Before their respective games on Sunday afternoon and Monday night, NFL players on the Baltimore Ravens and New York Giants teams stood respectfully for the black national anthem. However, those same NFL players kneeled while the American national anthem played.
The Baltimore Ravens were the first of the two teams to do this. The NFL players stood for the black national anthem then kneeled during “The Star-Spangled Banner” before their game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
Video shows the team standing while “Lift Every Voice and Sing” played. The song often referred to as the black national anthem.
Related: Watch Fans Boo Houston Texans And Kansas City Chiefs During NFL Social Justice Display
But, Ravens players then took a knee as soon as the “Star Spangled Banner”, America’s national anthem, rang out.
Outkick’s Clay Travis called out the Ravens for the hypocrisy that they were showing while doing this.
“Question: how can the Ravens argue it’s not about respect for the anthem when they stand for the black national anthem and kneel for the United States national anthem? They can’t,” he tweeted. “They’ve checkmated themselves.”
The very next night, before their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, every single Giants player stood respectfully as the black national anthem was played. Once the American national anthem came on, however, at least 20 players were seen kneeling, according to ESPN.
When the topic of anthem-kneeling in the NFL came up earlier this month, Giants co-owner John Mara said that his “preference is that everybody stand.”
However, he then added:
“But if you decide that in your conscience taking a knee is the right thing to do, I’m going to support your right to do that because I believe in the First Amendment and I believe in the right of people, especially players, to take a knee in silent protest if that is what they want to do.”
Related: The NFL Is ‘Officially Dead’: Cowboys Get ‘Green Light’ To Protest Anthem
Giants Coach Joe Judge was seen standing during the anthem. He had his arms on the shoulders of safety Jabrill Peppers and defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson. He said afterwards:
“Nothing was scripted in terms of who stood next to me or who I was touching. But we made a decision as a team we are going to respect everybody and the thing that makes it special is you respect everyone’s unique background and you can move on.
So, we went out there, respected our players’ right and choice to handle it how they wanted to handle it. I respect how our players handled it in terms of not letting anything external divide us, and we went out there and played football.”
Just seeing overpaid NFL athletes taking a knee during our National Anthem was already sickening enough. But, seeing them stand for another “anthem” entirely in direct contrast takes this to a whole new level.
Kneeling during the U.S. national anthem is a clear sign of disrespect for the men and women who have fought and died for the American flag.
That is not up for debate.
If the NFL continues to allow spoiled athletes to disrespect our flag before every game, the league should not be surprised if more and more Americans stop watching football entirely.
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