Co-Owner of the Packers on How the NFL Is Disgracing the True Meaning of Patriotism

Co-Owner of the Packers on How the NFL Is Disgracing the True Meaning of Patriotism
Juan Leon
30 May 2018
"Patriotism in itself is not the problem. It's the way in which patriotism is portrayed."​


In an ​op-ed for The New York Times last week, David French distilled the controversy over the NFL's new policy -- which fines players who won't stand for the national anthem -- to a battle between two competing American ideals: "liberty" and "flag," or free speech versus patriotism.


But is the NFL authentically honoring patriotism with its new policy? Not according to Harvey Kaye, a University of Wisconsin–Green Bay professor who's contributed regularly to the Daily Beast and Huffington Post.


Kaye also happens to be a shareholder in the Green Bay Packers (one of 360,760), the only ​publicly owned major professional team in the United States.

Kaye told Pluralist in a phone interview that the ​NFL is traducing a more fully dimensional vision of patriotism by "defining patriotism simply as that moment of taking off our hats and putting our hands over our hearts and saluting the flag" and that the flag stands for more than just America's military might.


"It represents the rights that generations upon generations of Americans fought for," he said. "Patriotism in itself is not the problem, it's the way in which patriotism is portrayed."


It's an idea that's echoed by many who are supportive of the ​players' protest.

​But Kaye also offers a clarifying historical perspective.


According to Kaye, this idealized version of patriotism, the one promoted by the likes of Fox News and conservative media outlets, comes from an admiration for the values of "The Greatest Generation," the warriors, the pacifiers of evil empires.


Ironically, the Greatest Generation was the most progressive in American history, Kaye argued. It was the generation that fought for liberal values, for equality, for The New Deal.


The problem, he says, "is those who have been the loudest in the celebration of the Greatest Generation have reduced the legacy of the Greatest Generation to their, decidedly wonderful, commitment to winning the war against fascism."


The ideals of the Greatest Generation, according to Kaye, can be understood by examining President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's conception of ​"the four freedoms."


During his 1941 State of the Union address, Roosevelt -- whom, Kaye noted, historians consistently ​rank among the best presidents -- proposed four fundamental freedoms: Freedom of speech and expression. Freedom of religion. Freedom from want. Freedom from fear.


These four freedoms represent a fuller view of World War 2 era patriotism. "What made America great was not only those who were willing to serve in uniform and place their lives on the line," Kaye said. "But also those many others who were at home struggling to advance the cause of freedom, equality, and democracy."


The Roosevelt administration's work in lifting the country out of the Great Depression in the 1930s coincided with workers laboring under the New Deal and organizing unions. "The fact is there was a term widely used, 'Industrial democracy,'" said Kaye, "And the idea was that working people by way of their collectve bargaining rights, and their union initiatives, would have a voice in the workplace and could protest certain things in the workplace."


He pointed to the Greatest Generation's support for workers' rights as a rejoinder to the argument that NFL players need to fall in line with corporate ambitions and keep their politics out of the workplace, saying, "if we're going to talk about ​freedom of speech and expression, then we ought to start to address the rights of working people to speak up, even on the job."


What's Trump got to do with it? Kaye connects the NFL's current policy to a bigger issue -- bigger than President Donald Trump, even -- that's been shaping attitudes on patriotism for more than 40 years: Corporate and political interest groups that co-opt patriotic ideals to push back against the progressive values the Greatest Generation held dear.

Kaye said Trump "could never have succeeded in gaining the nomination and then the presidency" if not for "40 years of war against voting rights, against women's rights to control their own bodies, against workers' rights to organize and have collective bargaining."


So what, in Kaye's view, is patriotism really about? "Patriotism is about being a citizen, and as a citizen, it's something that you share with the tens of millions of others around you here in the United States," he said. "So, how is it possible that if we are citizens, together, that we can turn our backs on the needs and actually deny the rights of our fellow citizens?"