Video of a Connecticut hockey coach’s speech to his team is going viral after it showed him warning his players not to engage in any protests against the National Anthem.
Speaking to his team, the Hat Tricks, assistant coach John Krupinsky warned them to “respect” the U.S. and Canadian national anthems.
“We’re not women’s soccer. We’re not the NFL,” Krupinsky says in the video that was posted to Facebook on June 30. “If there’s anybody here who is going to be disrespectful to either the American or the Canadian national anthem, grab your gear and get the f*** out now because you’ll never see the ice in this arena.”
“We don’t have that problem in hockey,” he continued. “We’re better than that, but there was no sense in wasting anybody’s time if that s*** is going to happen.”
Coach tells players if you’re going to disrespect the national anthem, get the f*ck out pic.twitter.com/YT7IXa7yVO
— Wojciech Pawelczyk (@WojPawelczyk) July 8, 2019
After his comments went viral, Krupinsky appeared on Todd Starnes’ Fox News radio show and said coaches like him “have a responsibility to keep their team squared away.”
“We are fortunate to be in a place where we are a patriotic team and city,” he added.
Krupinsky’s comments come in the wake of multiple professional athletes choosing to sit or kneel in protest of national anthems being played at the outset of games, the latest being U.S. women’s national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe.
Back in May, Rapinoe said that her decision to kneel during the national anthem is an “F you” to the White House. She also said that she’ll “probably never sing the national anthem again.”
Featured image via screen grab
