Wall Street veterans are huddling up against the NFL.
Many brokers and bankers — some of whom are also military veterans — have threatened to pull the plug on pro football for not reining in players who are using the American national anthem as an opportunity to protest by taking the knee.
And as the protests gather steam this weekend, some vets of the financial markets — a huge employer of former US military service personnel, have unleashed a barrage of criticism in response and could be counted among the estimated 2 million fewer viewers over the first three weeks of the season.
The NFL protests should stop, these Street vets say — or else.
“I am going to be flat-out honest — I think the players should be standing up for the anthem. They can lock arms all right, but they shouldn’t be bringing politics into the sport like this,” Chris McCormick, a sales trader at a derivatives broker in New York, told The Post.
There’s more at stake than sharp barbs in this pushback from the masters of the universe.
The NFL is starting to feel the financial whiplash from Wall Street. Some of the highest rollers at the games these days are deal-makers and stock traders who unwind in the best stadium suites, sponsor the NFL and bankroll the franchise by buying blocks of season tickets.
“Of course we should respect the American flag,” said John O’Shea, New York-based chairman of Global Alliance Securities, who has season tickets to the Giants.
O’Shea did not dispute a player’s constitutional right to protest and he hasn’t shredded his season tickets just yet.
But McCormick is having none of it. “I am now watching way less games than I ever had,” he said.
And other Street vets are not holding back either.
“Dragging the national anthem into an anti-President Trump message is very disrespectful to our military veterans,” said financial expert Hughey Newsome, a consultant for
MorganFranklin, referring to the firestorm that erupted when the president publicly attacked NFL national anthem protests more than a week ago. “The protests are doing a humongous disservice to those who have died in defense of this land, and in defense of everything we stand for,” Newsome added.
Newsome, an African-American, is a member of the influential Project 21 black leadership network, sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research.
The conservative coalition says NFL players “kneel and protest at their peril.” And it warns of economic consequences if the protests don’t end — noting how anger over the protests has trickled down to businesses that make money through their NFL affiliation.
Project 21 said sponsor boycotts are also being organized. “Just as people have a right to express their First Amendment concerns, other people have a right to vote with their dollars,” Newsome said.
On Thursday, Allan Jones, founder of Check Into Cash, said that he is pulling all commercials for his lending companies during NFL games for the rest of the season.
In other fallout, DirecTV said it will refund subscribers of its NFL Sunday Ticket package if they are opposed to the protests.