Georgia state Senate passes resolution condemning NFL

The Georgia state Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday condemning the NFL and its decision to turn down an ad from a veterans group.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the resolution, sponsored by state Sen. David Shafer (R), condemns the NFL for not allowing the group, AMVETS, to purchase an ad in the printed Super Bowl program that targeted players who kneel during the national anthem.

The ad depicts three service members holding the American flag next to the text “#PleaseStand.”

“When America’s veterans try to exercise their free speech, the NFL has no problem telling them to sit down and shut up,” Shafer, who is running for Georgia lieutenant governor, said.

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The resolution calls the league’s rejection of the ad “pious and self-serving.” It also accuses the NFL of abandoning “even the pretense of supporting free speech and dissent” while allowing “organized disrespect and contempt for the Flag of the United States and the National Anthem.”

It comes one year before the state will host the Super Bowl at the newly-constructed Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

State Sen. Michael Williams (R) — who is running for governor of The Peach State — blasted NFL players before the vote, saying, “The overpaid crybabies kneeling during our national anthem no longer deserve my patronage.”

“I will not be watching the Super Bowl nor any other NFL games until serious changes are made,” he said, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Georgia Democrats condemned the vote, accusing Republicans of “slip[ping] a resolution through in a deceptive manner.”

“This is nothing more than an expression of an individual running for lieutenant governor who wants to play politics at the expense of individuals’ rights and human decency,” State Sen. Steve Henson (D) said, according to the newspaper.

The resolution comes a day after President Trump revisited the debate over the national anthem during the State of the Union on Tuesday.

In his speech, Trump applauded Preston Sharp, a young boy who has organized a campaign to place flags on soldiers’ graves and said his efforts “remind us … why we proudly stand for the national anthem.”

Trump has repeatedly criticized NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, calling them “sons of bitches” and saying NFL owners should fire players who take a knee.