Stuart Varney has now joined Fox and Friends on Monday to talk about the NFL national anthem controversy. This Sunday, two-hundred NFL players and staff knelt down to protest the national anthem.

Varney reminded the entire FOX and Friends nation that the NFL stadium has collected $1 billion in federal subsidies. That’s horrible. Watch him below.

Stuart Varney: “There’s $1.1 billion in direct subsidies from taxpayers to the NFL… Taxpayer subsidies go to the building of stadiums. There have been 20 new NFL stadiums since 1997. All of them have received a degree of taxpayer subsidies.”

Wow. They don’t respect the country, yet all these NFL teams use taxpayer funds to build their massive stadiums.

According to Fox Sports, the American public has spent $7 billion to build and renovate NFL stadiums over the last 20 years. The US taxpayer often pays 46 percent of the cost to build these projects.

In a flurry of comments historically unsuited to any head of state, yet hardly shocking for the current American president, Donald Trump this weekend targeted the two most popular sports in the country and elicited sharp criticism from some of their most important figures.

On Friday, Trump encouraged franchise owners in the National Football League to fire players who protest during 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 bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired,’” the president said at an Alabama rally.

Trump’s comment provoked Roger Goodell, the typically reticent commissioner of the NFL, to issue a strong statement condemning the president’s divisive language. The comment was particularly surprising, since most NFL owners who elect the league commissioner are staunch Republicans. Many of the most prominent owners donated to the Trump campaign.

Trump was undeterred. On Saturday, he disinvited the NBA champion Golden State Warriors from the White House, in a tweet. This came after several players, including star guard Stephen Curry, suggested that they would skip the ceremonial visit.
In response to Trump, LeBron James, the basketball superstar whose Cleveland Cavaliers are rivals of the Warriors, called the president a “bum” on Twitter. The basketball star also pointed out the fecklessness of revoking an invitation after the other party has already declined. (Trump’s you-can’t-fire-me-because-I-quit instinct here recalls his earlier announcement to dissolve several business advisory councils, only after one of them had already disbanded.)
What is the meaning of these seemingly frivolous skirmishes with athletes and sports leagues? His true motivations aren’t clear, but his behavior does fit a pattern.

As Adam Serwer wrote here, there is a clear racial element to Trump’s pronouncements. When the NFL star Tom Brady, a white player, skipped his championship team’s White House visit, the president was silent. (Brady has described Trump as a “good friend,”And at one point displayed a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker.) When Warriors star Stephen Curry, a black man, announced his intention to do the same, the president called him out on Twitter and rescinded the team’s invitation. In calling for NFL owners to fire protesting players, the president encourages an overwhelmingly white ownership group to disemploy members of overwhelmingly black NFL players union.
As Serwer wrote, Trump’s instant criticism of Curry and black NFL players stands in stark contrast to his infamous hesitation to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

It’s time to cut them off. Share this if you agree. 

The NFL doesn’t respect us. Why should we respect them? God bless this country and all those that have died and fought for it.