Now Wall Street Threatens the NFL's Act

It’s game day, and you know what that means… more backlash against the Needless Football League:

Many brokers and bankers — some of whom are also military veterans — have threatened to pull the plug on pro football for not reining in players who are using the American national anthem as an opportunity to protest by taking the knee.

And as the protests gather steam this weekend, some vets of the financial markets — a huge employer of former US military service personnel, have unleashed a barrage of criticism in response and could be counted among the estimated 2 million fewer viewers over the first three weeks of the season.

The NFL protests should stop, these Street vets say — or else.

Protests against what? as I keep asking. Slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century, Jim Crow vanished decades ago. None of the Bill of Rights has been repealed, and the Reconstruction amendments are still the law of the land. There is no wave of violence against black men on the part of the police. In any case, the workplace is not the locale to exercise your First Amendment right to peaceful assembly or freedom of speech and, in any case, the federal government has zero participation in this particular matter.

Contrary to the Black Lives Matter narrative, the police have much more to fear from black males than black males have to fear from the police. In 2015, a police officer was 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male was to be killed by a police officer.

Black males have made up 42 percent of all cop-killers over the last decade, though they are only 6 percent of the population. That 18.5 ratio undoubtedly worsened in 2016, in light of the 53 percent increase in gun murders of officers — committed vastly and disproportionately by black males. Among all homicide suspects whose race was known, white killers of blacks numbered only 243.

Back to Wall Street, the industry that helps supports the NFL’s lavish skybox culture:

The NFL is starting to feel the financial whiplash from Wall Street. Some of the highest rollers at the games these days are deal-makers and stock traders who unwind in the best stadium suites, sponsor the NFL and bankroll the franchise by buying blocks of season tickets.

“Of course we should respect the American flag,” said John O’Shea, New York-based chairman of Global Alliance Securities, who has season tickets to the Giants. O’Shea did not dispute a player’s constitutional right to protest and he hasn’t shredded his season tickets just yet. But McCormick is having none of it. “I am now watching way less games than I ever had,” he said.

If Wall Street pulls the plug on the NFL, the league is finished. Faster, please.