Two thirds of Americans agree with Trump that NFL players should stand and be respectful during the national anthem

"meaningless poll since the sentiment doesn't reflect the reality"
Non sequitur.

"Also, a majority of Americans believe that drinking and driving is wrong, yet a majority who feel that way have driven drunk."
Straw man argument.

"The ratings for some NFL games were down but it's mostly due to the match itself and who was playing. Inter-conference games rated higher due to historic rivalries."
Ratings are still comparitivly low. Last years ratings were down and the NFL blamed the election. This years ratings are low and they tried to blame hurricains. No one wants the NFL to dry out but I I admit I was a casual watcher of the games but folks like me dont feel like watching this nonsense unfold. Ratings were already going low as people arn't watching television as much so this is the wrong time for the NFL to be alienating half of america.

"Furthermore, TV ratings are down across the board for EVERYTHING, not just NFL games as more people find other activities to engage in instead of scheduled network programming"
Exactly which is why the NFL needs to stop acting political as they've just disrespected half of america already. Possibly more since even most americans recognize the problems america has but not enough to respect players who publicly shame their own country. I find it dumb that some teams took a vote and are forcing even patriotic players to kneel or stay in the locker room during the anthem.

"In the U.S., there is freedom of religion which protects them. (except during the Salem witchhunts). "

Witch hunts rekindled in the 80's & 90's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_County_child_abuse_cases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria

I'm not arguing, just adding to your post.

@Keelai:

"Too bad that people complaining about the protestors aren't as vocal against racism which is the origin of the protests. Trump has more problems with black NFL players protesting racism than he does with his Nazi friends who he considers fine people."

Exactly---and trumpf is only using the issue to distract from the fact that he's still being investigated by the FBI about the Russian collusion, plus the fact that he's been in office 9 months, and still has nothing he can point to and say that he's actually accomplished. That's the only reason he jumped on the kneeling-during-the-national anthem bandwagon. I think this is all a big damn deal about nothing---the whole kneeling thing---who the hell cares whether you stand up for the flag during the national anthem (which was written by a slavemaster, btw) which most people can't even remember past the first couple of verses anyway. I'm sure there have been plenty of people who haven't stood for the national anthem from time to time, it's just that nobody gave a damn because they weren't famous athletes, that's all.

expect to see Trump surrogates argue that they're down by highlighting low-rated games involving crappy teams like The Colts, Jacksonville, or The Browns.