Arizona Cardinals Fans React To President Trump's Comments On National Anthem

Published: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 12:01pm
Updated: Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 4:03pm
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President Donald Trump is still tweeting about NFL players kneeling before the national anthem.

On Tuesday morning, the president posted:

Before last night’s game in Glendale, members of the Arizona Cardinals and Dlass Cowboys kneeled before the national anthem, then rose and locked arms during the anthem. 

At noisy sports bar in suburban Phoenix on Tuesday night, it suddenly fells silent as all eyes and ears were focused on the national anthem as it plays on TVs in the background.

Among those glued to the screen was Mike Juckniess, who leads a gathering of the St. Patrick Men's Club watching the Monday night game. The Vietnam-era veteran feels Trump's remarks were justified.

"These guys are making a lot of money and everything. And we got people overseas with our servicemen and everything today. They're losing their lives so these guys can play and make 11 million bucks a year, or whatever it is," said Juckniess.

And most in the church club agree with Juckniess, believing that the president has every right to intercede, including Bill St. James and Gene Bailey.

"He's not political, and he has the freedom of speech like we all do, so I applaud him for it," said St James.

"He's our president. He represents the people," said Bailey. "And I think for something as critical as honoring our country, he should speak out."

But not everyone sees it that way. John Cronin believes it's just not the president's place, especially in light of recent events.

"I think that he's got a lot of other things he should be focusing on," Cronin said. "Puerto Rico — it's a United States territory, and they're begging for somebody to help them. And he's focusing on trying to get people fired from football."

But that was not the consensus. Juckniess's wife, Mary, said she plans to heed the president's call to boycott the NFL games after this one.

"Everybody except the Cardinals game tonight because my husband made me come," she said. "But other than that, we've cut off football for the year. We have DIRECTV. We watch everything. We're done with them until they smarten up."

But when I asked Mike Juckniess if he agrees with his wife about boycotting the NFL, he hesitates.

"We're thinking about it," he said as he laughed. "If she said it, then she will do it."

Arizona Cardinals fans though might have wanted to boycott the final score, since the Cowboys beat them 28-17, dropping Arizona to 1 and 2 on the season.

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