Peyton Manning shows exactly the double standards in the treatment of NFL anthem protesters

Brandon Marshall protests at season opener in Denver

As the NFL season begins we are seeing clear examples of how all the phony white and corporate indignation about Colin Kaepernick and the growing movement of those peacefully protesting police violence against people-of-colour by refusing to stand for the American national anthem is so staggering.


During the first game of the season which saw the Denver Broncos play the Carolina Panthers in a Super Bowl rematch, one player on the Denver team, Brandon Marshall, joined the ranks of these protesters. thescore.com wrote of this:

After the game Thursday, Marshall said he was prepared to lose sponsorship deals because he knew he was doing the right thing.
"I'm going to get a lot of scrutiny and I understand that. In the eyes of a lot of people, I'll be respected. In the eyes of most people, I'll be hated," said Marshall, according to Cameron Wolfe of the Denver Post. "I was thinking I could lose endorsements. I could lose likability. I could lose my credibility in my community when I want to do things. I could lose that. But I'm a man of faith and I really prayed about it for a lot of days. I feel good about it. As a man, you can go home and put your head on your pillow and feel good with what you believe and what you stand in, then that’s OK with me."
Marshall said his decision was partly influenced by a run-in with police this summer.
"I'm not against the military. I'm not against the police or America. I'm just against social injustice," Marshall said. "I'm proud of it. I don't regret it. I know this is right."

And Marshall did lose an endorsement deal from the Air Academy Federal Credit Union.

There has been a huge wave of indignation, anger and threats directed towards players who have taken these stands.

You know what players have not faced a similar wave of indignation, anger and lost corporate sponsorship deals?

Players like Peyton Manning with an apparent history of sexual abuse and misconduct towards women.

Manning, the former Broncos and Colts QB was the subject of an epic expose by American journalist Shaun King that details at great length both the alleged assault he committed and the intimidation campaign waged by him and his family to cover it up.

Manning, however, still has his major endorsement deals and, in fact, was brought in to do colour commentary at the start of the second half of the Broncos-Panthers game.

It is like his actions never happened at all.

And there are many other similar cases of NFL players who have committed or have been accused of committing sexual assaults, domestic violence and other criminal acts, and yet were welcomed back by their teams with open arms and little controversy. Players whose actions were career ending are very few and far between. Only Ray Rice really comes to mind and at first the NFL essentially tried to cover up the gravity of what he had done. He also may yet return to the league.

So the lesson is clear. If you had just committed a vile and disgraceful sexual assault and then spent decades intimidating various institutions and the victim and lying about it like Peyton Manning is alleged to have done, no problem!

That is just fine.

But exercise your constitutional and moral right to peaceful protest and refuse to stand for the national anthem and all hell breaks loose.

This is why so many people think all the talk of equality before the law and of justice in North American society is a total joke.

See also: It was not the American military that fought for democracy and justice. The people -- and people like Kaepernick -- did that

See also: Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor