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Opinion Shifting Toward Athletes' Anthem Protests: Poll

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling for the anthem in August 2016

Americans are split in a new poll on rules that would require professional athletes to kneel for the national anthem, a real shift in favor of their right to protest, NBC News reported.

Fifty-one percent of respondents to an HBO Real Sports/Marist poll said they opposed leagues requiring that players stand, while 47 percent supported such rules.

The four-point difference is within the Oct. 15-17 poll's margin of error, which makes it a statistical tie. But when the poll was conducted a year ago, a clear majority supported rules requiring players to stand, by a mark of 52 to 43.

Since then, President Donald Trump threw a spotlight on the athletes following the example of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling for the anthem in August 2016.

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