A number of years ago, it was common to see football players taking a knee during the national anthem. They did it as a form of protest and became popular at one point.

This also moved over into high school football in some cases, with four players on one team taking a knee in 2017. The thing is, it wasn’t the first time they had done it and one of the referees was not happy.

Ernie Lunardelli was officiating the game at Monroe High School in New Jersey. He had already told the officers assigned to the game that he would walk off if the players took a knee in protest while the national anthem was playing.

He said: “I’m not in favor of anyone disrespecting our country, our flag, the armed forces.” He added, “What they’re protesting has nothing to do with the national anthem and I’m against it, so I decided to protest them kneeling and that’s what I did.”

The coach said that he did not leave the field peacefully and had to be pulled off the field. Lunardelli denied it, saying that one of the coaches did say something that annoyed him but he wasn’t pulled off of the field, he walked off.

His son was also officiating at the game, and he had graduated from the same place in 2008. He joined his father.

There were some concerns because of a racist comment that was made on their Facebook page but he said he was hacked. In the end, both Lunardelli and his son resigned.