A Virginia restaurant and bar is vowing to stop showing NFL games until players stop kneeling for the national anthem.
"Enough is enough," Fat Tuesday's in Fairfax, Virginia, wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post to customers. "As proud parents of an active duty member of the US Army and a veteran of Afghanistan, we stand on the side of our brave men & women in uniform not the men in sports costumes that take a knee and disrespect our country, our National Anthem, our military and our veterans."
“We place a much higher value on our great country than any sporting event,” the announcement continued. “Therefore, we will not be showing any NFL games at Fat Tuesday’s until there is a stop to this foolishness.”
Owner RL Butler said he and his wife came to the decision after this weekend’s NFL games, which saw whole teams protesting during the national anthem and a number of head coaches and team owners linking arms with them in solidarity. While he doesn’t have an issue with athletes using their platforms to protest and bring awareness to issues, he doesn’t think it should be done during the anthem.
"It's not about protesting as much as it's the way they're doing it," he told Rare.us. "You can protest all you want any other time and place, but when that song starts playing, you stand."
So far, they’ve received a mixture of positive and negative feedback from patrons and Facebook users alike. The Butlers don’t plan on reversing the new policy anytime soon.
David McCraw, a former veteran and owner of Palmetto Restaurant and Ale House in Greenville, South Carolina, has also vowed to stop showing broadcasting NFL games until league members stop kneeling.
"NFL will never be played at Palmetto Alehouse until all players pay respect to our flag and our country," McCraw told WHNS.
McCraw, who called the kneeling players entitled, arrogant and disrespectful, also said “people who’ve attained celebrity status should not be telling people what or what not to do because they don’t share the same struggles as people who live normal lives,” WHNS reported.
"I do not support anyone that thinks that our country or our flag is not worth standing for," McCraw told WHNS.
He continued: “Our president is our president, but I don’t stand in unity with everything he says. This is a country of one people and we need to stand for our flag. There are issues in this country that need to be addressed, but disrespecting our flag and our country is not the way to do it.”
McCraw said he will show other sports on TVs at his restaurant.
Credit: Sean M. Haffey
Credit: Sean M. Haffey
