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It seems inevitable that with so many officials all over the country at many different levels that somebody somewhere in stripes will take a knee or not come out for the anthem. I am split on how to feel about this. I am glad that all of the attention from these protests are sort of bringing to light the unfair treatment of POC by society as a whole, and in particular by those police departments. If you can't see the issues that they are highlighting, you are either very dense or purposely ignoring the incidents that happen. I think that those that see this as protesting the anthem or flag are missing the mark. I saw a great parallel drawn between this and Rosa Parks indicating that thinking these guys are protesting the flag and anthem is like saying Rosa was protesting public transportation. I think an official making this symbolic gesture would renew the attention that the issue has received over the past week or so and maybe help move our society in a better direction as we acknowledge these issues and try to remedy them.
On the other hand, I think that we are already a group that not many people like or have sympathy for during the game. I think if/when an official does this, he or she is likely to have a very rough game and probably a tough year due to the criticism that they would draw. I wouldn't want to be on that crew. With that being said, I would have a lot of respect for that person if they believe in this issue so much as to put their profession on the line. My hope is that if/when this person does it, they are doing it because they believe in the cause and not to be on the front page of ESPN. I'm fairly certain that the person would probably not be officiating next year, and would probably be taken off of assignments as well.
Those are my thoughts and ideas on how I would handle it.
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