My Most Respected Player of the Week

[Oldschool739]

Alejandro Villanueva?

Sounds like a bad hombre that steals Americans' jobs, rapes their white women and drains our tax payers.

Can please build this bleeping wall already?!!

I don't care what his nationality is or what color his skin is, he fought for our country and had the guts to go out in the middle of all this tension and stand for his flag....
You should show that pic to your woman, then she could get an idea of what a real man looks like....

 

[Oldschool739]

The article I read said nothing of the sort. But I didn't look into whether it was the complete quote or not.

Ben Roethlisberger having second thoughts about Steelers anthem stance

The Steelers already had one player step out of line regarding their team stance on the national anthem.

Now, another one is wondering if they did the right thing.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger put out a statement on his personal website wondering if the team did the right thing by staying in the locker room during the anthem yesterday. While they voted on the decision as a team, left tackle Alejandro Villanueva left the locker room and could be seen standing alone in the tunnel.

Some players understood his decision, since he’s a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan. But in his statement Roethlisberger seemed most interested in making sure everyone knows he likes America too.

“I was unable to sleep last night and want to share my thoughts and feelings on our team’s decision to remain in the tunnel for the national anthem yesterday,” he wrote. “The idea was to be unified as a team when so much attention is paid to things dividing our country, but I wish we approached it differently. We did not want to appear divided on the sideline with some standing and some kneeling or sitting.

“As a team, it was not a protest of the flag or the Anthem. I personally don’t believe the anthem is ever the time to make any type of protest. For me, and many others on my team and around the league, it is a tribute to those who commit to serve and protect our country, current and past, especially the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice.

“I appreciate the unique diversity in my team and throughout the league and completely support the call for social change and the pursuit of true equality. Moving forward, I hope standing for the anthem shows solidarity as a nation, that we stand united in respect for the people on the front lines protecting our freedom and keeping us safe. God bless those men and women.”

If coach Mike Tomlin’s goal was to keep the team together and keep them from becoming pawns in a political game, he needs to gather his pieces together. Because it seems like some of them might be uncomfortable with the decision made, and the blowback that came from it.

 

[WayfaringStranger]

I don't care what his nationality is or what color his skin is, he fought for our country and had the guts to go out in the middle of all this tension and stand for his flag....
You should show that pic to your woman, then she could get an idea of what a real man looks like....

I should show my post to your woman. Then she'd know what a joke is.

Oh wait. She already goes down on you.

 

[NWPATSFAN]

Yeah, some hero huh....now he is backpedaling. He claims he don't know how he ended up all alone and he didn't realize he had come out of the tunnel.

No one looks good in all this silly protesting. Fuck the NFL and any other sport that disrespects our flag.

That's not what I took out of his interview I saw. I may have missed some of it? Basically, he was apologetic that he put the unity of the team in a bad light. That there was/is no divide between he, the team or the coach. He took full responsibility.

 

[Maximus Rex]

If coach Mike Tomlin’s goal was to keep the team together and keep them from becoming pawns in a political game, he needs to gather his pieces together. Because it seems like some of them might be uncomfortable with the decision made, and the blowback that came from it.

Great, now Tomlin can't even game plan the fucking pre-game plan right.

 

[moxie]

That "disagreement" is directly related to how A-Vill stood apart from their objective of wanting to appear unified.

I agree they went about it the wrong way & their message got butchered by the media as a direct result of A-Vill. But I'm glad A-Vill did it. Perfect symbolism of one of the biggest rooting issues going on. The freedom of choice. He fought for that freedom to do whatever he wants. The appearance of a team divided was a side effect, but the team put him in that situation. Ben being the captain he is owns that fault.

At first, I thought it was similar to what they did when SBXL and they had the Bus go out of the tunnel by himself to honor him. Al is a perfect representative. I feel like he's earned the right to do whatever the hell he wants in this ridiculous bs and nobody- not Tomlin, Ben, Debo or the Rooneys should say shit to him about it.

 

[The Derski]

Wow.. He says he was out there by accident.

