Stand for Super Bowl anthem or you’re ‘spoiled, entitled,’ SC GOP candidate says

Now another candidate for S.C. governor is calling on NFL football players to stand for the national anthem at Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Republican Catherine Templeton posted a video on her Facebook page on Wednesday with an “important message for the big game on Sunday.” The comment from Templeton under the video says it is “For those who can stand, yet choose to kneel.”

“It is spoiled, entitled, ridiculous for the people who living under the freedom provided by the people who defended that flag to kneel,” Templeton says in the video, over images of the silhouette of a veteran saluting a billowing American flag.

The video ends with the text “Honor our veterans. Thank a hero. Enjoy your football.”

It was posted after Templeton’s opponent, Gov. Henry McMaster, issued an official proclamation calling on all South Carolinians to stand “wherever you watch the Super Bowl with your loved ones this Sunday.”

The issue became a lightning rod of controversy this football season as multiple NFL players kneeled on the sideline through the national anthem to protest police brutality and a string of shootings of unarmed black men.

The protest was widely criticized as unpatriotic and the players became a favorite target of President Donald Trump during speeches. Trump has said any players who kneel during the anthem should be fired.

The protests have also cost the NFL some viewers. One South Carolina restaurant has been turning off NFL games for almost the entire season, including on Super Bowl Sunday.

Sunday’s Super Bowl match-up between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles features former USC Gamecocks Stephon Gilmore and Alshon Jeffrey lined up on opposite sides of the ball.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Stand for Super Bowl anthem or you’re ‘spoiled, entitled,’ SC GOP candidate says."