Retired football player Burgess Owens told Newsmax TV the NFL's new policy that requires players to stand during the national anthem has an unfortunate flaw.
Owens told Wednesday night's "The Joe Walsh Show" the league is off the mark by allowing players to stay in the locker room during the anthem and not be penalized — or take a knee on the sideline and cause their team to be fined.
"This is a compromise," Owens said. "They're still keeping the same issues on the page in front of us.
"The fact that these young men can stay in the locker room and demonstrate, or they can stay on the sideline and demonstrate and not get fined, the team will get fined, says they really have not addressed this."
Important: Newsmax TV is available on DirecTV Ch. 349, U-Verse 1220, DISH 216, and FiOS 615. If your cable operator does not have Newsmax TV just call and ask them to put us on – Call toll-free 1-844-500-6397 and we will connect you right away to your cable operator!
For more places to Find Newsmax TV – Click Here Now
NFL owners approved the new policy in a Wednesday vote in response to the national anthem protests that have impacted the league the last two seasons. They began during the 2016 season over perceived injustices of African-Americans.
Owens, who is author of "Why I Stand: From Freedom to the Killing Fields of Socialism," said fining teams if players take a knee is the wrong approach.
"Why should a team be fined for a knucklehead player who decided not to stand up?" Owens said. "You come to a job, they set the parameters, they set a culture, and either you stay tuned into that culture or you're fired."
Owens also argued the NFL is trying to move away from its all-American image into more of a global brand as it recruits an overseas fanbase.
"The NFL has traded off their great all-American brand for a globalist brand," he said. "They're already talking about doing a Super Bowl in London. They've already calculated that it's OK to tarnish the all-American NFL brand and give up our American fans because they have this global fanbase that they're after."
Owens is author of "Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps."
© 2021 Newsmax. All rights reserved.