Action Star Steven Seagal Criticizes NFL Protesters

There’s been a whole lot of controversy swirling around the NFL over the past week, as an increasing number of players have taken to silently protesting police brutality and other expressions of racism in America by kneeling during the National Anthem. The professional athletes’ decision to symbolically change the angle of their knee joints has caused quite a bit of pushback from people threatened by such gestures, with everyone from team owners to the President of the United States sounding off against the coordinated peaceful demonstration. And what national discourse could possibly be complete without a little input from former action movie star/current goatee proponent Steven Seagal?

The ’80s icon/’10s neocon made a recent appearance on Good Morning Britain with host Piers Morgan (the charmer responsible for a recent op-ed in which he wondered why white people aren’t allowed to use the N-word) to discuss the situation in the NFL, and Seagal was hopping mad. Speaking to them from what appears to be an outdoor throne in Moscow, gingerly fingering his robust goatee every few moments, Seagal declared that he was “sick to his stomach” over the “outrageous” and “disgusting” coordinated kneeling. Beyond those, he had harsher words still:

I believe in free speech. I believe that everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. But I don’t agree they should hold the United States of America and the world hostage by picking a venue where people are tuning in to watch a football game and imposing their political views.

A strange misrepresentation of the concept of a hostage scenario from someone who’s playacted it so many times, but okay. Seagal continued:

I respect the American flag and I myself have risked my life countless times for the American flag and I don’t understand or agree with this kind of behavior. I think it’s an outrage.

There you have it, folks — the noted star of Hard to Kill is upset.