The Philadelphia Eagles are anthem-kneelers! They disrespected America! They don’t belong in the White House! Byaaah!
Yeah, except … nope.
As you’ve probably heard, President Donald Trump on Monday disinvited the Eagles from celebrating their Super Bowl championship at the White House on Tuesday. The fact that Philly reportedly planned to send fewer than 10 players to Washington factored into Trump’s decision, but, unsurprisingly, the ongoing NFL-national anthem saga made its way into the debate.
In a tweet late Monday, Trump dragged the Eagles through the usual anthem protest rhetoric.
The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House. Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
Before (and especially after) that tweet, many, including conservative activist Charlie Kirk, accused the Eagles of refusing to stand for the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Exhibit A:
If you refuse to stand for the national anthem you have no business being honored at the White House or by our President
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 4, 2018
People like Kirk are entitled to feel anyway they want about anything they want, but there’s just one problem: Zero Eagles players knelt during the anthem last season — not during the regular season, not during the playoffs. Never happened.
Many players across the NFL knelt during the anthem last season, but none of those players were Eagles.
https://twitter.com/TorreySmithWR/status/1003792386743521280
Not one single @Eagles player knelt during the National Anthem in the 2017 regular season and playoffs. Not one Eagles player chose to stay inside the locker room. This has been a team that has been united while respectfully having different opinions.
— Kevin Negandhi (@KevinNegandhi) June 5, 2018
Keeping the false narrative alive was FOX News, which misled viewers by running pictures of Eagles players kneeling in prayer during pregame warmups.
And, well, that didn’t sit well with Eagles defensive end Chris Long.
https://twitter.com/JOEL9ONE/status/1003990054505730048
To FOX’s credit, the network admitted its mistake in a tweet Tuesday morning.
"To clarify, no members of the team knelt in protest during the national anthem throughout regular or post-season last year. We apologize for the error." -Christopher Wallace, Executive Producer of FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream (2 of 2)
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 5, 2018
Hey, it’s better than not apologizing.
At the end of the day, people have the right to feel however they want about the anthem, the flag, the Eagles, the president and the NFL. But if common ground ever is going to be found in this increasingly ludicrous debate, then #FakeNews can’t be perpetuated, especially from the leader of the free world.
