Stand Taken
Local veterans organizations will not be showing NFL games this Sunday.
American Legion Posts 117 and 778, as well as VFW Post 249, made the decision to stop showing NFL games following last Sunday, when players from around the league knelt in protest during the national anthem.
“We just find it very disrespectful that the players are not standing for our national anthem,” said Bob Spencer, commander of Post 117 in Butler.
“We've had service members serve to protect our rights. Just as (the players) have the right to do their protesting, we also reserve the right to not like their ideas.”
Lenny Vogel, quartermaster for the VFW Joseph T. Black Post 249 in Butler, also called the protesters disrespectful, but said that the VFW post is not taking a political stance on the issue.
“We don't want to make it anything to do with politics,” he said. “We don't care about that side of it. We just want to make a stand.”
Both Spencer and Al Worsley, commander of Post 778 in Lyndora, acknowledged that veterans have fought for free speech and the right to protest.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 in protest of unarmed black men being killed by police.
Since then, a number of players and teams around the league have followed suit.
Worsley said he is fine with the reason for the protest, but believes that the players are choosing the wrong outlet.
“It has nothing to do with the flag,” he said.
On Sunday, following comments made by President Donald Trump last week that any NFL player who doesn't stand for the anthem should lose his job, many players and some team officials around the league knelt during the anthem.
Every player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, except for Army veteran Alejandro Villanueva, remained off the field during the anthem.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told CBS Sports on Sunday that the team chose not to participate in the anthem “not to be disrespectful to the anthem, to remove ourselves from the circumstance.”
Spencer said the decision to boycott NFL games was made by Post 117's executive board. Worsley said the decision for Post 778 was made by the post's executive board at his direction.
Worsley said Post 778 will decide whether to show games on a week-to-week basis, while Spencer said Post 117 will not show games for 30 days.
The VFW Post 249 will not show games Thursday, Sunday and Monday.
Spencer estimated that 80 percent of the people he has spoken to are in favor of the post's decision, while 20 percent are against it.
Worsley said everyone he has spoken with is in support of Post 778's decision.
“Is it going to affect our profit in the bar?” Worsley said. “Most likely, but we're OK with it.”
