Reporter's Notebook: Trump telling NFL players to shut up is nothing new - ask Muhammad Ali

— -- The last time I remember a national political conversation like this was in the run-up to the Iraq War. Not since Rosie O’Donnell was on daytime television screaming across a split-screen at Elisabeth Hasselbeck has there been a time when those in my personal circles were this polarized. It seems the president who promised in his victory speech to unite the nation certainly has divisive powers too.

In case you somehow missed the news last week, those divisive abilities were on full display at a rally in Alabama where President Trump went after the silent protests of professional football players taking a knee at games during the singing of the national anthem.

Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b---h off the field right now, out, he's fired. He's fired,'" Trump said.

Patriotic Americans listening and reading his words cheered Trump as he argued that the mostly black athletes who participate in these displays should be fired.

If the story of these black athletes sounds familiar, it should.

In the 1960s and 70s, some very patriotic Americans were cheering the same slurs against another young black American athlete, who was highly-paid and successful, and dared to speak out on the job about the treatment of black Americans. His name was Muhammad Ali.

Many of the president’s supporters today might not like to admit it, but Ali was very much the Colin Kaepernick of the time -- an afro-centric athlete who many believed was ungrateful, unworthy, and despised his country.

Ali, too, worked in a sport whose fans were mostly white Americans, and he too nearly lost everything when on principle he refused to enlist during the Vietnam war, arguing that he wasn’t going to fight for a country that refused to defend his rights as a black man living in America.

“My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he said. “And shoot them for what? They never called me n----r, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. ... Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”

In 1967, ‘The Greatest’ was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to jail time, and banned from boxing for three years. He was one of the most hated men in white America at the time. But as we all now know so very well, history has a way of siding with the morally righteous. Ali died a hero.

Many dyed-in-the-wool football fans seen burning their jerseys and calling for boycotts this week will tell you they worship the very thought of Ali. Yet they’re now crying out loud about “what this country is coming to,” and saying that unless these spoiled rich ballers would like to grab a gun and join the armed services, it’s their duty to stand up during the national anthem and respect the American flag at football games.

How quickly we forget.

What we are witnessing right now is history. In the same way we remember the image of the black power salutes at the 1968 Olympics, the history books will most likely remember the images from this past weekend. The empty sidelines, the black players who were joined by their white teammates in locked arms, which were nowhere near their hearts during the playing of the national anthem. This is the stuff that civil rights movements are made of. And it is becoming a surprising way to unify the NFL.

The league isn’t taking Trump’s comments in his speeches and online kindly. Even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, often criticized for inaction, quickly clapped back.

“Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities," Goodell said.

Team after team published remarks supporting their players on social media this weekend. Even team owners, who reportedly support and voted for the president, quickly jumped on the record speaking out against these comments. Cousins LeBron James and Steph Curry over in the NBA added their two cents as well. James called the president a “bum.”

It’s important to recognize that the average age of a professional athlete in the NFL and the NBA is just under 27 years old. It’s easy to get confused by their size and strength and think that these men taking a knee are older. But like most movements, it’s the young people who are driving change.

This is the generation raised on cell phones, with cameras in their pockets, who acknowledge that their lives as black Americans are better than their parents, and their parent’s parents, but don’t in anyway feel this gives police any more reason to stop them for no real reason. Or worse yet, shoot them dead.

Years of people my age quietly accepting police side-eyes and beat-downs of black suspects who did nothing wrong is unacceptable to these players. They don’t care if white Americans think they have it good, and have little reason to complain. Or that America elected a black president. And they reject arguments that black Americans need to clean their own house before expecting the rest of America to sweep the porch.

Americans should expect many more of these silent protests at football games from a so-called “son of a b---h.” And fans should try to remember that these very public displays are not at all brand new.