The following article by Janice Williams of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website October 15, 2017:
A new poll released on Saturday by HuffPost/YouGov found 57 percent of Americans knew that players were protesting police violence when they kneeled during the national anthem–up from 48 percent of Americans who knew what kneelers were protesting in September.
Meanwhile, 66 percent of self-described football diehards said they knew NFL protests were in response to police brutality, which was 13 percent more than fans who knew why protesters were kneeling in September.
As for those prescribing to President Donald Trump’s alleged reasons behind NFL protests, only 12 percent of Americans believed players who kneeled during the national anthem were protesting the flag, down two percent from September.
Down by more than 20 percent compared to the last time the poll was conducted, only 26 percent of Americans believe NFL kneelers are protesting against the president.
Although conversations surrounding the protests have been mixed, with viewers split 49 to 36 percent on kneeling during the protests being inappropriate, the majority of Americans (52 percent) disapprove of Trump’s rhetoric towards NFL players’ decision to protest while only 36 percent agree with him.
Last year the former San Francisco 49er’s player started kneeling during the national anthem at the start of NFL games, which Kaepernick has long said was his effort to protest police brutality and killings of unarmed black men by law enforcement. Since then the quarterback, who led the team to the Super Bowl in 2013, was released from his contract and is still an unsigned free agent. However, his efforts have resulted in plenty of other players kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games.
Their actions have certainly ruffled the feathers of some viewers, including Trump, who has since gone on to suggest that players who don’t stand for the national anthem should be fired as the act was disrespectful to the American flag and the U.S. military.
Except the demonstration actually has nothing to do with protesting the flag, veterans, soldiers or anything of the sort as Trump has tried to insinuate. And despite Trump’s consistent and controversial efforts to peg NFL kneelers as flag protesters, the majority of Americans are still aware that players are only kneeling to show solidarity against police violence.
Trump seemingly launched an attack against the NFL back in September when he urged NFL owners and coaches to force players to stand for the anthem.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” the president said during a rally for Republican Senator Luther Strange.
Following Trump’s comment, along with a number of tweetscondemning players for exercising their First Amendment right, more players, coaches and some owners have responded by joining protesters and kneeling during the national anthem.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted October 10-11 and surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults.
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