Tennessee Republican lawmakers aren’t happy after the East Tennessee State University men’s basketball team kneeled in protest during the national anthem last week, and they’re trying to do something about it.
State Republican senators sent a letter to every president and chancellor of all public colleges and universities in Tennessee on Monday urging them to prohibit athletes from protesting during the national anthem.
All 27 members of the Senate Republican Caucus and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally signed the letter, according to the Nashville Tennessean. The anthem, they wrote in the letter, represents “freedoms we enjoy as Americans” and “the ultimate sacrifice paid by many in order for us to enjoy those freedoms.