NFL players have been protesting the national for over a year now.  It started out as just Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers, and Kenny Stills of the Dolphins doing it, but the protests have spread to all but 6 NFL teams.  The teams that have not protested are the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, and Minnesota Vikings.  Kneeling has been the main way of protesting the anthem, as seen in the pictures above, but for the Pittsburgh Steelers, their way of protesting was by staying in the locker room during the anthem.  One Steelers offensive lineman, Alejandro Villanueva, stood for the anthem on the field.  He is a veteran.  When Coach Mike Tomlin was asked about his team’s move, he said, “some have opinions, some don’t. We wanted to protect those that don’t, we wanted to protect those that do. We came here to play a football game today, and those were our intentions.”  Multiple teams, including the Cowboys and Cardinals, have linked arms and stood during the national anthem to make a statement about unity.

NASCAR owners Richard Petty and Richard Childress also made comments.  Petty said anyone who protests “oughta be out of the country” and Childress said any of his employees who protested would leave the track on a Greyhound Bus after the anthem.  In response, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, “I just heard a comment this morning from a NASCAR owner and from Mr. Petty that just blew me away,” Popovich said. “Blew me away. Where the owner described the fact that he would get the Greyhound bus tickets for anybody to leave and they’d be fired and Mr. Petty who said people who act the way we saw on Sunday they should leave the country. That’s where I live. I had no idea that I lived in a country where people would actually say that sort of thing.”

Many fans of the NFL want the protests to stop.  Sports once was something where you could relax and forget about politics. It now incorporates political problems because of protests.  Many people have said sports is now used as something to divide us.  All the fans want is to watch a friendly competition on the field without politics being incorporated.  NFL players have not been punished for it, so many fans have boycotted NFL.  Many fans are wondering if there will eventually be punishments.