Steelers' Stephon Tuitt won't be kneeling during national anthem: 'Screw anybody who have a problem with that'
Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt declared on Monday that he will not kneel during the playing of the national anthem, noting his immigrant grandmother's incredible success story in the United States. Tuitt gave his fellow athletes some financial advice on social media before lashing out against the anthem protests. “Also I’m not kneeling for the flag and screw anybody who have a problem with that," he said. “My grandmother was an immigrant from the Caribbean and age worked her a** off to bring 20 people over the right way,” Tuitt explained. “She had no money and educated herself to be a nurse. She living good now.”
Anthem kneeling protests began in the NFL back in 2016, when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee to protest racial injustice and police brutality.
The Memorial Day death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests and violent demonstrations after the unarmed black man was seen in viral footage being pinned to the ground by an officer who held his knee against the 46-year-old's neck for nearly eight minutes. The May 25 tragedy has once again caused kneeling protests to pick up steam across professional sports, including the MLB and the WNBA. That said, the kneeling is also reportedly tied to the far-left Black Lives Matter movement.
Nonetheless, there are some athletes like Tuitt who have decided not to conform. 27-year-old Sam Coonrod of the San Francisco Giants was the only baseball player on Thursday who refused to kneel during a tribute to Black Lives Matter in Dodger Stadium.
As reported by TMZ Sports, Coonrod said his Christian faith does not let him kneel before anyone other than God. Furthermore, the pitcher also cited the radical left-wing ideology of the BLM movement. “I just can’t get on board with a couple of things I’ve read about Black Lives Matter, how they lean towards Marxism. And … they said some negative things about the nuclear family,” he said. “I just can’t get on board with that.”
Meanwhile, legendary football coach and NFL Hall of Famer Mike Ditka slammed national anthem kneelers and suggested they move out of the country if they couldn't respect it. “The whole kneeling thing in the NFL —you’ve got guys saying that they’re gonna do it,” TMZ Sports asked Ditka on Sunday. "...Is that going to be allowed if the women want to take a knee during the anthem? What’s the policy on that for you guys?”
“If it was up to me I’d say no,” the former coach responded. “If you can’t respect our national anthem, get the hell out of the country. That’s the way I feel. Of course, I’m old fashioned, so I’m only going to say what I feel." "I think there’s a way you protest and a way you don’t protest," he explained. "You don’t protest against the flag and you don’t protest against this country who’s given you the opportunity to make a living playing a sport that you never thought would happen. So, I don’t want to hear all the crap. You wanna try it, try it. You don’t, it’s okay.”