JUST CHILL: Rather listen to David Brown than Jerry Jones on protests

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones jumped into the national anthem controversy taking over the NFL on his radio show on Tuesday when he applauded his team for not joining the protest.

“I applaud our players, our team,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan. “I applaud Jason Witten as far as his energy. But I've got to give a big pat on the back to our entire team, our coaching staff, our entire organization. We strongly, strongly support the flag in every way we support -- and it's almost ridiculous to be saying -- the people that for generations and generations that have given it all up so that we can get out here and show off in front of millions of people on television. We respect that so much. That's the real business. The forum of the NFL and the forum of television is a very significant thing.

“And I'm for it being used in every way we can to support the great, great contributors in our society. And that's people that have supported America, the flag, and there's no reason to not go all out there. And for anybody to use parts of that visibility to do otherwise is really disappointing."

What’s really disappointing is the Cowboys record since their last Super Bowl title in 1995.

But that’s an example of focusing on the person and taking the focus off the message, similar to what’s going on with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The anthem protest, initially started by Kaepernick, is an objection to police brutality against minorities and people of color rather than a protest of the flag itself.

Ironically, what Kaepernick and the other players across league who have joined him are doing is not unlike what highly-respected Dallas Police Chief David Brown urged the Cowboys players to do during a visit to training camp this summer.

At the first day of Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif., the team hosted 13 family members of the five Dallas police officers slain on July 7, as well as Brown and mayor Mike Rawlings.

It was a show of unity between the Cowboys and law enforcement.

But Brown used the occasion to encourage the players to get involved and join the discussion of race and policing in the communities.

"I talked about there being two things you can do: You can be part of the problem by being silent or being complicit, or you can be part of the solution by having a voice, by lending your role as a professional athlete to this cause," said Brown. "I think that people need to hear, from all parts of society, a discussion on race. It's the toughest discussion that we all have, but it's part of the root cause of some of the problems that we see in some of our communities. I really do believe that sports, entertainment can have an influence on young people if they were able to strike the right chord in the way they talk about some of these issues."

The issue of how to exactly strike the right chord in discussing the problem can be debated all day, considering that any form of protest is going to cause discomfort.

If it was palatable and not bothersome, then there is no way a protest can affect change.

What can't be debated is that Brown, arguably the most respected voice on policing in America in the wake of the tragic shootings in Dallas, wants the players to get involved. He wants them to use their voice and speak up.

What he doesn’t want is silence.

This story was originally published September 13, 2016 at 12:42 PM with the headline "JUST CHILL: Rather listen to David Brown than Jerry Jones on protests."