Normally, sports fans can rely on one thing: that the government will not stick their nose in their favorite teams’ and sports’ business; however, this has not been the case in the last few years for the National Football League. And our current President has taken another step to inject himself and his views into something we football fans know and love, purely for the sport itself. This past weekend, POTUS Trump called for NFL owners to fire players and coaches who protest the National Anthem before the start of games. Protesting the Star Spangled Banner has become commonplace in the NFL nowadays, with more and more teams and players joining in on the efforts every single week.

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They have stated that their purpose is to promote racial and ethnic fairness in the eyes of the law, especially in light of the incidents of police brutality in the last number of years. What these players are doing, especially on this gigantic of a stage, seems to be making progress toward those efforts, but now our own President has stepped in and all but condemned these protests. He first took action in a political rally in Alabama on Thursday, in which he stated “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!'”. He also took to Twitter on Sunday, in response to more protests, to say that the NFL needs to require its players to be present and standing for when the anthem plays, or at least that the NFL needs to change its policy regarding the anthem; the former statement was more of a hunch based on Trump’s stance on the issue. During a media statement this past Sunday, Trump called kneeling for the anthem “...very disrespectful to our country...” and stated that “...we have great people representing our country, especially our soldiers, our first responders, and they should be treated with respect.” While he also claims that this is about respect for the flag and not disrespect for the efforts toward racial equality, many people inside the NFL and across the country, really, do not see it that way.

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In response to these comments, more and more NFL players and teams protested the Star Spangled Banner. Almost all teams who did not take a knee or sit on Sunday locked arms in a show of unity, with another NFL Owner, Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank, joining his respective team in protest. Trump seemingly misperceived this as progress toward honoring the anthem, as he went to Twitter to applaud the solidarity shown by players in reverence toward the anthem. In reality, this is probably not the case; it is just a more unifying way to protest and make people aware of the racial inequality and police brutality issue in this country. In addition to the solidarity for the issue shown by several teams, there were other, more innovative, forms of protests against Trump’s comments taking place. The Oakland Raiders, prior to their Sunday night game against the Redskins, sat on the bench as a team for the anthem. Several players from the Patriots (who took a lot of flak from fans about it), Packers, Jaguars, and Giants knelt for the anthem. And even more surprising was seeing an empty Pittsburgh Steelers sideline, excluding former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva (who stood in the tunnel), prior to their game in Soldier Field against Chicago. The Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks followed the Steelers’ example and left an empty sideline for the anthem later on that day.

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Whether you believe that these players should be standing for the National Anthem or not, you cannot deny that this country has some problems to work out. And these players are exercising their first amendment rights in how they want to bring these problems to the public eye. Starting with Colin Kaepernick last preseason and at least until this past week, they have certainly done that. The NFL is a big stage, and it is unquestionably a stage to deliver powerful messages, and this is not the first time the NFL has been a platform for social change. As we all know, the NFL, along with its players and coaches, celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, where virtually everyone in every organization dress in pink to support a cause that needs attention. It is no different, in terms of relaying an impactful message and supporting a cause, with the National Anthem protests that have taken place in the past couple of years.