President Donald Trump is talking about the NFL again, although this time it’s not on Twitter.
Trump has been at the center of the sports world over the past few days after he said during an Alabama rally that NFL owners should fire any “son of a bitches” protesting during the national anthem. But that didn’t stop the protests over the weekend. In fact, they grew to enormous levels as players throughout the league kneeled during “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
POTUS has doubled down on his rhetoric since then, and he had more critical words about the NFL during an interview at the White House on Wednesday.
Here’s the full transcript, via Deadspin:
“In my opinion, the NFL has to change, or you know what’s gonna happen? Their business is gonna go to hell. Okay?
“We have to respect our national anthem, we have to respect our country, and they’re not respecting our country. And most importantly, the fans agree with me — I mean largely the fans agree, but we have to show total respect for our national anthem for our flag, for our country, we have to do it.
“And you can, there are plenty of places, and there are plenty of — personally when they’re protesting during the football game. I think they can find better places, but they cannot do it during the national anthem.”
There’s a pretty significant issue with his claims about NFL ratings, though.
Thumbnail photo via Tom Tingle/The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK
