We interviewed fans at several games on Sunday. Suffice to say opinions were wildly divergent.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — In the expansive Gillette Stadium parking lot, with sausages sizzling on the grill and beers icing in the cooler, football fans here resented the intrusion of politics into their Sunday afternoon tailgating traditions.
“Football is such an escape, no one should be politicizing it,” said Laurie Flynn, 28, who works in marketing in Boston. Her family and friends, who arrived at 7:30 in the morning for the 1 p.m. kickoff of the Patriots’ game, started with mimosas as they set up their grill and put out the Buffalo chicken dip.
And yet President Trump’s directives — if players take a knee during the national anthem, he said, the N. F. L. owners should fire them and fans should walk out — had done just that.
“Why is the president commenting on the N. F. L.?” Ms. Flynn asked. “Doesn’t he have bigger things to think about? This is unfair to the fans. I didn’t come here to deal with this.”
At football stadiums across the country, fans seemed united in their irritation that their sacrosanct leisure hours had been hijacked by a raging, uncivil war that in their view should be confined on Sundays to the talk shows — so they could tune it out.
Still, the president’s message had reached the fans, here and elsewhere, and it got some families talking and other families not talking because of disagreements.
Many noted that in this country, players were lucky to be able to express whatever view they wanted. But drawing attention to police brutality and racial inequality by going down on one knee during the national anthem, they said, was inappropriate because it was disrespectful to the nation’s veterans who fought for that very freedom of expression.
Joe Barone, 27, an accountant from Rhode Island sitting under the shade of a tent with a 60-inch television, said “both sides are wrong.” The players should respect the flag, he said, but Mr. Trump “shouldn’t have called the players what he did,” using the phrase “son of a bitch.”
“There are things wrong in this country, but there are better ways to show it,” Mr. Barone said. “The players’ message is not coming across clearly.”
Donna Murray, an office worker from Rhode Island who described herself as “old enough to vote,” said the players had not picked the most effective way to make their point.
“When I’m in Canada, I’ll stand for their national anthem,” she said. It’s not that she cares about Canada, per se, she said, but standing is the respectful thing to do. The players, however, had muddied the waters by mixing up politics in the incongruous setting of football, she said.
“If you want to protest, go somewhere else,” she said. “I think if they did it in a different platform, more people would listen.”
She herself had mixed feelings about the whole brouhaha. The players should “show respect for the people who fought for this country,” she said, but the president “went too far” in saying the players who kneel should be fired.
Many agreed that Mr. Trump had stepped over a line.
Mel Casa, 74, who owns a hair salon, and his son Robert, 52, who served in the Air Force and works with computers, had rolled out an American flag on their tailgate.
The father said he voted for Mr. Trump but regretted it because the president “is a bully and has no filter when he speaks.” And this time, he said, as he puffed on a big Dominican cigar, Mr. Trump had “really gone overboard.” He said it was ludicrous to expect that 70,000 people would walk out of Gillette Stadium if players went down on their knees.
Connor Bouvier, 13, an eighth grader from New Hampshire, said that players’ kneeling during the anthem was “disrespectful.” Asked whether he sided with the president on this issue, Connor said yes but he was “not as arrogant as he is.”
His grandfather Philippe Bouvier, 72, a retired pharmacist who did not vote for Mr. Trump, was not happy about the president’s blue comments about the players.
“It’s not proper talk from a leader,” Mr. Bouvier said. “The president of the United States shouldn’t have to be bleeped out.”
A group of three men, stealing some shade from someone else’s tent while their plates of fried shrimp, fried scallops and fried Twinkies baked in the sun, were deeply divided.
Derek Nelson, 31, a martial arts instructor from New Hampshire who said he voted for Hillary Clinton, applauded the players for “taking a stand for what they believe in,” and said that kneeling was a respectful act, done quietly and not interfering with anyone else’s rights.
His friend Jim Hatch, 50, a business owner, said that the players’ behavior was indefensible, though he defended their right to act however they wanted. “You have the right to do it all day long and that’s part of America,” he said, “and in other countries you’d get shot.”
But they agreed that the president was trying to shore up his conservative supporters. “Trump knows his base doesn’t like it,” Mr. Hatch said of the players’ kneeling. “He’s not stupid. He knows what works. That’s votes. That’s 100 percent votes.”
