NFL Broadcasts
Abstract: This essay explores feelings about Colin Kaepernick and NFL player protests through interviews with current and former NFL fans, examining how these fans maintained, changed, or fractured their lifelong relationships with televised NFL games due to player protests during the national anthem. These interviews are used to explore the concept of interpretive communities, which suggests that the various meanings viewers make from television are enmeshed with their identities and experiences, group affiliations, and cultural contexts. In a cultural climate politically charged—and divided—over issues like Black Lives Matter, immigration, and sexual harassment, fans’ positions on NFL programming provide a snapshot of the ways sports fandom and politics intersect in contemporary American culture.
This essay may be found on page 363 of the printed volume.