A Missouri bar owner came under fire after using the jerseys of NFL players Marshawn Lynch and Colin Kaepernick as doormats.
Jason Burle, who owns the S.N.A.F.U Bar near the Bagnell Dam, said that he had ordered the jerseys to use them as doormats because of the swirling controversy and national conversation about players kneeling in protest during the national anthem.
“It’s not a race thing,” he insisted, instead claiming that it was a statement made in support of the military, the flag, and veterans.
But support for veterans was not the first thing that crossed Taylor Sloan’s mind when he saw the jerseys placed side by side so that they read “Lynch” “Kaepernick.”
“That’s not the Missouri I know,” Sloan said. “It just kind of upset me really bad. Put a bad taste in my mouth.”
Sloan and Burle got into a heated exchange on Facebook over the doormats after Sloan saw them.
“You are also expressing hate, violence and continuing American racism under the faux guise of patriotism,” Sloan wrote.
Burle responded, “It’s funny to me that someone would look that far deeply into it just to find a racist link.”
However, Burle has since switched the order of the jerseys so that they no longer read “Lynch” “Kaepernick,” though he insisted that he had the right to continue to use the jerseys as doormats.
