As you may have seen on the news recently, a sports organization that has been such a favorite pastime of our country, the National Football League (NFL), has become a complete and utter embarrassment to our country.

I have been appalled by the recent and ongoing disrespectful acts by some of the NFL players that refuse to stand to honor the American flag during the playing of the National Anthem. These disrespectful protests only serve to divide us and do nothing to foster unity.

It is a display of such disrespect to kneel during the playing of our country’s National Anthem.

The playing of the Star Spangled Banner should be a time we show respect to those who have put everything on the line to fight for America. It is a time we should show respect for all of those families who forever mourn the lives of loved ones who died fighting for our country. And a time we should show respect for each other.

Those few minutes during the National Anthem is a time when we all stand together – no race, no sex, no status – just Americans standing with hand over heart.

I applaud President Trump for standing up against this obnoxious behavior. I agree with him 100 percent.

The NFL should be ashamed it allowed these despicable actions to take place. Everyone is afforded the right to protest. But these protests should be on their own time and not during the playing of the National Anthem.

Last week I was proud to cosponsor H.Res. 532, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that persons present who are not in uniform or are not members of the Armed Forces or veterans “should face the flag and stand at attention with their hand over the heart.”

The National Anthem and the American flag are symbols of all that makes America great in our never ending effort to become a more perfect union. May God continue to bless our great nation.

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