GOP lawmaker, candidate for governor cancels NFL season tickets over protests

A Republican congresswoman and candidate for governor in Tennessee said she canceled her Titans season tickets after some players protested during the national anthem last year.

Rep. Diane Black said in an opinion piece last week that she and her husband Dave canceled their season tickets and haven’t watched a single NFL game because the players “disrespected our flag.”

“For now, my family has decided that we’ll spend Sunday afternoons fishing instead of attending Titans game,” Black wrote for Outkick the Coverage on Thursday. “And that will continue until the NFL and its players show due respect for The Star Spangled Banner that waves for the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

I cancelled my season tickets and sent them back to the Titans. Read my Op-Ed on @Outkick to hear the whole story.

→ https://t.co/KdysWeKA4n pic.twitter.com/KNS9PLq9WL

— Diane Black (@DianeBlackTN) March 30, 2018

In a movement started by then-San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick, NFL players started kneeling during the national anthem two years ago to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

{mosads}“Every American has the right to protest and to avail themselves of the right to free speech outlined in the 1st Amendment,” Black wrote. “But just because we have the right to do something doesn’t mean we should.”

Black’s family has multiple military service members, including her husband, father and son. She argued the protests were insulting to veterans and their families.

“The flag represents the freedom we have in this country — freedom unlike any country in the history of the world. Freedom that was earned in blood and sweat and sacrifice. Freedom that demands respect,” she wrote.

President Trump frequently attacked the NFL last year over players taking a knee.

He called on NFL owners to fire anyone who protested.

“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. He is fired,’ ” Trump said in September.