President Donald Trump shoved sports into politics during a stop in Alabama.
Trump spoke at a campaign rally for Sen. Luther Strange, who faces a challenge in a Republican primary runoff for the seat left vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president initially offered some rah-rah words guaranteed to hype up the crowd.
"We're going to be like your football teams. We're going to win all the time," Trump said referencing the University of Alabama's dominance in college football.
That was the tame remark before Trump unloaded on those who protest the national anthem. The president said the NFL owner who cuts a player for protesting the anthem will be the most popular person in the country for a week.
... trump taking a veiled shot at colin kaepernick, says owner should say: "get that sonofabitch off the field right now... he's fired!!" pic.twitter.com/ttbOd0VrPG
— fake nick ramsey (@nick_ramsey) September 23, 2017
"Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired!'" Trump said. "Some owner is gonna do that. He’s gonna say, 'That guy disrespects our flag. He’s fired.' And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’re friends of mine, many of them. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in this country."
This is the second time the president or his admin have called for the firing of someone in the sports world for expressing an opinion.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 23, 2017
Anytime an athlete speaks up about politics the response comes in this cry, especially on social media, for the athlete to "shut up and stick to sports." But the president likes to use the anthem protest to his political advantage and athletes don't seem to be interested in stopping their political activism.
At a rally in March, without saying Colin Kaepernick's name, Trump referenced the anthem protest and NFL owners being scared to sign the still unsigned quarterback for fear the president might tweet about it.
Trump's call to fire football players from behind a podium in Alabama came on the same day that Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry backed the NBA champions decision to forgo a visit to a White House inhabited by Trump.
"We don’t stand for basically what our president has — the things that he’s said and the things that he hasn’t said at the right times — that we won’t stand for it," Curry told reporters. "By acting, and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country, what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye toward. … That’s kind of where I stand on that. I don’t think us going to the White House will miraculously make everything better, but this is my opportunity to voice that."
Trump's comments at the political rally didn't stop with the anthem. He went on to talk about penalties for "beautiful" hits ruining the game. He then closed the athem portion of his speech by telling those in attendance to leave the stadium if they see an anthem protest.
Here are Trump’s full remarks from Alabama re: NFL player anthem protests. pic.twitter.com/dBTKcc63OG
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) September 23, 2017
