The football players have a right to protest anything they want. But the people who buy tickets and pay their extremely 'bloated' salaries just to play games  are not all on their side. Most just want to see their team win a game and singing the national anthem and respecting our flag is not a 'partisan' thing, nor should it be. It's an American thing.
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No one should be forced to stand for the anthem, but it would be nice if those players who owe everything they have to this country, including being overpaid, would save their kneeling and protests for their their own time.  Use some of that money they make and take out some full page ads in the newspaper, or buy television air time. They're making their statement cheap, on somebody else's  paid for time  
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To me, football is taken way too seriously anyway,but the issue is a serious one and it  has, unfortunately,  been lost  in all the uproar they've created by  attacking our national symbols, rather than the injustice  itself