Twitter Reacts To Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones' National Anthem Ultimatum To Players

Jerry Jones, the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys National Football League team, said Sunday that any player who disrespected the flag during national anthem would not be allowed to play the game.

Interestingly, ever since there have been talks of disciplining the players who kneel during the anthem, Jones has been the first NFL owner to publicly come forward in support of it. However, Jones did not specify what kind of demonstration he would consider disrespectful.

Cowboys defensive linemen Damontre' Moore and David Irving stood alongside teammates during the national anthem before Sunday's game against Green Bay at AT&T Stadium. After the anthem concluded, the players raised their fists to which Jones said, “I don't know about that. But if there is anything that is disrespectful to the flag then we will not play. You understand? If we are disrespecting the flag then we won't play. Period. We're going to respect the flag, and I'm going to create the perception of it. And we have,” The Dallas Morning News reported.

The NFL owner's views did not sit well with a lot of people on Twitter, but he did find a fan in President Donald Trump, who gave Jones a ‘big salute’ on the microblogging site.

After Jones made his stance clear, Twitterati was quick to react, with some users even calling him out for lecturing about patriotism when he has never served the country.

Vote Vets, who have represented over 500K progressive veterans and military families, according to the Twitter bio, called out both Trump and Jones for their remarks. They tweeted, “Jerry Jones & Donald Trump are 2 billionaires that never served to try to lecture us about patriotism. #TakeTheKnee.”

Huffington Post reporter Travis Waldron urged NFL players to believe in their labor rights and dared Jones to fire them all. “If NFL players actually believed in their labor rights, all 53 Cowboys would kneel next weekend, and dare Jerry Jones to fire them all,” he tweeted.

On a different note, Bishop Talbert Swan, writer and talk show host, suggested a boycott of ESPN over their suspension of sports journalist Jemele Hill. He tweeted, “We should boycott #ESPN @espn over their suspension of #JemeleHill @jemelehill for telling the truth about racist #JerryJones & Cowboys.”

On Monday, ESPN suspended their anchor Hill for two weeks for violating the company's social media guidelines when she tweeted against Jones, encouraging people to boycott watching the team and buying its merchandise, as well as boycotting its advertisers. Hill pointed out on Twitter that she wasn't advocating NFL boycott but said that there was an "unfair burden" for players on teams with anthem protest rules.

Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys from H.R. “Bum” Bright for $140 million in February 1989 and ended up building a team recognized as the best NFL franchise of the 1990s. The Cowboys won the Super Bowl later in the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Reports also suggest that during Jones’ tenure, the Cowboys appreciated in value by an estimated $4.2 billion. Jones is also highly credited for the league's financial success since 1989.

The 2017 NFL season is Jones' 29th as Cowboys owner. However, he has been named as the least favorite sports personality by Sports Illustrated, in a poll conducted in Oct. 2003, in three states, Virginia, Delaware, and Texas.