By Stephen Szynmura

In recent weeks there has been some NFL players who had started to kneel for the National Anthem. It all started with the quarterback from San Francisco named Colin Keapernick. After Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem there was a reaction from both sides. Fans were burning his jerseys others were buying his jerseys in support of him. To my surprise, other NFL players and even athletes in other sports have joined the protest.

Now you may ask yourself why are some players kneeling during the National Anthem? Isn’t that disrespectful to the flag and the whole country? The answer is yes, it is disrespectful, but on the other hand people can do such things because the United States citizens have the freedom of speech.

How can football players speak for the people who are actually having troubles with the police? Football players make millions of dollars each year and couldn’t care less what the little guy has to say.

Taking a knee during the National Anthem is just something that should not be done. It is very disrespectful to many people that love this country. I love this country and I show it differently that Kaepernick does. I find it hard to believe that Kaepernick loves this great country when he kneels for the National Anthem. I do realize that there are people who are in the military that have backed Colin Kaepernick and kneeling, but I have yet to see Kaepernick do anything with his money like make a donation to a cause that speaks to the issues he’s protesting. It seems like he is doing this to create a distraction.

Some athletes are doing a type of protest which I can get behind. They are linking arms together to show that they are one. Some are also sticking their one arm in the air which is also acceptable in my eyes. If a team links arms or puts an arm up I am OK with it. It shows respect to the National Anthem and a person or team can still protest so it is like the best of both worlds right there.

People are free to do as they will. A person has the freedom to protest, but there are certain kinds of protests that just are not the right kinds for football players to perform while they are playing a game. There are better ways to protest so why do a protest that would cause an uproar that could possible get you cut from your team. Then again, you can’t control what a person dose because you would be controlling their freedom which is something that should never happen.