Lifelong Giants fan here also stopped watching - for a number of reasons but these flag protests were just the last straw. Also does not help that the Giants are really stinking up the joint this season.
I just find so much of the protests so misguided:
1. Yes it is disrespectful. The players can say "well, it's about this, not about that" all day long. In this day and age, we are always being told we have to be mindful of how things are perceived, whether or not that was the intent. Some people say a statue of a Confederate general is a way to commemorate a historical figure, while some people say it glorifies this nation's past history of slavery. So why are we not allowed to perceive that staging a protest during something that represents our country is a sign of disrespect to our nation and its people?
2. The NFL has very specific rules about what players must do during the National Anthem. Either the NFL has rules and enforces them or it doesn't. The First Amendment protects us from the government restricting our speech but the NFL is a private entity and employers impose rules on what their employees can do and say all the time.
3. The NFL does not realize that so many of their fans watch the game for pure escapism. For a couple of lousy hours in a week can we please get politics out of our faces?
4. The irony of millionaires who get to play a game for a living complaining about inequality. I can buy groceries for my family for a month for what it would cost for my husband and me to go to a game. Forget bringing the kids.
FWIW - yes I do get up or stop what I am doing when the anthem is played. Typically this is not part of the broadcast I would see at home, but if it comes on I do get up. If I am walking around at a venue while the anthem is played I will stop until it is completed.
I used to LOVE watching football. Back in the day I would watch all day on Sunday, MNF and sometimes even college football on Saturdays. I envied people who lived on the West Coast because that meant they could start watching at 10:00 am. Of course, as life got in the way I found myself just not having the time to watch as much anymore...then the few precious minutes I had to actually watch a game, I noticed the coverage was just awful. It was turning into ten minutes of commercials for ED medications, trucks, tires and beer interrupted by about 8 seconds of actual playing time. Every time there was a possession change or a clock stoppage, it seemed we would get another ten minutes of commercials. It just got very frustrating.
