NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem had a lot of people upset this past season. Even the discussion of politics that took over sports was enough to put some fans off the game. Yet players and their supporters insisted they had a right to be heard.
Of course, we’re hearing now that San Francisco 49er Reuben Foster, one of that team’s “kneelers” who wanted to protest police brutality, has been arrested for domestic violence:
Mere weeks after being arrested in his native Alabama on marijuana charges, the 2017 first-round pick is in even more hot water off the field.
According to Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle, Foster was arrested in Los Gatos, California, on Sunday for allegations of domestic violence. He was later booked at the Santa Clara County Jail and is being held on $75,000 bail.
Now, let’s be clear here, Foster is considered innocent until proven guilty. However, I know I’m not alone in finding the irony in Foster being arrested for his own alleged brutality.
The 49ers also released former starting cornerback Tramaine Brock after similar allegations surfaced about him. While those charges were dropped, the team made no effort to bring Brock back into the fold.
Foster’s decision to protest the brutality he claimed police had been committing is what made the allegations of his own brutality so prevalent. Frankly, if he’d stood for the National Anthem, few outside of the sports world would give a flying flip about Reuben Foster. At most, he would be shown as another example of why athletes shouldn’t be considered role models.
But Foster decided to make a stand by not standing. That’s his right, of course. But it’s also our right to point out his apparent hypocrisy. He was more than willing to paint an entire profession as violent because of the actions of a few, even if most of that few were exonerated of any wrongdoing. In so doing he painted the proverbial bullseye on his back. Frankly, it’s like Harvey Weinstein tweeting “#MeToo.”
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