US President Donald Trump says National Football League owners should fire players who kneel during the national anthem.
And he also criticised the NFL's attempts to do something about concussions among its players.
In an extended riff during a freewheeling rally speech in Alabama on Friday night, Trump bemoaned that football games have become less violent.
"They're ruining the game," he complained.
Several NFL players have refused to stand during The Star-Spangled Banner to protest of the treatment of black people by police.
Trump says those players are disrespecting the flag and deserve to lose their jobs.
"That's a total disrespect of our heritage. That's a total disrespect of everything that we stand for," he said.
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you'd say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He's fired," Trump said to loud applause.
Trump also blamed a dip in NFL ratings on the nation's interest in "yours truly" as well as what he described as a decline in violence in the game.
He said players are being thrown out for aggressive tackles, and it's "not the same game."
His comments come a day after former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, who killed himself in April after being acquitted in his second murder trial, was found to have a "severe case" of the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
"It was the most severe case (the researchers) had ever seen," Hernandez's lawyer Jose Baez said. "It was an advanced stage."
CTE is linked to the sort of repeated head traumas common in American football that can lead to aggression and dementia.
Hernandez's daughter, Avielle, on Thursday sued the Patriots and the NFL, seeking unspecified financial damages for the loss of her father.
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