With the discussion over national anthem protests still a hot topic, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is defending his decision not to join the protests. According to Bryant, he doesn’t protest because he has a “family to feed.”
On Tuesday, Bryant got in a Twitter exchange with those telling him he needs to join the protest. Saying it isn’t that he doesn’t care about the issue, but that he just doesn’t want to talk about it.
Dallas sports reporter Jon Machota tweeted that Bryant said he didn’t have anything to say about the issue:
But the report angered some Twitter users.
After being confronted on Twitter, at one point Bryant waved his critics off and said, “Listen my life is more than a (expletive) football get real…I’m disappointed in you…”
Bryant also said that the workplace — in his case during a football game — wasn’t really the proper place to speak out about politics.
Bryant’s Twitter imbroglio comes on the heels of two recent protests in the early part of the preseason.
Seattle Seahawks’ Michael Bennett and the Raider’s Marshawn Lynch, continued the anthem protest by staying seated during the national anthem during last weekend’s games
The originator of the national anthem protests, former San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick, declared his free agency at the end of the 2016 season. However, thus far, Kaepernick has remained unsigned despite pledging to end his protest.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.