Everyone has an opinion about the push back of the National Football League against President Trump’s call recently for players to honor the American flag during the National Anthem or be dismissed.

There will be no attempt here to change your view. But consider the following as you try to digest the hijacking of sports as one of the last vestiges of pure community in this country into a political venue.

• The president limited his vitriol – blunt as it was – to observing the flag and the anthem. It is supposed to be the one time in this country that a community comes together – at a Little League park, high school football field or a big city stadium – as united, regardless of politics or personal beliefs.

The president has a well-earned colony of detractors, but every survey on this issue favors his view.

• All of us should stand for racial equality. Every second of every day. While this country has come a long way in that regard, there are shortcomings we should all, together, work to overcome.

To spotlight police – our daily buffer between peace and chaos – as the primary part of the problem is ridiculous. Any profession, including mine, has its violators. But the broad, incendiary brush police are painted with seems so unjust a week after hundreds of them ran into a shower of bullets to save hundreds of lives in Las Vegas.

• The NFL has a tax-exempt, antitrust exemption that allows the league, owners and players to make millions of dollars – courtesy of the fans’ pocketbook support.

Protesting their lot is hypocritical and disrespectful toward the millions of people who are making their lavish lifestyles possible.

• Standing with respect for the National Anthem is in the NFL’s own conduct code. Commissioner Roger Goodell was a willing ringleader in a violation of that policy.

The same commissioner last year prohibited a player whose mother suffered from breast cancer from wearing pink shoes for the entire season because it was a uniform violation. The same commission prohibited the Dallas Cowboys from wearing commemorative patches to honor five slain policemen in that city. The same commissioner allowed Colin Kaepernick, who started the kneeling epidemic, to wear socks with pigs on them as a message against police brutality.

• By force feeding their social agenda on the fans who pay their salaries, the players, ownership and league office have managed to drown out their cause.

The heavyhanded politics has cast such a large shadow over the start of the games that everyone has forgotten what we all are supposed to be working toward – racial equality and national unity.

• Last Sunday’s morphing of the original protest into individual kneeling before the anthem and teams standing for its playing was a step. But the manner and posture of some players gave the impression of an insincere attempt to keep the fans from embarking on their own form of protest – a boycott of the games – which would be entirely understandable.

And what’s the message for kids, particularly young boys, who often choose sports figures as their first role models beyond family? Have they already been led to believe police are bad and their country is not good enough to be honored for even 90 seconds?

The networks are returning this week to the practice of running commercials during the anthem. Did they run the anthems on live TV out of journalistic duty or were they put up to it by the NFL as political protest weaponry?

The debate over the issue has turned sports commentators and jocks into political analysts and turned programming into a hazy format that requires our professional “games” to become the church for social justice preaching.

The fans have voted on how they feel about that. Television ratings have sagged precipitously and the kneeling preceding or during the anthem has been roundly booed.

Countless uniforms have been burned and many fans say they have left their allegiance behind for good.

History indicates most fans will return in time. But will their souls return with them? They won’t forget the NFL, from league leaders to players, put them in a position of having to decide whether supporting or not supporting a team is a political statement.

I have gone to dozens of stadiums over the years. The trip is perpetually special in part because I never know who I am going to sit next to and share a ball game and/or rooting interest. There is no thought or care about whether they are Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative.

Three hours later we say our good-bye’s and wish each other well while walking to our cars in the parking lot. I recently had that exact experience with a gentleman named Jeff from Lancaster at a Phillies-Dodgers game. The fact that we preferred to miss a political homily that day does not mean we don’t care. We would just like the sermon/protest to occur in a church, City Hall or community center, not a ballpark.

One commentator suggested President Trump should invite some of the protesting players to the White House and that he would be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the individuals.

That’s an excellent idea and probably true. Many athletes use their unique standing to do great things in their communities. But the door of understanding swings both ways. Before they kneel again, players should spend a day with the policemen they are so accusatory toward or walk through a veterans hospital and meet the people who have sacrificed so they can self-righteously put the American population on a guilt trip.

If that doesn’t bring enlightenment, they need to try the same protest in North Korea or some of the Mideast outposts and see how their freedom of speech is viewed.

Troisi is the Sun-Gazette’s editorial page editor.