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Lou Holtz compares what NFL players are protesting to the unwarranted speeding ticket he got

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Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz said Tuesday that he’s experienced something like what he thinks some NFL players are protesting during the national anthem before football games.

“There’s an awful lot of things that happen in this country, but I want you to know, I’ve been unfairly ticketed,” Holtz said while speaking with Tucker Carlson and Jason Whitlock on Fox News. “I was given a ticket when I didn’t exceed the speed limit, because I was coaching at one school, and the patrol officer graduated from the other, and he let me know he was bitter about this. That happens in life.”

Holtz, also a former football analyst for ESPN, goes on to say: “The thing about it, I don’t really know what they’re protesting. I never see anybody on TV. I never see anybody on Twitter. I don’t see anybody doing an interview and saying, ‘This is the reason I am upset.’ “

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Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement last season by refusing to stand for the national anthem as a means of protesting social injustices. After doing so for the first time in August 2016, Kaepernick said: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

A handful of others joined the protest in one way or another, but that number multiplied this past weekend after President Trump commented at a rally Friday that NFL owners should fire players who don’t stand for the national anthem.

Holtz addressed that matter Tuesday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

“Let me make sure I understand this right — 200 NFL players making millions of dollars take a knee, disrespect the flag, and the president, the leader of this country doesn’t have the right to say, ‘I think that’s wrong?’” Holtz said. “This is a workplace environment and he has the right to fire people. He has the right to speak out his mind. This isn’t about race — it’s all about a philosophy.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii

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