In Brooksville, a few hundred people gathered at Coney Island Drive Inn for an NFL boycott party, where attendees could toss their football memorabilia into a flaming barrel in exchange for a foot-long hot dog.
Cars spilled out of the parking lot of the iconic hot dog restaurant, lining the roadway in both directions. Out front, families dressed in red, white and blue stood in line for food. Out back, dozens sat together eating at picnic tables as a band played rock music, and as the pile of NFL gear to be burned grew higher.
Tresa Brown, 37, of Brooksville, came to the event with her five children, ranging from ages 7 to 15, without any knowledge of why NFL players and coaches have knelt during the national anthem.
“I’m an American and I respect the American flag,” she said. “There might be some other underlying issues, but I don’t know… I don’t watch the news like that.”
After a pastor delivered the invocation, Hernando County Commissioner Steve Champion addressed the crowd with what he called a public service announcement.
“This is private property,” he began, noting that the national anthem would soon be sung. “We are expecting everyone to stand… If you do have a problem standing for the anthem, it is time to leave… It is an expectation of this event.”
Everyone in attendance — almost all of whom were white — stood during the song, which ended with loud cheers by the crowd as light rain began to fall. Coney Island owner and event organizer John Lee quickly lit two burn barrels, one of which held a Colin Kaepernick jersey that attendees spent the beginning of the event spitting on.
One by one, Lee dropped jerseys and jackets, hats, scarves and more into the flames as people cheered.
“No fans left,” one person chanted.
“NFL who?” another yelled out. “Booooo,” the crowd answered back.
Will Jameson, 37, of Hudson, walked up to the barrel holding a Creamsicle-orange satin jacket, which he said dated from the 1970s and was worth about $1,000.
“The flag means a lot more to me than that team or that jacket ever will,” he said after dropping it into the fire. “They have lost me forever.”
Down the street less than half a mile, black men gathered beneath trees in the shaded parking lot of a closed-down barber shop at the intersection of Dr. M. L. King, Jr. Blvd. and Leonard Street. For generations, the men in their families have spent Sunday afternoons there, listening to NFL games on car speakers, or sometimes, setting up a TV.
This Sunday was no different.
All of the men, many of whom are employed by the county or city, declined to be identified by the Times for fear of retribution at work. But all agreed the event at Coney Island, where many community leaders gathered, left them feeling uneasy.
“We aren’t disrespecting the flag, we just want people to hear us,” one man said. “We’re just asking for justice.”