Bengals player "knelt during the national anthem last year." But Brown was "in the spotlight in May" after he reportedly asked free agent S Eric Reid if he "planned to continue to kneel during the national anthem." Brown said that it "saddens" him that the NFL has "lost favor with fans in recent years due to a number of issues, one of which he thinks is the ongoing debate about players' actions during the national anthem." Brown: "We have lost some of the fizz we had with the public with distractions, whether it's the anthem issue of the concussion issue. ... We have challenges. They have to be addressed better than we have to this point" (ESPN.com, 7/24).

STIRRING THE POT: Brown said that President Trump's recent tweets have "worked against finding a resolution" to the anthem issue. Brown said, "It stirred the pot, it got people looking at it unfavorably, and he has worked that issue for, I suppose, political reasons. It's beyond my pay grade" (AP, 7/24). Asked if he regretted bringing in Reid, Brown said, "Do I regret stepping into it the way that I apparently did? I think you know the answer to that. It has become a grievance, a lawsuit. I don't want to get into that matter here. I think my counsel would appreciate my silence on the matter here and suggest I say what I have to say to him." In Cincinnati, Paul Dehner Jr. notes the way things "played out" with Reid caught Brown "off guard." Brown: "Am I a bit surprised about how it formed up? It was a quick-forming thunderhead. I didn't expect it" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/25).

OLD COLLEGE TRY: YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel wrote under the header, "College Football's Pregame, Including National Anthem, Offers Better Fan Experience -- So Why Won't NFL Follow It?" Colleges do a "far better job than the NFL in pregame hype," and part of that is "building crowd energy and noise into a crescendo that peaks the moment the ball is kicked off." It is "expertly choreographed." The NFL is about to enter a third season of the anthem issue "hanging over it" and the league "still has no actual plan." The NFL "can't get out of its own way." Trump, meanwhile, is "always waiting to whack the league like a political piñata." As a practical matter, nearly everyone "just wants it to end," but any solution at this point is "certain to enrage." There is "no perfect solution," but if the NFL decided to follow the college model, it sure would be "better than whatever it's come up with thus far" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/24).

ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES TO BLAME: In Pittsburgh, Ron Cook wrote one would think the owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell are "smart enough to figure out the national anthem fiasco" that once again is "dominating the league as its teams head to training camp" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 7/24). FS1's Jason Whitlock said of a resolution to the anthem issue before the season, "There's no leadership in sight from the league or the NFL Players' Association. ... The NFL and Roger Goodell don't seem to be willing to draw a line in the sand." FS1's Colin Cowherd said, "I don't think it will because there are winners and losers. That's what social media's about now, being on the winning side, the avalanche. It’s better to be on the avalanche, skiing it than be overwhelmed by it. … This is a winners and losers, political story. It’s not even football anymore. It’s not about football. It’s about politics and it’ll last forever” (“Speak for Yourself,” FS1, 7/23). In DC, Deron Snyder wrote the NFL can "blame itself" for the "continued discussion of this topic." The issue had "died by the end of last season," and yet the league "unnecessarily resurrected it with a ham-handed new policy in May." Snyder: "Unfortunately, we'll continue to spend more time and passion on the protests, rather than the incidents that spark them" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 7/24).

HAD THEIR CHANCE: PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Peter King wrote the NFL "blew it last year" when the league gave the Players Coalition $90M over seven years to "address social-justice causes ... and put no strings on the money." It was a "grand and good gesture." But the NFL was "clearly making that gesture mostly to throw an olive branch to the players" and to say, "We hope you look at this as a gesture of good faith by us. Now please line up at attention for the anthem." But the NFL "didn't say that" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 7/23).

A LEAGUE OF DIFFERENCE: In DC, Barry Svrluga writes under the header, "Brewers Fans Cheered Josh Hader. NFL Fans Should Treat Kneeling Players As Kindly." It is "worth thinking about" as Brewers P Josh Hader's incident gets "further behind us and the NFL season rapidly approaches." Svrluga: "What did the fans at Miller Park say about themselves when they embraced an embattled pitcher? What will the fans, at, say, Green Bay's Lambeau Field say about themselves when they react to Packers players who use their platforms to draw attention to mass incarceration, to social justice, to issues they find important?" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/25).

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