The thing about being petty is, it can happen at any time and at any place. 

At Miami Dolphins practice on Tuesday (August 20), the music playlist leaned heavily in one direction. Practice opened with eight straight songs by Jay-Z. 

For hip-hop heads, Hov fans or most people, that’s not a bad thing. Head coach Brian Flores chooses the music played at every practice, according to Yahoo Sports, so no big deal.  

The timing, choice of musical artist, and the consecutive nature of the songs suggested more. 

Wide receiver Kenny Stills - who already made headlines earlier in training camp for calling out team owner Stephen Ross and his support of Donald Trump, was apparently the target of Flores’ joke. 

Stills is critical of Hov’s partnership with the NFL and the sentiment that “we’ve moved past kneeling” and admits the partnership “doesn’t sit well” with him. 

It would appear Flores, who it should be noted wasn’t a fan of Stills calling out Ross, wanted to make sure Stills received some sort of message. 

It has since been reported that Stills knew the Jay-Z songs were coming, so not sure how effective the message was. And by all accounts, Stills will continue to kneel during the national anthem in protest against injustices and continue to ride for the cause. 

While seemingly funny and certainly petty, the NFL will continue to have a problem between labor and management as long as they fail to address the humongous elephant on the field.

For those of you wondering, the eight Jay-Z songs were: Show Me What You Got, Brooklyn Go Hard, N****s in Paris, Run This Town, On To The Next One, No Church In The Wild, and 99 Problems.