The first major broadcast domino has fallen. In response to crashing ratings, plummeting ticket sales, and a public backlash fueled by none other than the leader of the free world, Fox Sports has decided to cry Uncle! Becoming the first major NFL broadcast partner to publicly say that they will no longer air the national anthem.

Instead, Fox Sports is now saying that they will go back to what they had done in the past, namely, not showing the playing of the anthem during game broadcasts, according to Newsday.

Calling this year, “one of the more bizarre starts to the season that we have ever had,” Fox Sports President Eric Shanks released a statement saying: “The standard procedure is not to show them because of the way the commercial format works and the timing of the anthem to get to the kickoff,” Shanks said Tuesday at an event to promote Fox’s soccer coverage of the 2018 World Cup. “So I think we’re going to pay attention to events.

“Who knows what’s going to happen? A lot of time is happening between now and then. But I think the plan would be to get back to a normal schedule. I think that’s where we sit today on a Tuesday . . . It seems like there’s more than 24 hours in a day now, doesn’t there?”

But liberal sports reporters are already crying foul with the move to “get back to football.”

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing, for instance, is furious with Fox for taking away the players’ forum to protest against the country, especially because it will cut off a way to attack Donald Trump.

Yoder slammed Fox saying, “it’s impossible to go back to a normal schedule now when the NFL and its athletes are in the middle of a culture war with the sitting President of the United States.

“The anthem will be a huge story this week and likely will be throughout the remainder of the season as well,” the Awful Announcing writer insisted.

Clearly, Yoder and his liberal media pals want the turmoil to continue, want fans enraged even more, and want to give players who hate the country a platform to announce it to the world.

Yet, Yoder fails to realize something crucial to the equation: Fox didn’t decide to not air the anthem in order to sabotage the athletes in their “culture war” with President Trump. They decided to not air the anthem because the athletes have already lost the culture war with Donald Trump.

A fact that’s been driven home in a recent national survey which showed, not just how wildly unpopular the NFL protests have become, but also that most Americans agree with the president. If the athletes had won the battle of public opinion, and most Americans were either supportive or neutral to their cause, then the networks wouldn’t hesitate to show it. However, the athletes lost the battle over public opinion, bigly.

Which is why many teams are beginning to abandon the protest movement.

Remember, despite the claim that these protests are not against the flag, the country, or our soldiers, that is absolutely not what the instigator of these protests said.

In his own words, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick specifically said that his protests were a stand against the U.S.A.

This is what Kaepernick said of his protests last August:

I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder

In his own words, he told us he couldn’t stand up for the flag or the country.

So, don’t fall for the revisionism. These protests are set to occur during the song that pays homage to this great nation, and the inventor of the protests was counting on just that to erect the platform for his stand against the United States of America.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.