At other stadiums, most football fans wished the president had stayed out of this realm.
At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N. J., home of the Jets, Greg Zaccaria, 61, from White Plains, said he was a Republican who voted for Mr. Trump but “this is a battle he doesn’t need to get into.”
Julie and Vin Santomero and their sons Will and Jack of Wilton, Conn., said they had discussed the protests during the drive to the game.
“These kids have no idea what the players are protesting,” Ms. Santomero said as the family grilled corn on the cob. But she said she did not like the protests. “It’s a football game,” she said. “They’re here to play the game. Maybe after they retire they can go into politics like a lot of them do.”
Her husband nodded.
“Maybe it’s not the proper forum,” he said. “Not that they’re right or wrong either way. Sports is meant to be a departure.”
A group of people playing beer pong nearby had also been talking about Mr. Trump’s comments on their way to the game. All of them supported the protests.
“They’re protesting because people are dying,” said Jesse Melendez, 29, of Dix Hills, N.Y. “People don’t get mad when people are shot or killed, but they’re getting mad because a football player is kneeling or raising a fist. The double standard is crazy.”
He said that African-Americans in particular were paying close attention to who was protesting and who was not. He said those who do not kneel would be seen as sellouts thinking only of securing their paychecks.
Je’anna Pulistar, 29 of Lindenhurst, N.Y., said, “I understand that the national anthem is important, but at the same time, what other time is there to stand up together for something you believe in?”
Colleen Channer, who was walking through the parking lot, said of Mr. Trump, “Can stupid get stupider?” She said the president should not be favoring one group of people over another. “He’s supposed to be neutral and he’s not.”
In Charlotte, at Bank of America Stadium, Keith Watson, who was tailgating with his family, thought Mr. Trump’s comments were just plain dumb. “He’s more about division than coming together,” he said.
Mr. Watson, who was in the military last year when Colin Kaepernick, then a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, first began kneeling as a protest, said he did not have a problem with it.
“As far as I’m concerned, that’s why I’m in the military, to give him the right to express himself any way he wants to, short of yelling ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater,” he said.
“Kneeling as a protest is unobtrusive, nonviolent,” he said. “It’s a silent protest. Silent but visual.”
Jay Kemp, a former Marine who was with his family at a fan fest near the Charlotte stadium, said he personally would not take a knee during the national anthem but said he fought for the right of anyone else to do so.
“I find it hard to swallow that the president would attack professional athletes for their freedom of speech, and a freedom that I spent 21 years protecting,” Mr. Kemp said. “They could be exercising their freedom of speech to promote hate or promote something else. But they’re doing it in a nonviolent fashion and they’re exercising their right.”
Besides, he said, kneeling is not about disrespecting the country.
“It’s a protest against police brutality and racism,” he said. And it has inspired him to teach his son, who is 7, to stand up for what he believes is right.
Kevin Mac learned in a phone call outside the stadium in Charlotte that the entire Pittsburgh Steelers team had decided to wait until the national anthem was over before taking the field for its game in Chicago. Originally from Pittsburgh, Mr. Mac angrily told his wife, Kelly, that he would no longer support the Steelers — and she said she would give up her season tickets to Panthers games if any players knelt.
“I’m just blown away,” she said. “If you can’t respect our country with the national anthem, then you need to go.” She said it was a terrible example to set for children.
In Detroit, near Ford Field, where the Hatch family was tailgating, Morgan Hatch, 40, said his 12-year-old twins, Alex and Jackson, were following the controversy closer than he was.
“I will respect the players more if they do kneel, because they are doing what they feel is right to do,” Alex said.
Jackson agreed, saying the players were simply exercising their rights. “It might look weird or something during the national anthem, but that should be O. K.,” he said.
Tailgating nearby was Carlos Neal, 48, who was tending to multiple grills at two tents and a pop-up camper.
He said he always kneels in protest during the national anthem, has been doing it “for a while” and would do it today as he watched the Lions’ game on television in a parking lot.
“I am with the players all the way,” he said. “I respect every single one of them if they protest, and even if they don’t, I still respect them for their rights.”
As for the president, he added: “Trump’s has got to lay off that Instagram and Twitter crack, put his phone down and stop all this nonsense. Somebody needs to take that phone away from him. We got real problems going on in this world, and this is what he wants to do? No sir.”
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