Kaepernick’s knee costly gesture

ATTENDANCE AT National League football games over the past 36 months has declined by more than 2 million fans, which is a significant loss, especially considering that the slide has occurred more or less in the aftermath of quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s famous refusal to stand during the National Anthem when he was actually employed as a quarterback.

Now, Kaepernick no longer is employed as a football player. He is a free agent, which means he is unemployed in football for now. But people still talk of what they felt was an insult to Americans by Kaepernick in not standing for the National Anthem.

The average family of four at an NFL game spends — gasp — more than $430 on tickets, parking, food and drink. When those people go away, as you can see, it costs the collective owners of the teams money — in this case, almost $1 billion. NFL fans also are staying home to watch the games on television, which doesn’t help revenues enough to make up that loss.

Kaepernick, meanwhile, has become the face of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign for the coming year. Just do what? Depress Nike sales?

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SINCE WE LIVE about as far away as you can get from the nation’s capital, our interest in the investigation into whether the presidential election was somehow influenced by the Russians is fairly mild. CNN, the cable news channel, has been trying to stir it up, hoping against hope that they can create a story out of the accusations, but so far, the Russians haven’t been shown to be any better at influencing the presidential election than Hillary Clinton was. Some Republican operatives have pleaded guilty to violating rules, but it’s hard to see how they influenced anything but their own bank accounts. CNN does do a good job of covering hurricanes and forest fires, however, because natural disasters are pretty recognizable as news and a lot easier to figure out than supposed election chicanery.

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THAT WONDERFUL annual event, the Madera District Fair, will start Thursday and run through Sunday, and all are invited to go and enjoy it. Yes, it will be a little warm, but at least not in the 100s, and the evenings will be lovely as usual. Go to the fair, enjoy it and support this wonderful, home-grown entertainment that is about the best thing going right now. Don’t stay home, because nobody is likely to take a knee at our fair.