America is known to be a country that in order to make a point or change something they have to make a huge scene so the government actually notices the issue at hand. Most recently, the victim of this is the NFL. Last year, Colin Kaepernick, former San Francisco 49ers' quarterback, was the first player in the NFL to kneel during the national anthem. His reasoning behind this was because of the racial transgressions and police brutality that was going on nationwide and he wanted to bring to light that racism is still a huge problem in today's society. He is now no longer apart of any NFL team because it caused such a controversy, and no team wanted him.
Since Trump was elected into office, more and more riots and events have happened that widely relate to racial transgressions. After more NFL players began to kneel during the national anthem, Trump started to tweet multiple tweets about these actions and how disrespectful it is to kneel while our countries flag is waving; he is also calling out owners, asking them to fire the players that are kneeling, since they are disobeying NFL guidelines. Much backlash has come from these tweets saying that Trump is rude and doesn't know what he's talking about.
I believe that Trump is right to talk about the disrespect this brings the country and the men that died to give us freedom. Even thought the First Amendment clearly states that we have the right to freedom of speech, in 1989, in the Supreme Court Texas vs. Johnson case, it was prohibited to desecrate (treating (a sacred place or thing) with violent disrespect) the American flag. Kneeling and not wanting to recognize the National Anthem is an example of desecrating the American Flag.
NFL players like Malcom Butler and Stephen Gilmore on the Patriots knelt because of the racial transgressions, but Daily News came out with this on Monday, "Around 200 NFL players on Sunday joined a silent protest against President Trump’s criticism of athletes by dropping to one knee or sitting during the national anthem." The fact that this is why most player knelt is inappropriate. Kneeling and disrespecting the flag like that is not a way to protest Trump. Hopefully, these players will soon realize that this is extremely inappropriate and will stop desecrating the American Flag.
