NFL reportedly rejected this Super Bowl ad because it asked people to stand during the anthem

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The NFL reportedly rejected a Super Bowl ad from a veteran’s group that asked people to stand during the national anthem.

The full-page ad from AMVETS proposed as part of the Super Bowl program featured an American military honor guard holding an American flag along with the words #PleaseStand at the bottom of the page. The ad called on players to stand during the anthem and asked for donations.

AMVETS “represents the interests” of 20 million veterans, according to its website.

Given the #TakeAKnee protests sweeping the nation, the NFL believed that ad made a “political statement” and rejected it.

“The Super Bowl program is designed for fans to commemorate and celebrate the game, players, teams, and the Super Bowl,” said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. “It has never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”

Accusations of corporate censorship

AMVETS National Commander Marion Polk disputed the decision in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, saying that “freedom of speech works both ways.”

“We respect the rights of those who choose to protest, as these rights are precisely what our members have fought – and in many cases died – for,” Polk wrote. “But imposing corporate censorship to deny the same rights to those veterans who have have secured it for us all is reprehensible and totally beyond the pale.”

The NFL denied accusations of quashing the organization’s free speech and said that they tried to work with AMVETS to produce a different ad that they felt they could publish instead, according to CNN Money.

“We looked to work with the organization and asked it to consider other options such as ‘Please Honor our Veterans’. They chose not to and we asked it to consider using ‘Please Stand for Our Veterans,'” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said that the Super Bowl program eventually went to print without the ad because they could not come to an agreement.

The #TakeAKnee protests have been ongoing since 2016, when Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the national anthem in protest of the current state of racial discrimination in the United States. Since that time, many other athletes have followed suit, bringing enough attention and controversy to the protests that President Donald Trump weighed in against the protests.