Somewhere, President Obama’s favorite Steeler, recently deceased owner Dan Rooney, is smiling.
Rooney famously broke with his Republican colleagues to back the real President during the 2008 campaign.
At his funeral in April the President had this to say about Dan:
"Dan Rooney was a great friend of mine, but more importantly, he was a great friend to the people of Pittsburgh, a model citizen and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage," Obama said in a statement. "I knew he’d do a wonderful job when I named him as our United States Ambassador to Ireland, but naturally, he surpassed my highest expectations, and I know the people of Ireland think fondly of him today.”
“Dignity and grace on the world stage...”
Boy, could we use a little of that today.
Sunday, Sep 24, 2017 · 4:51:55 PM +00:00
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durrati
Lots of dissenting views in the comments on this decision, but I like this take at Politicususa...
“The Steelers’ solution was a clever rebuke of Trump’s tactics. Trump is trying to divide America at every level, so by standing together in not participating in the anthem, the Steelers aren’t playing along with the Trumpian construct that you either participate in the anthem, or you hate America.
Trump wants to turn teammate against teammate, family member against family member, and American against American. When a president is as unpopular as Trump is, division is their only path to reelection.
The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t playing along, and won’t allow themselves to be divided. If more Americans took the approach that we do things together in the face of conflict, Trump would be an even bigger failure.”