The Gist

Thanks for Protesting … Now Stop

If the NFL has a good explanation for its intent to punish players who kneel during the anthem, it has yet to give it.

Members of the Miami Dolphins kneel during the national anthem
Members of the Miami Dolphins kneel during the national anthem prior to an NFL game on Sept. 24 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Steven Ryan/Getty Images

Listen to Episode 999 of Slate’s The Gist:

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On The Gist, the NFL can’t give a decent explanation for its kneeling ban.

Philip Roth’s novels about Jewish life earned him every accolade short of, famously, the Nobel Prize. Mark Oppenheimer, the host of the podcast on all things Jewish (Unorthodox), argues that Roth’s “radical candor” was sharply original before becoming a model to imitate.

In the Spiel, there are a lot of “peripheral rogues” in Trump’s orbit (how about those “taxi king” headlines?), but their public reckonings don’t necessarily spell trouble for the president himself.

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