As he has done every since President Donald Trump said in September that any NFL player who kneels should be fired, Olivier Vernon of the New York Giants knelt for the national anthem before the Thanksgiving Day game against the Washington Redskins.
Vernon was the only player participating in any of the three Thanksgiving Day NFL games who knelt. That, of course, drew the ire of the Twitter-happy president.
Can you believe that the disrespect for our Country, our Flag, our Anthem continues without penalty to the players. The Commissioner has lost control of the hemorrhaging league. Players are the boss! https://t.co/udXP5MR8BC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2017
Vernon recently explained his reason for kneeling this way:
“What it would take for me to stand is if people can understand what the whole message is behind it,” he told Newsday. “That would actually help a whole lot, but everybody doesn’t see things that way and tries to distort what the message was from the beginning, which is basically social injustice on African-Americans and police brutality.”
It’s apparent that Vernon is going to keep kneeling, and Trump is going to keep tweeting about disrespect from NFL players. Whether you like either of those things or not, the right to do both is part of what makes this a great country.
NOTE: I’m closing the comments for this because I can see quickly that allowing discussion is going to be pointless.