Editorial

POLL: Majority Of Americans Support NFL National Anthem Protests

(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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A majority of Americans are in support of NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem.

Kneeling during the national anthem in front and center in sports again after Drew Breescomments and the death of George Floyd. Yahoo Sports conducted a poll to find out how Americans feel about the issue, which first gained national attention when Colin Kaepernick started the trend years ago. The results are pretty damn shocking. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)

Yahoo Sports reported the following on their poll with YouGov, which polled 1,570 people:

For the question “Is it OK for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem to protest police killings of African Americans?” both male and female respondents agreed that it was, by a margin of 52 percent to 37 percent (male) and 52 percent to 34 percent (female). Younger respondents tended to be more favorable to the idea, with 68 percent of those 18-29 agreeing that it was. That number steadily declined to 36 percent of respondents over 65.

For comparison, only 36% of people supported Kaepernick’s protest in a Yahoo poll from 2018, which there’s been a substantial swing.

I do like how this question is posed. It’s kind of misleading. It’s “Is it OK for NFL players to kneel during the national anthem to protest police killings of African Americans?”

 

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Yeah, that’s pretty leading and not exactly reflective of how Kaepernick’s protests were back in 2016. Let’s take a little walk down memory lane.

The former 49ers quarterback wore pig socks, said cops were murdering people and getting paid leave, praised Fidel Castro and compared cops to slave catchers.

I think it’s pretty fair to say Kaepernick did a lot more than just protest police brutality. He pretty much went out of his way to alienate everyone in his path.

So, has opinion changed? Yes, but let’s stop pretending like Kaep is some angel who took a knee with a clear message.

He burned every bridge he had with NFL fans after nonstop bonehead decisions.

 

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Let’s be clear. I think you can support peaceful protest against police brutality, and be against what Colin Kaepernick did. It’s not one or the other. It can be both.