It’s safe to say, that when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote a memo to the league informing them it was time to “move past the anthem controversy.” Most people thought he meant moving past it by ending the protests, and, as a result, ending the controversy. However, a disturbing nugget of information from today’s meeting suggests that Goodell might have meant something else entirely.

ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio caught up with Goodell after the four-hour meeting with the owners and player representatives. Paolantonio asked Goodell if the league had asked the players to commit to standing for the anthem. Goodell’s response, did not inspire confidence.

“We did not ask for that, Sal. No. We spent today talking about the issues that our players have been trying to bring attention to, about issues in our communities to make our communities better. I think we all agree there’s nothing more important than getting back into our communities and trying to make our communities better. That was the entire focus today,” Goodell said.

Huh? How exactly is one to move past the anthem controversy, if no one brings up stopping the anthem controversy?

Also, how about the statement that “we all agree there’s nothing more important than getting back into our communities and trying to make our communities better.” Last time I checked, Roger Goodell was the commissioner of a football league. Now, the highest calling of the National Football League, is community revitalization? How did this happen?

Put Goodell’s Chuck Schumer impersonation together with the news that he, and Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, have sent a joint letter to Capitol Hill in favor of prison reform. And one starts getting the distinct impression that the NFL is paying for a cessation in protesting by turning themselves into a George Soros shadow company.

Which brings up another very important, yet very uncomfortable fact: No matter how this turns out for the protesters, they win. They beat the NFL.

Look at what’s happening here: NFL owners who are so panicky over ratings and empty stadiums are sitting there for four hours in the middle of the season, allowing players and their representatives to decide how to spend their money.

Or, I’m sorry, your money.

Yes, surely at some point in the future NFL players will be required to stand for the anthem, and Amen to that. But let me ask you this question: is forcing the players to stand for the anthem worth it? If in exchange, the NFL becomes a piggy bank for every left-wing activist group in America?

Because make no mistake about it, that’s exactly what’s happening here.

Think back to earlier in the month, remember the story about all the George Soros affiliated groups the NFLPA gave charitable donations to? DeMaurice Smith, the head of the NFLPA and a well-known contributor to Democrats in his own right, was essentially bankrolling every anti-Trump organizations. In addition to groups affiliated with Planned Parenthood, and a whole host of other awful things.

Now imagine DeMaurice Smith flushed with millions of additional dollars in blackmail money from NFL owners who are willing to pay anything to make the Kaepernick-clones go away.

Think about it, is that really a better alternative than just letting the anthem protests continue?

Don’t misunderstand, nothing boils the blood of this Army and 9/11 FDNY veteran more than watching a bunch of millionaire ingrates disgrace the country which gave them the freedoms they clearly don’t deserve. However, I’d sooner watch an entire team take a knee at every game for the next ten years. As opposed to hearing about a Chicago or Detroit abortion clinic that would have otherwise closed, yet was able to remain open because of a donation from the NFL that somehow found its way into their hands.

Nor would I deem it acceptable if all players stood for the anthem, yet money from the league found its way to an anti-Trump organization that used it to buy TV ads which helped turn a key swing state. Or, helped to get some radical abortionist elected to the Senate.

As reprehensible as these anthem protests are, they have no real impact on anything. Except to destroy the NFL’s favored-nation status among American sports leagues. Which, honestly, who cares? Former NFL fans seem to have had no problem filling their Sundays, Monday night, and Thursday evenings with other things.

However, the ransom money the players will demand from the league in order to stop the protests, could have a real and terrible impact on many.

Ask yourself, what’s the worst thing that will happen if the NFL were to walk away from the table? What if they told the players to go ahead and protest to their heart’s content? What would the players do?

In the last three weeks, the San Francisco 49ers have had 30 players protest, then 23, then 7. Even ESPN didn’t show the anthem on Monday Night Football. The fact is these protests are already on their way out. It was always a fad, a one-hit wonder. Now that the networks have stopped showing it and the attention-seeking players have becoming hip to the fact that their antics will soon hit them in the wallet. Suddenly, no one wants to protest anymore.

So why should the NFL pay a King’s Ransom for the proverbial dead body?

The Star-Spangled Banner was written during a battle where the flag was quite literally being used for target practice by an invading army. If the flag survived that, it can survive Colin Kaepernick’s clone army. Will we survive all the awful leftist politicians the NFL’s ransom money could buy?

That’s far less certain.