“If it were up to me, I’d say no,” Ditka replied when asked about kneeling. “If you can’t respect our national anthem, get out of the country. This is how I feel. Of course, I’m dated. So I’m just going to say what I feel.”
Ditka is the president of the X League, which is a women’s soccer league that, according to its website, will debut in April 2021.
The X League did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.
Once known as the Lingerie Football League, it was renamed the Legends Football League in 2013. In 2019, the Legends Football League announced that it would be shut down. The league was once again renamed the Extreme Football League, or “X League”.
The 2020 season was postponed until April 2021, according to its website.
Ditka has spoken out against kneeling before, and apologized in 2017 for his controversial comments on the matter after saying: “There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of,” according to CNN affiliate KWQC.
The topic has once again come into the spotlight with professional sports resuming play as social unrest continues across the country after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
“I think there is a way to protest, and there is a way not to protest,” Ditka continued. “You do not protest against the flag, and you do not protest against this country that has given you the opportunity to earn a living, play a sport, you never thought it would happen. Therefore, I do not want to hear all the crap. You want to try it, try it. No you do, it’s fine. “
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling in 2016 in protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
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