On September 17, 2016, Larry Brown of Larry Brown Sports reported:

Four Miami Dolphins football players kneeled during the national anthem last weekend as a sign of protest, and their actions are not sitting well with the local police.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office Deputies Association, which is a union representing the local law enforcement, sent out a statement urging officers not to provide security detail for the Dolphins unless ordered to do so.

Kneeling during our National Anthem is the latest phase for NFL players, and some soccer players, to "protest" the horrible slave-like conditions of playing in the NFL with multimillion-dollar contracts.  It has also spread to high school football games.

NFL chief Roger Goodell and the owners have done nothing to stop this nonsense.  The owners could simply forbid this and order every player to stand with his hand over his heart during the National Anthem.  The First Amendment does not apply here because there is not "state" action, meaning the owners are not the government or an agency of the government to which the First Amendment applies.  This is governed by the employer-employee relations of owner and player. 

Moreover, there is no overriding national concern such to warrant any protest during a football game.  If they wanted to protest race relations in the USA, they should start with Obama and the Democrats, who continually do and say whatever to divide us by race and income so they can get elected.  Under the Obama economy and lax immigration controls, blacks have suffered economically worse than whites.  Black-on-black crime is prevalent in every major city, with Chicago as the poster city for failed Democrat policies.  But these spoiled, overpaid players believe that the flag is the symbol of the problems facing blacks.

The owners and Goodell are interested only in ratings and money.  If ratings fall because of the kneelers, then Goodell and the owners will act.  Goodell moved harshly against Tom Brady on questionable evidence of the amount of air in the footballs, as if that mattered.  Goodell is also on the lookout for celebration dances in the end zone and different colors of shoes.  Goodell just fined Antonio Brown, Steelers star wide receiver, for celebrating a touchdown.  Meanwhile, the kneeling players are creating bad publicity for the NFL, but Goodell and the owners are afraid of being called racists because the kneelers are mostly black players. 

The only group involved that has any patriotic sense is the police union.  This is not surprising, given that many police officers are ex-military, and being on the streets, they see the real problems facing blacks – the black-on-black crime – and not the imaginary problems of overpaid players.

The union statement perfectly states what should be the position of every American.  We often criticize labor unions, but on this issue, the police union is leading.

We no longer support an organization that values financial profit over a minimum conduct standard. What good is it to ask singers to sing the national anthem, honor guards to preform services or ask the United States Air Force to conduct fly overs during the National Anthem if the same organization will not even set a minimum code of conduct for its players?