The National Anthem stands for freedom, even the freedom to do foolish things,

like protesting the National Anthem.

But like my mom always said, just because you are free to do the wrong thing,

it doesn't mean you should.

Starting in 2016, some professional football players have refused to stand

when the National Anthem is played before a game.

Some of them kneel, some of them sit on the bench,

some of them raise their fist and some don't even come out of the locker room.

This was all started by San Francisco 49 or quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.

His idea was to protest the alleged mistreatment of Black people by police and by America in general.

As he put it, I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black

people and people of color. Kaepernick no longer plays in the league, because apparently NFL owners

are racist against backup quarterbacks who don't throw well. But his protest lives on and has spread

to college and high school athletes. Even elementary school kids have gotten into the act.

I like football and I sing the anthem publicly at events. This doesn't make me an expert,

but I've got a problem with some things here. First, the protest is based on something

that just isn't true. And second, even if it were true, the protest is misdirected and self-defeating.

Let's start with problem one. Despite what we're told by Black Lives Matter and their media

allies, the police are not engaged in a coordinated campaign to destroy the Black race.

As Harvard professor Roland Freyer, who happens to be Black and others have shown,

there is no evidence of racial bias in police shootings. In any case, the thing that makes headlines,

police shootings of unarmed Black men is very rare. How rare? Statistics show that an unarmed Black man

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