During the National Anthem of a 2016 pre-season NFL game, 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt on the sidelines. He later stated to the Press, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
According to Wikipedia NFL players were not mandated to be on the field for the playing of the national anthem until 2009, when the United States Department of Defense began paying sporting organizations to hold patriotic displays.
Kaepernick also vowed to give $100,000 a month to various inner city charities dedicated the their communities and the pursuit of justice.
The protests divided America.
Kaepernick and other players received death threats and Trump called for the firing of any protesting player neglecting that the 1st Amendment protects the Freedom of Speech.
More and more players joined Kaepernick.
Jerry Jones the owner of the Cowboys too.
The NFL owners take no orders from anyone.
Kaepernick stopped playing football for the 49ers at the end of the 2016 season.
No NFL team has offered him a spot at the QB position.
Not the Browns, Bengals, Chargers, 49ers or the Giants or my Patriots.
In the end THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER is just a song , which was first sung at a sporting event during the 7th inning stretch of game one of the 1918 World’s Series.
Congress adopted the song as the National Anthem in 1931, but it was sung at ball games until World War II.
99.99999% of Americans don’t know the three other stanzas written by Francis Scott Keys to celebrate the 1814 defense of Baltimore against the British navy.
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And that was before or after the protests.
Remember this is the Land of the ZFree.
And that freedom is for everyone.
