Professional Sports Team BANS Betsy Ross Flag From Stadium

A professional soccer team in of all places, Salt Lake City, Utah, has banned fans from bringing the Betsy Ross flag to games and asked a fan who brought one to leave, Fox 13 reports:

A Utah County family that brought a Betsy Ross flag to a Real Salt Lake soccer game is speaking out, after stadium staff asked them to take the flag down.

RSL team leadership said the flag is banned, and indicated that it doesn’t fit with their mission of inclusion and unity.

Randolf and Diana Scott have RSL season tickets, and attend every home game at Rio Tinto Stadium.

“Soccer is just a big part of our life,” Diana said.

Most known for his brightly colored mohawk sometimes painted like an American flag, Randolf stands right up front during games. He brings a bag with RSL swag, big chain necklaces, and an American flag that he waves.

At recent home games, he’s gotten more attention than usual because of a new item he added to his game gear.

It’s the commonly named Betsy Ross flag, which was an early version of the American flag. It has 13 stars in a circle, versus the 50 stars featured today.

“Diana bought it for me actually, because my other flag was kind of old and falling apart,” Randolf explained.

When they swapped the 50 stars for the circle of 13 two home games ago in early August, it ignited a firestorm against Randolf on social media.

When they brought the flag to the game again last weekend, complaints escalated and stadium staff approached the couple, to ask them to take the flag down.

“They kept telling us if he wasn’t going to take it down, we were going to be rejected from the game,” Diana said.

This is too dumb for words.

What is is about symbols of our past or national pride are all of the sudden considered racist?

I think it’s the fact that pride in America and our history is offensive to those on the left.

As stupid and offensive as this anti-American policy is, the team confirmed it’s real:

“At Real Salt Lake it is our mission to unify our community through soccer and we promote inclusion, diversity and acceptance. It is important that everyone in the community not only feel welcome at our stadiums, but appreciated, respected and valued. Rio Tinto Stadium is reflective of that on match day and we encourage a unifying and welcoming environment to all fans at all of our RSL and Utah Royals FC matches. To be permitted to bring a flag into any of our stadiums is a privilege. Recently, and very controversially as well as surprising to us, the Colonial flag has been adopted as a symbol for hate groups. Any controversial flags or other similar banners or signs with symbols of hatred, divisiveness and/or intolerance whether intentional or otherwise will not be permitted in our stadiums. Period.”

– Andy Carroll, Chief Business Officer, Real Salt Lake

No American who loves his country should ever have anything to do with professional soccer.

Soccer is not a real American sport anyway, lets get back to real all-American sports like football, baseball and basketball.

Skip soccer, just forget about it.

via thefederalistpapers