Kaepernick, whose protest was adopted by other players, said he knelt during the anthem to to call attention to racial inequality and police brutality.
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“I am little behind on his tweets”, National Football League spokesperson Joe Lockhart told reporters on Tuesday.
“But while Dallas dropped to its knees as a team, they all stood up for our National Anthem”.
“The real effort here is to make progress in the community on issues of inequality, and to not get distracted by political attacks or things that don’t help us make progress”, Lockhart said.
President Donald Trump now says the NFL should create a rule banning kneeling during the national anthem.
Trump praised NASCAR race auto drivers for not following a move in the National Football League to kneel out of protest during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner at the start of the game, and dismissed criticism that his remarks were racially tinged. In response, Trump tweeted that locked arms were good but “kneeling not acceptable” predicting “bad ratings”.
“The American Legion is one of the original architects of the U.S. Flag Code”, said Rohan, a U.S. Army veteran. An announcer urged fans to lock arms with those seated next to them, “no matter the color of their jersey”. “He’s fired! He’s fired!”
Trump’s comments festered over the weekend and by the various game times on Sunday, roughly 200 players sat, knelt or raised their fists in defiance during the anthem.
“After I heard the President’s comments – and just the difference in characterization he had for my fellow peers taking a silent protest, in comparison to the way he characterized people that were preaching hate – it really struck me”, Thomas told Erin Burnett Monday evening.
“This isn’t about the president being against anyone”.
“This isn’t about the president being against something”, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at her daily press briefing. “Negative and disrespectful comments suggesting otherwise are contrary to the founding principles of our country, and we do not support those comments or opinions”.
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Debate over the national anthem was “a side issue” that’s likely to boost ratings for sports talks shows or pre-game shows, but not affect whether people watch the actual games, said Lee Berke, president of consultant LHB Sports Entertainment & Media. Fox, owned by Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, also reported lower viewership, CNN reported.
