NFL player: Don't come to the game if our protest upsets you

How did this become thought of as an anti-military protest. The originator of the protest said it was against honoring a "racist" nation and its "oppression".

Rick Moran  . . . "If Ryan actually believes "everyone's opinion is equal," he hasn't read much about this controversy. In fact, beyond the free speech aspect of the protest is there is an insidious campaign to delegitimize opposition to the protests as portraying  the opposition as people who "back Trump," or are garden variety racists. 

"Trump expressed an opinion of what owners should have done with protesting players. Nowhere in his rant did he suggest the players don't have a right to protest. The players themselves seem to believe that not only do they have a right to protest, they demand that no one criticize them for it, and if they do, they are lower than nothing. Their defense that they are not dissing the flag or the military is ludicrous. They have been told in no uncertain terms by millions of people that they are. Arrogantly, they refuse to acknowledge their insult to the flag and to other Americans.

"If these NFL players want "equality." perhaps acknowledging that those who oppose them have an equal right to the stage without being smeared for their trouble."

Trumptweets didn't help

"But don’t you dare look at me and think you are anything special because you take the very fashionable stance of disparaging this nation."

I believed in the American dream then and I believe in it now. I look around me at the things I have and the life I lived and know there is no other place on earth where this would have been possible. I stand for the National Anthem; I stand in gratitude; I stand in awe; I stand humbled by the greatness of America.  William L. Gensert