Lets keep sports and politics on their separate fields

It has been a weird couple weeks in the professional sports world.

While watching the NFL this weekend to check on my fantasy football team, I couldn’t help but notice the continuing debate explode all over the television and social media over the players kneeling, sitting or standing for our anthem.

On Sept. 22, President Donald Trump said at a rally that players who do not stand up for the national anthem should be fired from the NFL. A day later, he followed it up with a tweet, “If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL, or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU’RE FIRED. Find something else to do!”

Well that caused uproar as teams and players across the country protested the flag.

Sadly, this is not the first time that athletes have not stood up for the flag, but it seemed to be an even bigger deal this past weekend after Trump’s tweet. Any game I watched, the cameras would purposely zoom in on the people sitting down for the National Anthem and give them more attention than anybody who was standing up.

As a daughter of somebody who is currently in the military, it really upsets me that people have resorted to disrespecting the flag by not at least standing up for it. I have been around the military life since I was four years old and I have personally seen the sacrifices everyone makes to serve our country.

And then there are these multi-million dollar paid athletes who think the right way to spread a message is to not stand up for our flag.

I understand that the players are trying to have a voice for the injustice in our country, but when you take a step back and realize how lucky we are to be living in the United States, standing up for the flag seems like a simple task to do. I mean the fact alone that these players even have a choice to disrespect our flag proves the point that the United States is an incredible place to live and they need to stop taking advantage of that.

If these players want to make a difference, they should be using their money and resources to do something about it instead of showing disrespect for our country.

As far as I can tell, these protests haven’t done anything in a positive matter. I have been avoiding Facebook due to the controversy because everyone seems to be lashing out at the other side and dividing our country even more. It is ironic our country is being divided over our flag not being respected.

Now I am not saying that we need to boycott the NFL like our president said we should. If you enjoy watching football on Sundays like most people do, then watch the game. I know I will continue watching the NFL for the most part and cheering on Cooper Kupp, but I will not agree with the actions that the players are doing during the pregame ceremonies.

I don’t know if there is really a solution to this problem in the near future but I do find it ironic that the man who really started all of this, Colin Kaepernick, is still without a job in the NFL.

Grace Pohl can be reached at grace@cheneyfreepress.com.