On Tuesday, NFL legend John Elway spoke to Broncos TV about the hotly-contested national anthem controversy currently consuming the nation. While the Hall of Famer granted some sympathy to the kneelers in light of President Donald Trump’s fiery Friday comments, Elway made it clear that he will always believe in standing for our anthem. He also echoed a popular sentiment on the Right: let’s take the politics out of football.
“I’m one that believes in standing for the national anthem, and I’ve always believed that,” said Elway. “I believe that this is the greatest country in the world.”
“We are very fortunate to live here,” he continued, “but it’s obviously not perfect. There are a lot of things that need to be corrected and we will continue to work on those things.”
“I’m one that really believes in standing for the flag,” Elway reiterated.
“I understand the players and the way they felt from the comments that were made earlier in the week,” said the football star, referencing Trump’s comments made at an Alabama rally regarding players who refuse to stand for the anthem. “They felt they had to go down and kneel and that’s up to them.”
Trump asked the crowd at a senator rally for Luther Strange if they would “love it” if NFL owners fired the “son of a b****” players who refuse to stand for our national anthem. The crowd, of course, went wild. Not one to back down, Trump quickly doubled-down on his take via social media.
Elway then suggested the NFL focus “a little bit more” on football and “take the politics out of it.”
“Hopefully as we go forward we can start concentrating on football a little bit more. Take the politics out of football,” he said.
What a novel idea.
“But I think that last week was a good show of unity by the NFL and hopefully, this week we can move forward,” Elway closed.
On Sunday, nearly 200 NFL players decided to stick it to Trump by taking a knee during the playing of our national anthem in “solidarity” with other kneelers, such as Fidel Castro-loving, cop-hating former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick.
As previously noted by The Daily Wire, their little act of resistance against Trump has had some consequences they likely did not anticipate: “Players have reportedly lost out on endorsement deals, NFL ratings are down, DirecTV is now handing out unprecedented refunds for their NFL package, and a majority of the American people believe players should stand for the anthem (64%).”