Let me see if I have this right: Wearing a hat during the national anthem, as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did last month, is fine. Same for Jones’ team and most others keeping the beer lines flowing while The Star Spangled Bannerplays. But quietly demonstrating to protest racism and social injustice is disrespectful and anti-American?

Sure.

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Jones’ hypocrisy, which he ratcheted up Sunday by refusing to comment, apologize or otherwise illuminate his disrespect for the anthem, illustrates why NFL owners are never going to win the fight over the player protests. And it’s not simply because the president is going to dog whistle the issue any chance he gets to rile up his base ahead of the mid-term elections.The players know exactly why they’re protesting, and are passionate about the issues that have prompted them to take a knee or raise a fist. They have spent their off days and offseason lobbying legislators, promoting ballot initiatives and meeting with underprivileged and at-risk kids.If you were at the Carolina Panthers' final training camp practice at Wofford College on Monday, in fact, you would have seen veteran wide receiver Torrey Smith on the field afterward, talking to a group of teenage boys. They were from AMIKids White Pines, a residential program for kids convicted of non-violent crimes, and Smith wanted to make sure they knew they can still make something of their lives.“My message to them was about not letting your past define you,” Smith said, according to the Charlotte Observer.“When you make a mistake when you’re young, it doesn’t forgive you. It’s going to hang with you when you want to get a job, when you need a loan, whatever it may be. And sometimes people don’t get it removed. So I just talked to them about not letting that hold them back. Not letting society put pressure on them or hold them back. And figuring out what success looks like for them.”