Legendary Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown lambasted anthem-protester Colin Kaepernick, saying he needs to act more intelligently.
He also attacked his glaring lack of patriotism.
“I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American,” Brown said. “I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem.”
He went on to criticize Kaepernick for lacking intelligence on two fronts. The first being that, working out social justice problems in America can be done “in an intelligent manner,” not by kneeling during the national anthem.
Via the Post Game:
But kneeling for the national anthem the way Kaepernick did last season as 49ers quarterback isn’t how Brown would show leadership.
“I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American,” Brown said. “I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I’m not gonna do anything against the flag and national anthem. I’m going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I’ll work out the problems, but I’ll do it in an intelligent manner.”
The second point Brown made in Kaepernick’s unintelligent protest: You can’t take money from owners and the league and then fail to respect their rules.
“Football is commercial,” Brown explained. “You have owners. You have fans. And you want to honor that if you’re making that kind of money.”
Kaepernick’s stunt has proven detrimental to the NFL, as fewer and fewer fans are willing to shell out money in the form of watching programming and absorbing advertisements. A recent survey showed that the top reason cited by NFL fans for watching fewer games this past season was the national anthem protests.