Steelers' Villanueva: I threw teammates 'under the bus' during national anthem

 

[The Derski]

Wow.. He says he was out there by accident.

Steelers' Villanueva: I threw teammates 'under the bus' during national anthem

oops saw it was already mentioned.

 

[NEhomer]

I have no problem with any of this protesting but I have a nagging curiosity about what comes after all of this "awareness." Seems like we've had about 5 years of this stuff now counting BLM and very little in the way of a cogent and feasible next step. People of color applying to police academies, children of color encouraged to complete high school, fathering multiple children frowned upon, a shunning of thug life culture, etc. Blocking traffic and creating disturbances is the fun and easy part.

Cops gotta cop better but thugs gotta thug less.

....and this guy's an asshole for fucking up what the team decided to do.

 

[ill]

I have no problem with any of this protesting but I have a nagging curiosity about what comes after all of this "awareness." Seems like we've had about 5 years of this stuff now counting BLM and very little in the way of a cogent and feasible next step. People of color applying to police academies, children of color encouraged to complete high school, fathering multiple children frowned upon, a shunning of thug life culture, etc. Blocking traffic and creating disturbances is the fun and easy part.

Cops gotta cop better but thugs gotta thug less.

....and this guy's an asshole for fucking up what the team decided to do.

I think body cams came out of it and I am sure there is new training being given to officers to keep them from going straight for their firearm in a situation. I wouldn't say nothing has come from all this.

 

[NEhomer]

I think body cams came out of it and I am sure there is new training being given to officers to keep them from going straight for their firearm in a situation. I wouldn't say nothing has come from all this.

So what about the thugging?

 

[ill]

So what about the thugging?

I don't have numbers on the thugging. I'm not really sure how to measure that, exactly.

it looks like violent crime has been going back up the last few years, but I can't say whether black crime is up or down. I would need to look around this site a little more

Violent Crime

 

[NEhomer]

I'm not saying that nothing has come of the protesting, I'm just waiting for the next step and I'd like to see some tough love applied by the black community upon their own youth.

 

[ill]

I'm not saying that nothing has come of the protesting, I'm just waiting for the next step and I'd like to see some tough love applied by the black community upon their own youth.

I agree, but this has been an issue for such a long time that it isn't exactly an easy fix.

Instead, it seems to draw the ire of everyone instead of trying to come up with a way to work towards resolving it. Our President surely won't take any necessary action because it is too much work for him. Instead, he'd rather stick his head in the sand. The protests are at least making him think about it...at least I think he is thinking about it. His solution seems to be "don't let them protest because it means I have do deal with it"

 

[realityball]

Yeah, some hero huh....now he is backpedaling. He claims he don't know how he ended up all alone and he didn't realize he had come out of the tunnel.

No one looks good in all this silly protesting. Fuck the NFL and any other sport that disrespects our flag.

it was the great orange assclown that put the entire nfl in this no-win situation ... there was no compromise they could have taken that wouldn’t have had a negative side to it

I thought the Steelers did the right thing ... except their comments about it and Villanueva getting lost alone there

trump meanwhile got his Alabama applause out of it ...



fuckin nuts

 

[kburjr]

it was the great orange assclown that put the entire nfl in this no-win situation ... there was no compromise they could have taken that wouldn’t have had a negative side to it

I thought the Steelers did the right thing ... except their comments about it and Villanueva getting lost alone there

trump meanwhile got his Alabama applause out of it ...



fuckin nuts

Bricks, we need more bricks

 

[sonnyblack65]

I have no problem with any of this protesting but I have a nagging curiosity about what comes after all of this "awareness." Seems like we've had about 5 years of this stuff now counting BLM and very little in the way of a cogent and feasible next step. People of color applying to police academies, children of color encouraged to complete high school, fathering multiple children frowned upon, a shunning of thug life culture, etc. Blocking traffic and creating disturbances is the fun and easy part.

Cops gotta cop better but thugs gotta thug less.

....and this guy's an asshole for fucking up what the team decided to do.

Not the team but the coach. Ben was man enough to said he didn't agree with it