Kneeling is a lot less disrespectful than other things protesters could do | Opinion In 2016, Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem before NFL games, and those who didn’t understand what he was doing had reservations. Like a lot of other things in our society since then, the issue got over-politicized, and it became an argument of “if you kneel during the anthem to protest police brutality against minorities, you also stand against the United States and everything it stands for and should move to another country.” And in recent weeks, the anthem issue has begun to hit closer to home with college athletes in the state choosing to kneel. Then after those instances were shared on social media, the Republican Caucus of the State Senate responding by sending a letter to the presidents of all the public universities expressing their desire to see all athletes stand while representing their schools.