“Everyone in the league feels an affront when [Trump] refers to these guys as SOBs,” veteran commentator Bob Costas said in assessing the NFL protest conflagrations stirred by President Trump’s recent rhetoric. “The president of the United States, at least prior to now, was thought to be the president, the chief executive, of all the citizens, not just those who voted for him. Not just those who share his every opinion and applaud his every utterance. Not just the most rabid portion of his own base,” Costas said, with a little heat in his voice.
“He has to respect the citizenry,” Costas said of Trump. Costas talked about the “people who are happy if criminals and miscreants are on their team and will cheer if they get to the end zone but somehow want Colin Kaepernick drawn and quartered.” Returning to Trump, Costas said “when you start calling people SOBs, when you start dehumanizing them” and “start making it appear as if the definition of patriotism belongs only to people who agree with you” it’s a slippery slope.
Costas’s interview with Brian Williams on MSNBC is here.
