Retired Marine Sgt. Johnny Joey Jones lost both of his legs when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. When he saw 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the National Anthem before a recent preseason game, he responded with this:
Hey @Kaepernick7 I don't have legs but I'll stand w/ enough pride for both of us every time my National Anthem plays pic.twitter.com/q1EEGnmD7M
— Johnny (Joey) Jones (@Johnny_Joey) August 27, 2016
Last night, Jones joined Fox News to further react to the ongoing fallout over Kaepernick's behavior, which has been condemned by fans and fellow NFL players as disrespectful not only to the country, but to those who have sacrificed so much to keep it free.
"I actually took issue with his comment afterward. Refusing to stand, that's one thing and it offends me, it really does, but that's free speech. But his comments equated patriotism and pride in this country or that anthem, to supporting oppression," Jones said. "By no means is our country perfect and by all means lets address actual issues and solving them, but when you sit there and equate my pride and my country to a bigot in some other place or the ones that are in this country to the 300 million that aren't that way, I take issue with that."
"That flag and that anthem stands for the people who fought in the Civil War and united this country. It stands for people who fought for civil rights that made this country a little bit better and it stands for the people that are working hard every single day to fix these issues," he continued. "As a service member it's offensive for people to not stand for the National Anthem but as an American it's offensive for you to equate my pride to bigots or oppression."
Pressure is growing on the NFL to issue a behavior policy outlining how players should act during the National Anthem.