Reality Stars Finally Come to Terms with NFL Anthem Protests

Duck Dynasty is back on board with the NFL, thank goodness. The former Duck Dynasty stars welcomed current and former NFL players, Arian Foster, Michael Thomas and Nate Boyer into their Louisiana home to talk about the controversial practice of athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

“The guys made the point that this is not hating America,” Korie Robertson said. “This is a specific protest about police brutality and injustice against Black people. Once that came out and that message was kind of understood, people were more accepting of it, where at first it just felt like a total, just like, rejection of America and the values that we hold.”

Still, Willie Robertson wasn’t convinced that pro football games are the best time to protest.

“Let’s say I’ve got something that I feel passionate about and I could go to someone’s wedding and stand up right in the middle and say it,” he said. “It would be all over the news, it’ll be the thing talked about and is that the best, y’know, is that the best time?”

Arian Foster replied that it never feels like the right time to protest, but it’s what often needs to be done.

“If you look at the history of this country, it was literally founded on protests, you were literally running from Britain right?” Thomas said. “You were protesting taxation, this is what this country was founded on was protests. So to say protesting is inappropriate at any time is just to me a lack of understanding of how this country even got started … there’s nothing more fundamentally American than a protest.”

Korie Robertson pointed out that the whole point of the NFL protests is that they’re during games.

“Because it is when people are watching,” she said. “If you have a platform and there’s a chance for you to get eyeballs on it, and you have something that’s really important to you, that’s probably a good time to do it.”

Willie said his issue with the protests is that he doesn’t want to be thinking about politics when he’s watching football.

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Thomas had a very logical response.

“Everybody who took a knee, everybody who was fighting for social justice and using their voice and platform,” he said, “we were just trying to say, ‘Look, if we’re looked at as leaders in our community, and we can talk about, you know, stopping domestic violence; we can talk about, like, you know, raising awareness for cancer, anti-bullying and stuff like that, when it comes to issues in the African American community, why can’t we be the leaders and the champions of that as well? And use our voice and platform and do it?'”

Foster said he always thought it was “a little hypocritical” for people to say they just want to keep it to the game.

“Before the game, the American flag is flying, the national anthem is playing, you’ve got aircraft flying over, you’ve got … the Navy Seals jumping out,” Foster said. “You have what I would label as propaganda for the military and that’s literally the epitome of politics.”

Crazy we’re still talking about Anthem Protests.

At this point, either stop watching football or stop talking about it. . .

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