Saints season ticket holder Lee Dragna has filed a lawsuit against the New Orleans Saints demanding a refund, claiming that the NFL protests have ruined the games both for him and for his family, The Advocate reports.
The Morgan City, Louisiana businessman has not come to a game since the home opener when a few players did not come out for the singing of the national anthem.
Earlier in the season, Dragna demanded that Saints refund the $8,000 he spent on the tickets, but this initial request was denied. Now, he's taken legal action, filing a lawsuit in 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna this week.
When players did come out of the tunnel, the suit said “they passed directly in front of where the petitioner and his guests were seated. Many of the fans in that area booed and cursed at the Saints players.”
Since last season, the league has been overtaken by the anti-police brutality protests initiated by former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick.
Critics on the right have claimed the protests are disrespectful to the flag, national anthem and veterans even though Kaepernick and others have stated that they mean no disrespect to the country or its soldiers. In fact, it was Green Beret and former NFL player Nate Boyer who recommended that Kaep take a knee instead of sitting during the anthem. NFL sponsors have complained that the protests are losing them money.
“I don’t want my kids growing up thinking that those are their heroes … and it’s okay to do that stuff, especially on TV and especially on your job site," Dragna told The Advocate. "That can’t be allowed to happen.”
Prior to week three of this season, many of the protests before the anthem were sporadic at best. The league protests sharply increased after President Donald Trump called protesting players "sons of b*tches" and again escalated after he called for protesting players to be fired during a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Luther Strange.
Many of the league's owners and officials want the protests to end as well. The NFL recently brokered a deal with some of the protesting players that outlines a plan to donate money to charities. Some players, however, feel that the league is trying to bribe its employees to stop protesting and have criticized the move.
Saints players, like players on all the other teams in the league, have protested both police brutality and Trump's rhetoric. Members of the Saints sat during the anthem before their week three game against the Carolina Panthers. And since then, the team has chosen to kneel in unity before the anthem and then rise to stand for it.
Dragna blames the protests for increasing the rowdiness of the fans, who he claims are cursing and spilling beer.
In his suit, Dragna says the “borderline dangerous” actions of fans are the fault of the team's owner, Tom Benson, for allowing the protests to continue.