Sports is calling your bluff, or they don't care what you think.
The NHL, MLB, NFL and NBA have tacitly told that to those who object to the players and coaches who take a knee during the national anthem.
Take it however you want, but you are not the priority.
As our sports have returned so has the player protest movement about racial equality. What started as a knee taken by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the NFL in 2016 now extends into basketball, NASCAR and baseball. Even the nearly entirely white sport that is hockey has joined.
The research was not necessarily extensive, but there is a reason all of these leagues are uniformly supportive of an act that previously was considered ruinous to the product.
The effect on the bottom line is negligible, so all of you who hate it so much best be prepared that this is not going away.
Or, if it does fade, it will happen organically.
In the NBA's restart bubble city of Orlando, Fla., players and coaches are routinely taking a knee during the national anthem.
On Monday, Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin took a knee before their game against Vegas in Edmonton. He was joined by teammate Jason Dickinson, and Vegas players Ryan Reaves and Robin Lehner.
"Before the game, I went in the dressing room and told everyone what I was doing. Told them there was no pressure to do anything," Seguin said after the Stars' game on Monday via a Zoom call with reporters.
"Dickinson grabbed me and said he'd like to be a part of it, and support his beliefs and my beliefs."
Seguin participated in the Black Lives Matter protest marches in Dallas over the summer.
All of these developments may offend you. You may hate it. You may opt for Netflix over the NBA.
What the leagues are saying is that this opinion is no longer a priority.
On Monday, I asked Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle what he would say to the fans who are offended by, and take exception to, the players and coaches who continually take a knee during the national anthem.
"We are dealing with a 400-year-old moral issue that needs to be addressed. It's a statement of unity. It's a statement of commitment," he said.
Carlisle has been one of the most outspoken voices in the NBA to call for the league and its coaches to head up societal reform about racial injustice.
Before every session with the media, he will read a short anecdote about a moment of racial injustice in America's history.
"We just need to keep the pedal to the metal and to keep the momentum going," he said. "That's how I feel about it."
Throw away the surveys and polls that say more fans are turned off by the players taking a knee, and are watching something else as a result. If it were true, all of these leagues would be publicly, or privately, pleading with the players to stop.
They aren't.
The ratings for the events range from normal, to great.
The NFL, which previously fought back against players who took a knee, now support those who do. No league fought a more public battle against its players who wanted to take a knee more than the NFL.
It now will permit players who want to protest during the anthem, and will allow them to put the names of victims of racial injustice on their helmets.
Both developments were inconceivable in 2016, when the league was in the process of starting to blackball Kaepernick for starting all of this.
It does not matter whether or not you like it. It does not matter whether you are offended by the knee during the anthem.
This is the time we are in, and all of sports have spoken on this issue: Your opinion may be heard, but it does not matter.
