Hero: Stadium Worker Quits His Job After Bills Protest

Hero: Stadium Worker Quits His Job After Bills Protest

New Era Field employee Erich Nikischer has spent the last 30 years loyally serving the Buffalo Bills, but that came to an end on Sunday when he watched the team he loved disrespect the flag by kneeling, raising their fists and even stretching during the National Anthem.

This took some serious guts and I don’t doubt that this guy wanted to keep serving the Bills. Unfortunately for the team, his love of his country far outweighed any sort of responsibility he felt for the football team.

“I waited until the National Anthem ended, I took off my shirt, threw my Bills hat on the ground, walked out,” he told local media who wanted to ask him exactly why he chose to leave a job he had put 30 years of work into.

“During the National Anthem…the song that is about our country, our veterans that fight and die for us, it’s just something I feel you shouldn’t disrespect that way. I believe people have the right to protest; I just don’t believe that’s the proper venue for it,” he explained.

Millions of Americans agree with the sentiment. They feel betrayed by a team that they have loyally and fiercely supported for years, no matter which team it is doing the kneeling. They feel like their patriotism and loyalty was thrown in the garbage and exchanged for petty political statements and nose-thumbing.

Politics is invading every facet of our lives and now we can’t even watch a sports game without feeling like we’re being preached to. It’s unfortunate that we feel that we have to choose between supporting our country and supporting a sports team that we have watched, cheered for and supported for years. It hurts my heart to know that people are feeling alienated by whole teams, coaches, team owners and even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

It is extremely unfair to everyone involved, but it is what it is. That’s what happens when you take political stances when you are supposed to be a non-political entity. The First Amendment protects your fundamental right to protest, but it doesn’t protect you from public backlash. Nobody is questioning their right to kneel during the anthem, we’re questioning the wisdom of it. That’s all this is.

There is nobody who loves and respects the Constitution more than I do, but I also understand that speaking out against these protests is also covered by the First Amendment. Nobody is calling for these men to be locked up, nobody is calling for the government to mandate that you either stand for the National Anthem or be thrown in the gulag. That is not happening, no matter what you hear from the media.

We simply want these players to realize how good they have it in America. Period.

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