Rapper T.I. plans on boycotting the NFL this season because of the new rule that requires players either to stand for the national anthem or remain in the locker room.
“I think there’s a violation of constitutional rights being implemented to minority players who choose to have a peaceful silent protest,” T.I. told Jemele Hill at the BET Experience event over the weekend.
“It’s really like you want us to shut up and take what we got coming to us in our communities, and that’s just not acceptable. And if that’s what you think about us, why should we really spend our money and show our extreme support of your corporation?”
He also called what the NFL is doing “paid patriotism” because “they’re paying NFL to do the national anthem so it’s not really because you’re doing it for the love of country you’re doing it for a check.”
Hosted @BET’s #GeniusTalks at #BETX yesterday and @Tip explained why he’s boycotting the NFL, even though the Super Bowl is in Atlanta next year pic.twitter.com/V22y3Imc8r
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) June 24, 2018
T.I. doubled down on his claim and talked about how the fans are the most important thing when it comes to the NFL corporation and getting them to change the rule: “We gotta go to the corporations, stop spending our dollars with them until they press the politicians who press the police to do what we need to do until they respect our lives and consider us as equals or else they don’t deserve our dollars.”
This is a bold claim from T.I. because he is from Atlanta, and the Super Bowl this year is coming to Atlanta. Now, the city, which will be on the world stage, will be without one of its biggest stars and celebrities at the game to celebrate their accomplishments. This means he will do nothing when it comes to Super Bowl pre-game or halftime. Then again, there is plenty of talent from Atlanta, so I bet they will be able to find a replacement.
These are just the latest claims to protest the NFL. With the national anthem protests last year, the NFL saw a big dip in ratings. Now, after the new rule on the anthem, there have been petitions to boycott the NFL over this new rule, as well as try to get them to change the rule to allow the players to have the freedom to kneel. It seems as if the NFL is just being suffocated by both sides on this issue. They saw a ratings drop, so they changed the rule. Now, we will see if the ratings continue to plummet, or if this new rule made it better. Either way, these types of boycotts will not be ending anytime soon.