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National News · U.S.

Coach Lou Holtz Asks Protesting NFL Players “What Have You Accomplished?”

Coach Lou Holtz, a much beloved former college football coach made his thoughts about NFL players protesting by kneeling during the national anthem known. He was interviewed by Fox and Friends and said: “It’s a matter of choice. You choose to kneel for the National Anthem, you’re choosing not to play.”

Fox News tweeted this message after the interview: Lou Holtz: “Let’s look at what you’ve accomplished by kneeling down during the national anthem: You’re hurting the sport, you’re hurting the future, you’re hurting the revenue for other people coming up.” 

Here’s more from Holtz:

“Everything the NFL does on [the National Anthem] is a reaction. The player, I think, are very emotionally involved. One of the main problems we have, I think, is social media. People get on Twitter and Facebook and say ‘hey, you need to kneel for the National Anthem, etc. 

I’ve been involved in a lot of football games. I’ve never attended a football game where they didn’t have the National Anthem before the game. It’s part of the sport. And let’s remember this: Years ago these athletes made $50,000 a year. Now they make multi-millions because the NFL became very popular. It surpassed Major League baseball as the number one sport. Now all of the sudden, you are really hurting the customer.”

The former coach sided with the president in his criticism of the NFL. Trump tweeted this:

“The NFL National Anthem Debate is alive and well again – can’t believe it! Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!”

Holtz went onto discuss how he would handle this National Anthem controversy if he were the commissioner.

“It’s a matter of choice. You choose to kneel for the National Anthem, you’re choosing not to play. It’s that simple. It’s your choice. Now, I’m involved with [Housing and Urban Development] to try and get young people to make good choices and it’s difficult to get athletes involved in this because they have so many other things. 

I don’t know why they’re kneeling, but I will say this to every athlete that may be listening. What have you accomplished by kneeling for the National Anthem except cause the fan base to go down, the TV viewing audience to go down, the revenue to go down? Now you haven’t accomplished anything. Now let’s look at what you’ve accomplished by kneeling down during the National Anthem: You’re hurting the sport, you’re hurting the future, you’re hurting the revenue for other people coming up.

We have a problem,” said Holtz, “and kneeling on the National Anthem does not help it at all.”

— itadmin