Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz told Newsmax on Friday that he's writing a book about the personal freedoms he has lost in his life.
Holtz, 87, who has been a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, appeared in studio on "Newsline."
"I'm writing a book titled 'Priorities I've Lost,' personal freedoms I've lost in the last 87 years," Holtz told de la Garza. "You consider, all of a sudden, we're not a free country. We don't have free speech. You can't say anything.
"When I was growing up, everybody picked on me, said negative things … sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but names will never hurt me. We have to learn to get back to that. Just move on with our life and if somebody doesn't like us, that's their problem. That's not mine."
Holtz said that when he coached, he had no problem with his players standing up for causes "as an individual." The team, however, promoted "one thing."
"I told our football players. 'You can do anything you want to. You want to promote gay rights? God bless you. You want to promote whatever it is you do that, but we're not going to use our football team to do it,'" Holtz said.
"'We're going to use our football team to promote one thing. That's the university. We represent Notre Dame.'"
Holtz, who attended an America First Policy Institute's "Athletes for America Play to Pray" event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday night, also said that being a religious person can be problematic today.
"So many things in this country have gone backwards," Holtz said. "I think prayer can solve everything but too many times … now to be a religious individual, all of a sudden, all the media is going to be all against you. That's not the way it's supposed to be.
"I have a strong faith in God. If you don't want to have a faith in God, that's up to you. But don't try to convince me that I can't practice my religion because of COVID or because of this … and the FBI and everybody else goes against the Catholics, when you have people taking a knee, I think that's wrong. You should take a knee for God but not to promote athletics."
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