Arian Foster Goes Head-To-Head With Tomi Lahren Over NFL Anthem Protests, Trump, And Racism
Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren has always been vocal about her contempt for the NFL national anthem protests spearheaded by Colin Kaepernick.
However, when Lahren sat down with former NFL running back Arian Foster to discuss why he took part in the protest, the conservative appeared to actually be at a loss for words.
In the latest episode of "No Interruption," a digital show on Fox Nation, Lahren and Foster talked about the NFL, politics, Donald Trump and racism.
While both parties admitted to sharing some common ground during the interview, Foster didn’t hold back when it came time to explain why the NFL was hypocritical for criticizing the players for kneeling.
"It's a logically inconsistent stance on their part. If you wanna say don't make political statements on the field, then don't have the military flyover at the beginning or don't have a deal with the Dept. of Justice that has millions of dollars advertising the military. It's a logically inconsistent stance,” Foster said when Lahren said the NFL has a right to tell players not to kneel.
Foster then expressed frustration with President Donald Trump for referring to NFL players who protest as a "son of a bitch" during a speech in 2017.
"The president of the United States is calling an American citizen a ‘son of a bitch’ for exercising his 1st Amendment right. ... There's a citizen protesting how he sees fit to protest whatever issue he feels is important to him, very silently and very respectfully,” Foster said.
Before the 2018 season, the NFL passed a national anthem policy that fines teams if their players protest. In the end, the policy was put on hold and no action was ever taken against players for kneeling.
Then when Lahren said kneeling “is showing disrespect to a national anthem and a flag that means a lot to people, whether they are Black [or] white, Christian,” Foster explained kneeling has always been used as a sign of respect.
Foster explained to Lahren the players chose to kneel in protest to show respect to military veterans while protesting police brutality and racial inequality.
“If you're in a football game and somebody breaks their leg and the game stops, what do the players do? They take a knee. It's a sign of respect,” Foster told Lahren.
“Every single Sunday at church, what do people do? They get on both of their knees and they praise their deity... It's actually, it's a submissive sign. It means you're honoring whatever it is you're honoring. ... It's not disrespectful in nature, the gesture,” he added.
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“But it was done to send a message of, ‘I don't agree with this country. I'm not going to stand for this flag and this anthem,’” Lahren retorted. “When you're doing it, you're saying, 'I am not going to respect this flag, this moment, this anthem.’”
“Why should we respect the anthem?” Foster asked.
“Well that anthem, it's a symbol of patriotism,” Lahren replied.
“You hit the nail on the head. It's a symbol,” Foster said. “And that symbol, and the beautiful thing about America, is it's not a place. It's not a people. It's an idea. And that symbol means something to you. And it also means something to me. And you don't get to dictate what that symbol means to me and you don't get to dictate what that symbol means to somebody else.”
Foster spent eight seasons in the NFL with the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins from 2009-2016. During his career, he was a four-time Pro Bowler and one-time first-team All-Pro.
