Charlie Daniels tried to boycott Thursday Night Football on Wednesday night

Charlie Daniels, an 80-year-old musician best known for a story song from almost forty years ago, has a real problem with football players kneeling during the national anthem. This is, perhaps, not a surprise! As an 80-year-old white southerner, he’s squarely in the demographic of those likely to have a problem with it.

Of course, as a kind of celebrity, Daniels has amassed north of half-a-million Twitter followers, and he’s not afraid to share his thoughts, no matter how often he might contradict himself, or how silly he sounds.

Here, for example, from earlier on Wednesday:

Benghazi ain't going away!

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 27, 2017

He also offered this, on the perils of political correctness:

Victims of Political Correctness
Common sense
Nationalism
Statesmanship
Journalism
Honesty

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 27, 2017

Ironically, as with many who decry “political correctness” as the death of societal freedoms, Daniels isn’t thrilled about athletes protesting racial inequality during the national anthem.

Wonder how Vince Lombardi would have reacted to his players kneeling during the anthem

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 27, 2017

As many people in the replies pointed out, Lombardi was a fairly progressive thinker for his era. His brother Harold was gay, and Lombardi reportedly accepted multiple gay players on his teams throughout the years.

And then there’s this quote, originally from a 1970 interview Lombardi gave Paul Zimmerman:

Here’s a quote from him about protesters. Try again pic.twitter.com/KjNEXiT5Vk

— DJ (@PackersFanatic5) September 28, 2017

That’s a loss for Charlie, of course, but he followed it up with an even bigger one:

Yes, for what possible reason could Charlie Daniels not be watching Thursday Night Football on Wednesday night?

But, hey, a majority of this post has been spent pointing out the hypocrisy in Daniels’s tweets, so let’s be clear: he has the right to peacefully protest any way he likes, just as professional athletes have the right to kneel during the national anthem. If Charlie Daniels wants to not watch a football game 24 hours before that football game is played, out of principle, that’s certainly not something anyone should prevent him from doing.

And if he spends this Saturday not watching NFL games, he certainly won’t be the only one.