President Donald Trump doubled down Saturday on his comments that National Football League players should be fired for not saluting the American flag or standing for the National Anthem, telling them to "find something else to do."
The president took to Twitter:
Trump started the dust-up Friday when he told a crowd in Alabama that recalcitrant players should be fired by NFL owners.
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b--ch off the field right now,'" Trump told the cheering crowd inside the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville. "He is fired. He's fired!
"Some owner is going to do that," Trump said. "He is going to say, 'Anyone who disrespects our flag, he is fired.'
"They will be the most popular person in this country," the president said.
"Total disrespect of our heritage," Trump added. "A total disrespect of everything that we stand for."
Trump, who was speaking at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Luther Strange, once owned the New Jersey Generals in the former U.S. Football League.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on Twitter Saturday that Trump's comments were "divisive" and showed a "lack of respect for the NFL."
DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, the union that represents the nation's professional football players, said the organization would protect the constitutional rights of players to protest during the National Anthem.
"This union, however, will never back down when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of our players as citizens as well as their safety as men who compete in a game that exposes them to great risks," Smith said in a statement, also posted on Twitter.
Athletes from both the NFL and the NBA — after Trump rescinded a White House invitation to point guard Stephen Curry of the champion Golden State Warriors — ripped the president on Twitter: