Popovich Blasts NFL and Jerry Jones for Trump Support
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is blasting NFL power-brokers like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, New England Patriots boss Robert Kraft and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for their "hypocritical'' and "incongruent'' support of President Donald Trump.
“It’s just hypocritical,” Popovich said in an interview with columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. “It’s incongruent. It doesn’t make sense. People aren’t blind. Do you go to your staff and your players and talk about injustices and democracy and how to protest? I don’t get it. I think they put themselves in a position that’s untenable.”
Jones (who has remained silent regarding this period of civil unrest) and Kraft are among the NFL owners who have given financial support to President Trump, who in Popovich's view is on the wrong side of this issue - and most others.
Popovich, a former Air Force officer, said, “I feel badly for the military around Trump because they’re dealing with the guy who is the poster boy for the aggrieved wannabe. And he’s taking it out on the world and it’s ruining our country.”
Popovich makes the argument in the column that the flag is a "symbol'' and that the movement led by ousted NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick that has athletes kneeling during national anthem has never been about disrespecting the flag or disrespecting the military, but rather about fueling change in America's social injustices.
“A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice,” Popovich said. “(Goodell) got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling” and “he folded.”
