Perhaps you are correct, though you make the same argument that a person might make when stating that terrorism has nothing to do with the taking of innocent lives.  Simply a means to make a statement. Is this your more in-line with your interpretation/viewpoint?  I'm not suggesting that pregame protesting has anything to do with the terrorism, but one could argue both are inflammatory means of making statements for a cause.  The problem is that we as a society tend to focus more on the inflammatory acts than the underlying statements, which makes these actions more or less fruitless in my opinion.  My resolution above simply adds accountability to the inflammatory act and adds a positive result that can enhance the underlying statement.