A Missouri bar owner taped two NFL jerseys beside one another on the ground outside his business for customers to use as a doormat, but some viewed the doormats to be offensive.
Jason Burle, owner of S.N.A.F.U. Bar located in Lake Ozark, Missouri, taped Marshawn Lynch’s Oakland Raiders jersey and Colin Kaepernick’s San Francisco 49ers jersey side-by-side, which made them read “Lynch” “Kaepernick,” KOMU-TV first reported.
Taylor Sloan passed by the establishment and saw the doormat. He wrote in a post on the bar’s Facebook page that by having those jerseys placed like that, S.N.A.F.U. Bar is “expressing hate, violence and continuing American racism under the faux guise of patriotism,” according to KOMU-TV.
There are currently no posts on the bar’s Facebook page from visitors.
Burle told reporter James Packard that “it’s not a race thing” and said there was no “ill intent” with the way he placed the jerseys on the floor. But after coming under fire, Burle has since swapped the jerseys so Kaepernick’s was before Lynch’s.
The owner of the S.N.A.F.U Bar at the Lake of the Ozarks just sent me this photo - he switched the order of the jersey doormat @komunews pic.twitter.com/ASFYCPsNQp
— James Packard (@JamesSPackard) September 26, 2017
Burle said he’s an Air Force veteran and that his bar honors veterans. He said ordered the jerseys to be used as doormats after NFL players started kneeling during the national anthem.
“I commend (NFL players) for what they’re doing, as far as the right (to protest) goes,” Burle said. “I fought for that right. The same thing that gives them that right gives me the right to place these (jersey-concocted doormats) out here.”
Tons of outlets picking this up. I think it's important to get the full context of our original reporting @KOMUnews https://t.co/g6Ynty2orX
— James Packard (@JamesSPackard) September 28, 2017