Alan Truex: A country becomes ever more divided, football is no longer an escape

For years, television networks ignored the national anthem at NFL games. And whatever flag-waving that accompanied it. Time enough for a lengthy commercial break.

But suddenly the pregame posture of the players is the greatest visibility many of them will ever have. Even people who don’t usually watch football are tuning in to see who thinks what of Donald Trump.

Speaking at a rally for himself in Alabama last Friday, the President said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of those NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired! He’s fired!’”

But the NFL owners, most of whom have been staunch supporters of Trump and Republican tax policy, objected to his criticizing them for permitting political dissent among their players.

“I am deeply disappointed in the tone of the comments made by the President,” said New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft.

Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints head coach, said, “I think we need a little more wisdom in that office.”

Cleveland Browns quarterback DeShone Kizer was more blunt: “I know for a fact I’m no son of a bitch.”

NBC commentator Chris Collinsworth said, “I think the president should apologize for saying SOB.”

Generally, presidents make a mistake when they pontificate about sports. Barack Obama trivialized himself by strutting onto the national stage to reveal his tournament brackets, picking only favorites. Could he have thought of a better way to serve his country?

Richard Nixon drew up a play for a Super Bowl that lost yardage. Worse, he once declared Texas the college football champion, when another elite team, Penn State, was as undefeated as Texas.

Which prompted Joe Paterno, a Republican, to say: “Surprising that he knows so much about football and so little about Watergate.”

With his brief take on political dissent, Trump provoked a national firestorm of dialogue on the flag, the anthem, the military, the police.

And teams were being torn apart in front of our eyes.

Alejandro Villanueva, Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle, fought for his country in Iraq and could not go along with his teammates’ vote to stay off the field until the anthem had been played.

So Villanueva stood alone in the entrance to the field.

He later apologized for “the very embarrassing part on my end . . . Everybody sees an image of me standing by myself. . . I made my teammates look bad . . . Unwittingly, I made a mistake.”

In Buffalo, cancer-stricken Hall of Famer Jim Kelly joined the Bills’ current players for the anthem protest. While the song began, he raised his Bills cap with his left hand.

Later, he posted on social media that he “lost a lot of respect” for LeSean McCoy because of his kneel-down.

Kelly also lost respect for the President: “He needs to focus on what’s going on everywhere else instead of what’s going on in the NFL.”

Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes fired back at Kelly: “Our whole team came together and we united . . . on how we were going to approach the national anthem. If he was going to do what he did, he should have come to the team and let us know his feelings . . . instead of making this a public matter and doing that on his social page. It was not cool.”

The Dallas Cowboys tried to have it both ways. Do nothing to disrespect the flag, but take a knee before the anthem, “as a show of unity.”

The crowd saw it as a show of cowardice. Booing rang out across the University of Phoenix Stadium.

To many, it looked like the Cowboys were taking a stand to be united in not taking a stand.

When the anthem played a few seconds later, the Cowboys were standing, each locking arms with teammates. On the other side of the field, the Cardinals did the same thing.

The harmony was applauded by mainstream media. But we should also acknowledge that divisiveness can be a good thing. Slavery could not have ended without divisiveness, and without it, women could not have secured the right to vote.

Tony Kornheiser, erudite co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, extolled “the right we have in this country, and maybe unlike any other country, to free speech.”

Kornheiser is, like most Americans, overly enthusiastic about our exceptionalism. He has experienced world travel and should know better.

When George W. Bush was president, a young man in Virginia was jailed for wearing a T-shirt that said: “F— Bush.” I asked a German citizen I knew if a person in his country could be arrested for displaying an obscenity about Angela Merkel. “Absolutely not,” he said, laughing as if this was a ridiculous notion.

And by the way, what freedoms do we have that the Dutch do not? Well, perhaps we can own more guns.

I like to see Americans being proud of our democratic heritage and our constitution. But if we act like our freedoms are unique to the world, we risk losing them. We’re not that much better than everyone else, not that much smarter. The bluster of the blowhard-in-chief isolates the country and turns it against itself. No longer is sports an escape.