The Super Bowl is usually the most watched television broadcast of the year with an estimated 110million Americans expected to tune in but many are planning to boycott the game.
People are planning to boycott the big game because of Colin Kaepernick’s protest as they believe it is disrespectful to veterans and law enforcement.
In Oneonta, New York a sign outside the Oneonta Veteran’s Club reads ‘Closed Super Bowl Sunday in honor of our country, our flag, our veterans.’
The club has sworn off showing NFL games since mid-season when more and more players started ‘taking a knee’ during the National Anthem.
But now the club is taking it one step further and closing for the clash between the Philadelphia Eagles and five-time champions New England Patriots, according to manager Wayne Gregory.
‘The members thought it would be kind of hypocritical if we just brought it back for the Super Bowl to make money,’ Gregory told The Daily Star.
VFW Post 1463 in Lancaster County will boycott the Super Bowl, others in the same area will show it because they are Eagles fans
The bar in Farmingdale, NJ will close early Sunday, but are still providing catering for those watching at home
Woody’s Roadside Tavern in Farmingdale, New Jersey has also been boycotting the NFL.
It stopped showing games on Veteran’s Day weekend. It opened on Super Bowl Sunday but plans to close before the game.
Woody’s owner Rob Johnson told NJ Advance Media that during that first boycott the bar held a fundraiser for veterans-raising more than $8,000 for two veterans groups.
In making the announcement on Facebook, it said: ‘We hope that next season the players find a better way to bring light to issues and stand and respect our flag and anthem.’
Army Vet Ray Steadmon has been hosting Super Bowl parties at his bowling alley for 30 years, this year he’ll do something different.
An Army veteran who always turns the Super Bowl into a bowling party in a small Michigan town is changing the theme this year as his own protest against the NFL’s protesting players.
Ray Steadmon owns Coloma Lanes in Coloma in southwestern Michigan. He’s encouraging bowlers who sign up for his Stars and Stripes tournament to wear patriotic clothes instead of their favorite NFL shirts. Teams will have names such as Seals, Paratroopers and Rangers.
Steadmon tells the Kalamazoo Gazette that he’s a ‘huge NFL football fan,’ but he’s upset over players who didn’t stand during the national anthem.
Steadmon doesn’t mind protests. But the 60-year-old draws a line at the anthem.
He’s been holding Super Bowl bowling parties for about 30 years. Dan Gulliver, a regular participant, says he supports Steadmon and ‘whatever he comes up with.’
Much of the boycotting is around Colin Kaepernick, seen here in November, 2016, who first took a knee to protest police treatment of African Americans
On the other side, the group Unstripped Voice, has aChange.org petition in support of Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49er, who first took a knee in August 2016.
In posting its petition the group said: ‘We started this petition six months ago because Colin Kaepernick, a man who sat – then took a knee for people of color, was effectively banned by the NFL for his actions.’
It wants people to stop watching in order to make the ratings go down.
Workers prepare the field at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN in advance of Super Bowl LII
So far over 202,000 have signed the petition and plan to boycott Super Bowl LII.
For some boycotters, it is easier than for others.
Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, who haven’t been in the Super Bowl since 2005, feel like they may have picked the wrong year to boycott.
Marc Lamont Hill, a Temple University professor and CNN Contributor said on Facebook: ‘Of course, the one year I boycott football is the year the Eagles go to the Super Bowl.’
But he tells the Philadelphia Daily News that he will stand by Kaepernick through the game: ‘It wouldn’t be a protest if I only did it when it was easy. It’d be like a hunger strike right after you’ve eaten. Now is the test.’
And the VFW in Lititz, in Lancaster County Pennsylvania will stand by its decision to boycott the game, even if it is hard for diehard fans to accept.
‘We do have a lot of Eagles fans, but they definitely understand why we decided what we are doing,’ Vanessa Sytle the manager of the post told Lancaster Online.
With Americans all over the country, and all over the political spectrum taking a stand, it stands to reason that NBC will take a hit in the ratings.
Audiences for the game have been slightly down the past two years, but still far exceed anything else on TV.