What professional athletes do often trickles down to high school and college athletes, and that's exactly what happened for two kids, per the Houston Chronicle:
After protesting the national anthem, two athletes were immediately kicked off the team.
"He told us that disrespect will not be tolerated," Cedric Ingram-Lewis said, recalling the moments after the anthem ended. "He told us to take off our uniform and leave it there."
Lewis reportedly held a fist up and his cousin, Larry McCullough, knelt.
Head coach Ronnie Mitchem is a former Marine and pastor who started the church-based program. He believes kneeling offends veterans and people who fought for the country. But he had reportedly agreed with players to protest in a different way — kneeling after a touchdown or writing and passing out a paper about the issues.
"That was my point of view," Mitchem said. "Like I said, I'm a former Marine. That just doesn't fly and they knew that. I don't have any problem with those young men. We've had a good relationship. They chose to do that and they had to pay for the consequences."
Plenty of athletes throughout the NFL have protested the national anthem since Donald Trump's explosive comments. No known college players have protested yet this season.
