WHO IS DISHONORING THE TROOPS?

President Trump on Sunday called for football fans to boycott N.F.L. games unless the league fires or suspends players who refuse to stand for the national anthem, saying that players must “stop disrespecting our flag and country.”

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our country, you will see change take place fast,” Mr. Trump wrote, on the second weekend morning in a row in which he vented over the issue on social media. “Fire or suspend!”

It is a highly charged debate, with unmistakable racial undertones, pitting advocates of free speech who argue that professional athletes should have a right to use their positions to call attention to social issues against those who contend that refusing to honor the anthem disrespects the military and the nation, and that sports is no place for such displays.

In a second posting on Sunday morning, the president suggested that fans were already punishing the N.F.L. to protest players’ behavior, arguing that they were eschewing not only the “boring games,” but also athletes who fall to one knee during the anthem.

In fact, the decline in attendance predates the anthem protests, and while N.F.L. television ratings did dip last season, it is unclear whether the protests or other factors, like the presidential election and cord-cutting, caused the drop.

At a rally on Friday in Huntsville, Ala., the president alluded to some of those factors, saying that the “No. 1 reason” ratings were down “massively” was that “they like watching what’s happening with yours truly.”

So once again, our president's narcissism rears it's ugly face.

That's what it must be-all those former football watchers are now tuning into Trump TV.

Mr. Trump's comments drew an unusually strong rebuke from Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the N.F.L., whose owners include many donors to, and friends of, the president.

Mr. Trump struck back at Mr. Goodell on Saturday evening, nearly 12 hours after he had first raised the topic on Twitter, tweeting that the commissioner’s statement was “trying to justify the total disrespect certain players show to our country.”

“Tell them to stand!” Mr. Trump added.

Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, who is a close friend of Mr. Trump’s and who has spent the night at the White House and ridden with him on Air Force One, issued a pointed statement on Sunday in which he said he was “deeply disappointed with the tone of the comments made by the president” at the rally, and defended players’ right to express themselves.

On Sunday, White House officials defended Mr. Trump’s position, arguing that professional athletes had no business expressing their views on the field.

Marc Short, the president’s legislative director, said that there was a double standard for players who chose to voice their views on the field, and that Mr. Trump was speaking for the majority of Americans on what sort of expression was appropriate. Mr. Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The president is standing with the vast majority of Americans who believe that our flag should be respected.”

While I do not share the conviction of the players taking knees during the anthem, as I did a couple of years ago with Colin Kaepernick, I do not have a problem with their actions.

In fact, I have more of a problem with the president using his position for constant shameless self-promotion.

But if Short's statement about the vast majority of Americans is true, it should concern us.

That would mean that the vast majority of Americans, including President Trump,  have no idea what all of our troops who went over and sacrificed blood on foreign sands, died for.

They died for our freedom.

They gave their lives so that these atheletes would have the right, the freedom, to disrespect the flag.

Freedom must be for everyone, and that means you must allow people the freedom to express their views in a peaceful manner, even if those views are offensive to you.

Otherwise, it really is not freedom at all.

For the record, I am one of those viewers who stopped watching-not because of your protests, and not because I would rather watch The Donald, but because I got tired of watching a bunch of steroid-infused thugs being idolized.

But by all means, keep kneeling, gentlemen. No matter how much Mr. Trump keeps on tweeting like a teenage girl about it.

A lot of people gave their lives for you to have the freedom to do so.