Pro Football and the Proliferation of Protest: Anthem Kneeling and Standing in a Divided America examines the take-a-knee NFL protests, a trend that has led to deep political divisiveness in America. The author explores this phenomenon by incorporating analysis of media coverage, impact on attitudes and behaviors, and racial, religious, gendered, and political perspectives. The analysis allows readers to recognize both positive and negative prejudice and to proscribe possible solutions for political divisiveness.

Protesting, anthems, ceremonies, and media coverage all demonstrate that this issue is a communication issue. This book examines the voices on both sides of the kneeling controversy in order to uncover the points at which one side is communicating and the other side refuses to listen.

The studies in this volume look at the protest through four lenses: historically, through media coverage , through impact on public behaviors and attitudes, and from racial, religious, gendered, and political identification perspectives. The contributors worked in conjunction with one another, incorporating different viewpoints into each chapter as they were completed. All studies were conducted under the guidance of the book’s editor to separate the work effectively and to end in a set of voices that complement each other and allow for overall conclusions and recommendations. This book is useful for a wide range of scholars including race, religion, political studies, gender studies, and communication studies.

Contributions by: Stephen D. Perry, Pauline A. Andrea, Nadine Barnett Cosby, Andrew Bolin, Christina Bullock, Steve Butler, Katie Clark, Chris Connelly, Jana Duckett, Brooke Dunbar, Kimberly Feld, Nancy Flory, Eric Frederick, Haley Higgs, Colleen Kappeler, Kalah Kemp, Kelvin King, Brian Mattson, Candace Moore, Varaidzo Nyamandi, Andrew Phillips, Michael Rhett, Shreya Shukla, Deborah Stanton Sacra, Jennifer Saint Louis, Elizabeth Sheffield-Hayes, Michelle Tabbanor, Joshua Weiss, Megan Westhoff