The NFL’s sellout to their anthem-protesting players is starting to look a lot more like a buyout. According to ESPN, the league will offer nearly $100 million to causes designed to promote “social justice change.”
In a move unlike anything seen from a major American sports league, the league will offer the money in hopes that it will end the ratings-killing protest movement begun by Colin Kaepernick in the preseason of 2016.
According to ESPN:
The NFL’s multifaceted offer earmarks at least $89 million over a seven-year period for both national and local projects, according to documents reviewed by ESPN. On the national level, owners this year will allocate $5 million, with their commitment growing annually and maxing out at $12 million per year from 2021 through 2023. At the local level, owners will put up $250,000 annually and expect players to match that amount, totaling $500,000 for each team. Players and owners can exceed that amount if they choose, with no matching requirement. In addition, there would be other fundraising opportunities, including telethons and auctions of jerseys worn in games.
If the players approve their end of the deal, a vote on the appropriation of the money could come as early as March. Commissioner Roger Goodell is believed to have the support of the owners to proceed with the deal.
As far as how the money would be distributed, ESPN reports:
National funding would be allocated accordingly: 25 percent to the United Negro College Fund, 25 percent to Dream Corps and 50 percent to the Players Coalition, which has filed 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) paperwork for nonprofit status as a fiscally sponsored project. This week, the coalition hired the Hopewell Fund to oversee and advise the group, which hopes to work with grassroots and nonprofit organizations in its areas of focus.
Under the proposal, money at both the national and local level would provide grants for nonprofit organizations focused on law enforcement and community relations, criminal justice reform and education reform.
A working group of five players, five owners (or owners’ representatives) and two NFL staff members would help identify future initiatives to pursue.
There are major concerns with several of these groups that are earmarked to receive NFL dollars. The Dream Corps website reads like a Van Jones personal publicity site. The once-avowed communist and current CNN commentator appears on a couple different pages of the site, including a page which promotes Jones’s new book.
The group also supports an initiative called Green For All, which has the goal to, “build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
“Our goal is to make sure people of color have a place and a voice in the climate movement. That our neighborhoods are strong, resilient, and healthy. That as the clean energy economy grows, it brings jobs and opportunities to our communities. ”
The other gigantic concern here is the 50 percent of funds earmarked for the Players Coalition. The money spent by this group will probably, at least in some significant measure, mirror the spending pattern of the NFL Players Association and how they’ve spent their money, which should serve as a source of great concern for all.
Back in October, tax documents revealed by conservative watchdog group 2ndVote showed how the NFLPA liberally (figuratively and literally) distributed funds to groups associated with George Soros.
From that report, we learned, “In 2013 and 2015, the NFLPA also contributed to the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, Working America. This group, according to Open Secrets, contributed $1 million to defeat President Trump during the 2016 election. However, the group’s anti-Trump activities were not limited to the election. According to the Washington Times, ‘“Working America has since mobilized against the Republican tax-cut framework, denouncing it as the ‘Trump tax scam.'”
In addition we learned that, “In tax documents recently released by 2ndVote, a conservative watchdog group, we learn that the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) made a donation of $5,000 in 2015 to the Center for Community Change Action, a George Soros funded and adamantly anti-Trump organization.”
It’s important to note that these instances barely scratched the surface of all the left-wing activist groups that had received funds from the NFLPA. Why would any of that change with considerably larger amounts of money given to activist players who are essentially ransoming the national anthem?
The NFL’s surrender on the national anthem protests is turning out to be a very costly venture, both in terms of money and our country.
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