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With President Donald Trump's attacks against protesting NFL players still reverberating, the league's TV partners decided to air live coverage of the national anthem before Week 3 games. Those partners left out a key element of the coverage: crowd shots of angry fans. Networks typically do not televise the national anthem except for the Super Bowl and other special occasions, but they recognized there would be intense viewer interest this past weekend.

Following an NFL weekend that saw players and teams respond to President Trump's comments about the league with more demonstrations during the anthem, The MMQB received numerous emails from NFL fans who said they’d had enough of politics mixing with sports and are done watching the NFL. Here are some of those messages.

Television networks uncharacteristically showed the national anthem before NFL games this weekend, but at least one staffer says that coverage may have come with certain restrictions...camera operators were told to avoid crowd shots during the anthem, because of any fans potentially booing or protesting the NFL players’ protest. There were reports from several stadiums of fans booing when players decided to kneel for the anthem, joining a protest of racial inequality started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

f a Facebook "like" is currency, many NFL teams saw their stock drop over the past several days. Of the NFL's 32 teams, 28 saw a marked decrease in fan following on their team Facebook pages. The drop came after leaguewide demonstrations during the national anthem in Week 3 prompted by several rebukes from President Donald Trump. Many teams had players lock arms or raise their fists while the anthem was performed. One or more players on 18 different teams took a knee; players on five teams sat on the bench; and three entire teams remained in the locker room....

Rowe explained that he was disappointed in Donald Trump’s assertion that kneeling NFL players should be fired because it assumes that team owners and league commissioners are in charge of the game, when it is in fact the football fan who is in charge. I was disappointed last night, to hear President Trump encourage owners to fire players who refuse to stand for the anthem. Not because I dispute the owners’ right to do so, and not because I would grieve the dismissal of anyone who chooses to disrespect our flag. I was disappointed because the President’s comments presuppose that...

FULL TITLE: Trump says he brought up NFL protests because he was 'ashamed' of what was taking place – insisting he's not 'preoccupied' with the issue that has overshadowed Puerto Rico catastrophe President Donald Trump defended his intense focus on the NFL protest issue – insisting at a White House press conference Tuesday that the topic was 'very important' and that he was not 'preoccupied' with it. The president said his administration was 'doing a great job' contending with the devastation in Puerto Rico and otherwise handling the duty of his office. 'I have heard that before about was I...

For all of Donald Trump’s often baffling social commentary, he could not have asked for better opponents in an ongoing culture war that has the political left crying foul. On everything from statues, to sports protests, the left seems eager to somehow try to out-do Trump’s bombastic absurdity. [SNIP] The kneel down gesture was always puzzling to me, as the national anthem isn’t played at sporting events to honor police officers. It’s in large part to honor men and women serving in the nation’s armed forces (more on that in a minute) which give us the freedom to gather in...

I appeared on The Michael Koolidge Show on 1440 WROK Talk Radio on September 26, 2017.We discussed several of my posts about the NFL "take a knee" protests: NFL picked sides in the culture war, now it has to live with the consequencesDear NFL: I'm not "boycotting" you. I just don't care anymore, about you.If you love how sports were politicized, just wait for your next visit with Dr. Progressive Here are some excerpts from the interview: "The NFL was the one place where you didn't have to deal with politics. As somebody who writes about politics all the time,...