Saints' Drew Brees on Kneeling in NFL: 'Never Agree' with Disrespecting Flag

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees still believes that NFL players protesting during the national anthem are disrespecting the United States of America.

Speaking to Daniel Roberts of Yahoo Finance, Brees said he "will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country" when asked about the possibility of players again taking a knee during the anthem when the 2020 NFL season begins:

Multiple NFL players took to Twitter to sound off on Brees' stance:

Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas also responded to a tweet from Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman with his stance:

Brees attempted to walk back his comments by providing a statement to ESPN's Mike Triplett: "I love and respect my teammates and I stand right there with them in regards to fighting for racial equality and justice. I also stand with my grandfathers who risked their lives for this country and countless other military men and women who do it on a daily basis."

The act of kneeling during the national anthem began in 2016 when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did it to protest systemic racism and police brutality. 

On Tuesday's NFL Total Access, San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman expressed frustration to Steve Wyche at the people Colin Kaepernick was trying to send a message to who are "unwilling" to hear it:

"The frustrating part is because the people that the message is trying to get through to are unwilling to accept the message. And when you're combative and defensive about something you don't even fully understand, there can't be progress. So whenever somebody says, 'Hey this black man got killed on national TV in front of the world,' there should be a sense of anger from everybody, regardless of race—because it was just wrong."

Many players followed Kaepernick's lead by joining the protest, with his former 49ers teammate, Eric Reid, continuing it throughout the 2019 season when he played for the Carolina Panthers. 

In the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, several NFL players have spoken out about what they can do to help make positive changes to end systemic racism and police brutality.

During a conversation with Wyche on Monday, Bills cornerback Josh Norman expressed hope that people will "come together and ask themselves, what can I do to help out my African American brother?"

Bills quarterback Josh McCown said in the same conversation that "it's on us as white people to step up, have a conversation with one another that would start to change and break the generation of cycles of racism that we see throughout our country."

It's unclear at this point if more NFL players will kneel during the national anthem when the 2020 season begins.