Sage Steele Fires Back at Mike Evans Over His National Anthem Protest

Following Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans explained why he's decided to sit down during the playing of the national anthem. "I don’t want to, you know, disrespect the veterans or anything. The men and women who serve this country, I’m forever indebted to them," Evans told reporters. "But the things that’s been going on in America lately, I’m not going to stand for that."

While Evans joins the likes of Colin Kaepernick and Brandon Marshall, who have made it clear that their protest has nothing to do with disrespecting veterans or those in the military, ESPN's Sage Steele sent the following message to the Buccaneers wideout on Twitter:

The photo above shows the Arlington National Cemetery where people who served in the U.S. military are buried. Sage is a self-proclaimed "Army brat" in her Twitter bio. Her father, Colonel Gary Steele, served in the Army, and became the first black person to play for their varsity football team in 1966. Growing up in a military family, her patriotism and loyalty to veterans runs deep.

This isn't the first time Sage has stepped in, and tried to prevent someone from voicing their political opinion. After winning the MVP trophy at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler started sharing a message about how the U.S. could learn some things from Canada about health care, and "taking care of people" before getting shut down by Steele.

As for the definition of democracy, the Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary defines the word as "a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting," but it also defines democracy as "an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights." Hmm.

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