Some Green Bay fans aren't pleased with the Packers linking arms last Sunday during the national anthem.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers said the team wanted to show a united front and urged fans to join this week against the Chicago Bears. Criticism continues, however, with some fans threatening to return their season tickets and shares in the franchise.
"I am so ashamed of and appalled by the ignorance of any NFL player who would dare disgrace our stars and stripes or the memory of hundreds of thousands of fallen U.S. heroes who paid with their lives so that we may live free," Steven Tiefenthaler, a Packers shareholder and 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran, told Richard Ryman of USA TODAY Sports.
Tiefenthaler added, "My allegiance to our American flag and to our national anthem will always stand far above any loyalty to the NFL or to the Green Bay Packers organization."
Laura Hapke is on the team's waiting list for season tickets and her mother is a Packers shareholder. She typically meets up with other Green Bay fans in Orange, Calif., to watch the games, and said if things continue she will re-evaluate her allegiance to the team.
"If they come out and say they are more into politics than patriotism, I'll have to rethink it," Hapke said. "It will break my heart, but I'll have to rethink it."
Packers director of public affairs Aaron Popkey said the organization has heard the criticism from fans.
"If they want to return (season tickets) and don't want to be a shareholder, we'll accept them," Popkey said, adding that he was aware of one share being returned, but no season tickets.
The Packers host the Bears on Thursday night.
