Saints fans burn memorabilia, boycott team after 10 players protest during national anthem

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WAFB) - Some of the New Orleans Saints players chose to sit down during the national anthem on Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, causing some fans to boycott the team.

Protests ballooned this weekend in the wake of President Donald Trump's criticism of players who protest during the national anthem.

According to the Associated Press, more than 130 players around the NFL knelt or sat during the national anthem in the league's first nine games on Sunday morning and early afternoon.

During the Saints' game against the Carolina Panthers, 10 Saints players, including running back Adrian Peterson, and safety Kenny Vaccaro, sat on the bench during the national anthem.

After the Saints' win over the Panthers, Drew Brees and other players weighed in on Trump's comments.

One Saints Fan, Denise La Grange Fox, said this was a "very, very sad day" for her, as she threw her Saints memorabilia into a fire pit, doused the jerseys, flags, banners, and signs in lighter fluid, then dropped a struck match on it all.

"To the NFL and to you, Tom Benson!" She wrote in a Facebook post. "Together you have ruined and taken the fun out of sports! I'm calling for a burn of all Saints memorabilia!"

Fox says she's no longer a Saints fan, and that she's done with football and anything that has to do with disrespecting the American flag.

"I'm just totally disgusted," she said in her video, which had thousands of shares Sunday evening. "Screw you, NFL."

Others simply said they weren't fans anymore. One man, Steve Spell II, said, in a tweet, although they may have won the game, they lost the fan.

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