Football announcer: If you don’t stand for the anthem, you should be shot

The Colin Kaepernick national anthem protest has stretched not only to other teams in the NFL, but to the collegiate and even high school level. One prep football announcer in Alabama had a pretty strong take on the situation during a game Friday night.

Allen Joyner, a pastor at Sweet Home Baptist Church in Butler County, Alabama, is the announcer for McKenzie High School and over the loudspeaker, he shared his blistering hot take about those who protest the national anthem, indicating they deserve to be shot.

Yes, a pastor suggested to react to a silent, non-violent protest by recommending violence and harm to Americans.

“If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, you can line up over there by the fence and let our military personnel take a few shots at you since they’re taking shots for you,” he said.

A fan at the game, Denise Crowley-Whitfield, shared Joyner’s words in a Facebook post that has since been deleted.

The church issued a statement saying Joyner’s comments were taken out of context, but the school board did not seem to take to kindly to him threatening violence.

Butler County Schools Superintendent Amy Bryan issued a statement on his comments.

“Patriotism should be a part of school events but threats of shooting people who aren’t patriotic, even in jest, have no place at a school. Threats of violence are a violation of school policy and certainly not condoned by the school board,” the statement read.

This is certainly something that will be taken seriously over the next few weeks and I am sure it will serve as a lesson to other announcers across the country that it is probably best for your opinions on the matter to stay behind closed doors.

At the very least, don’t be so tone deaf about the issue. It’s okay to disagree, but it’s never okay to suggest someone deserves to be shot for standing up for their beliefs.

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