Darrell Castle explains how the free market can control the NFL players’ refusal to stand for the national anthem. Transcript / Notes   Hello this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report.  Today is Friday, September 29, 2017, and on today’s Report I will be talking about the NFL and the National Anthem protests.  This has been a very busy week in news with many things happening that are worthy of note such as the re-election of Angela Merkel  in  Germany, with the German Conservative Party gaining enough support at about 13% to have seats in the German Parliament. In Alabama, Roy Moore finally won the Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate seat previously vacated by Jeff Sessions. Moore has been in the struggle many years but if he wins the special election to be held December 12, and it looks certain that he will,  a populist candidate opposed to both the mainstream of his own Party as well as the Democrat agenda will sit in the U.S. Senate. In a small church outside of Nashville, Tennessee, a black racist who came to the United States from the Sudan at five years of age shot seven people, killing one so far.  The shooter had apparently been radicalized by anti-white rhetoric he had read or seen on social media and decided to do something about it, so he went to a little country church and shot a bunch of older white people. My discussion today, however, is on a far more mundane subject than any of those.  Today I have to talk about football because the National Football League and its players have made it virtually impossible not to talk about it.  I doubt if there is anyone left in America who doesn’t know that NFL players have started refusing to stand for the National Anthem.  Most kneel but a few teams have stayed in the locker rooms while the Anthem is playing.  Last Sunday, at the annual game in London, the teams stood for God Save the Queen but not for the Star Spangled Banner. The fact that I am even talking about this points to how sports, especially football, have become an obsession to Americans.  Every game that is played is now nationally televised, whether it’s the traditional Sunday games, Sunday night, Monday night, and now Thursday night.  Families plan their weeks and evenings around NFL Football.  It is, to put it mildly, very important to people, and more of an obsession than just entertainment. I’ve been a sports fan my entire life as my family is painfully aware, and if I watch television at all, it is sports.  Even when there is no time to catch a full game, I will catch bits and pieces of games and follow the scores on my phone.  There are tens of millions of people out there in America who are far more obsessed than I am.  People physically attend each home game their team plays, and most have tailgating traditions with friends and family.  It would not be unusual today for a family of four to spend 500 dollars at an NFL game with tickets, concessions, and team souvenirs. These people have had their world’s disturbed by the protests.  They watch football to escape from the cultural divide, not to have it forced into their living rooms.  Many argue that the players have a right to do what they are doing and many others say no, they are employees and therefore their behavior is controlled, or should be, by their employers. Here’s a very simple solution to all the protests that are now spreading to college and even high school games.  Stop going, stop watching, stop buying merchandise, stop patronizing the League’s sponsors.  Whether you think they have a right to not stand for the anthem or not there is one thing of which I am certain—you have an absolute right to refuse to pay to watch them do it.  That’s where the free market comes in and controls sports, and anywhere else it’s allowed to. If two teams showed up to play in an empty 70,000 seat, billion dollar arena, I’m certain it would get their attention. Ideally, when teams kneel for the anthem, 70,