Trump Calls Out Marshawn Lynch for Sitting During National Anthem in Mexico

Less than 24 hours after engaging in a war of words with LaVar Ball, Donald Trump has taken aim at Marshawn Lynch.

While a lot of the buzz surrounding the NFL protests that have taken place during the playing of the national anthem prior to games this season has died down in recent weeks, Marshawn Lynch is one of the players who continues to silently protest during the anthem every week. The Raiders running back started sitting during "The Star-Spangled Banner" after returning to the NFL earlier this year, and he has continued to do it before games ever since.

On Sunday afternoon, Lynch tweaked his approach to his protest slightly prior to the Raiders’ game against the Patriots. Because the game was played in Mexico City, both the Mexican national anthem and the U.S. national anthem were played at the start of the game. And rather than sitting during both, Lynch stood during the Mexican national anthem while resuming his protest and sitting during the U.S. national anthem.

It was something that didn’t sit well with some people.

Donald Trump—who spent his weekend engaged in a war of words with LaVar Ball over his son LiAngelo’s recent arrest in China—decided to chime in on the Lynch situation early Monday morning. He took to (what else?) Twitter to suggest that Lynch should be suspended for the remainder of the 2017-18 NFL season for sitting during the anthem.

"Great disrespect!" Trump wrote. "Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down."

Trump’s tweet comes just weeks after Lynch showed up for a game wearing a shirt that said "Everybody vs. Trump" on the front of it. Lynch has not spoken much about sitting during the anthem this season, but according to his head coach Jack Del Rio, it’s something he has been doing for years now.

Lynch is notoriously standoffish with the media and probably won’t want to speak about Trump’s tweet. But if he’s going to respond to anything this season, we would guess it would be this. Stay tuned to see what he has to say about Trump calling him out in the days to come. You can also go back and listen to what Lynch had to say about Colin Kaepernick protesting prior to games here.

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