[Hoot Gibson]

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Please note Colin Kapernick's response to a reporter's question after his initial protest. Kapernick may dislike apple pie, but if he does, it has little to do with hatred of America. The protest of injustice (and we can disagree on whether injustice is present) is the right of any and every American. To refuse to stand for the national anthem as an act of protest may, in fact, demonstrate the highest regard for America's commitment to "establish justice." Soldiers do not fight for a piece of cloth: they fight for the ideals of "liberty and justice for ALL." As MLK Jr. correctly argued, to break an unjust law, and to willingly suffer the consequence of that unjust law in order to highlight the injustice of that law, is to actually show the highest respect for the law.

Employees have no right to engage in political protest while on the company clock. None. The NFL has the right to allow such protests if they want, but unless individual players have negotiated such a right into their contracts, then they have only the free speech rights that their employer deems acceptable.

Stop pretending that Kaepernick and his America-hating supporters in the NFL are exercising a First Amendment right by disrespecting their own flag and country on national TV and on foreign soil. The are doing no such thing.