WWE Hall Of Famer Hacksaw Jim Duggan was recently interviewed on Colt Cabana’s Art Of Wrestling podcast to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Duggan reminisced about his heyday in the industry and recalled when fans would more openly take part in “USA” chants.
This subject trailed off into Duggan offering his opinion on the controversy ongoing in the NFL with players kneeling during the National Anthem:
“That was long before all this political stuff. It was OK to chant USA in another part of the world. It doesn’t matter. I’m going to chant USA no matter where Hacksaw Jim Duggan is. Tell those NFL players to get off their knees.
“Only NFL game I watched last year was the Super Bowl. I go down to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio where those Wounded Warriors come in and last time I was down there they told us before we went in, ‘Hacksaw some of these kids are gonna be pretty messed up.’
“First young guy walks in with his face burned off, ‘Hacksaw, I’m a big fan.’ Another guy comes in, pulls his leg off, ‘Hacksaw will you sign my leg for me?’ Tell those kids why you’re kneeling down. Protest all you want; but, a little respect I think.”
This isn’t the first time Duggan has expressed his thoughts on the kneeling policy. He made similar comments a few months ago on Sean Mooney’s podcast. Cabana noted that he thought about cutting the clip out of the podcast altogether, but didn’t want to do that because Duggan has the right to his opinion and didn’t want to cut it out simply because he disagreed:
“This next part I contemplated just editing it out. I was just like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to get political or anything.’ I don’t know. He said it and he has the right to his views and I figured I’d be the bad person to edit out a stance I don’t believe in just so I’m swaying it my way.
“I feel like that’s the Fox News way of doing it, so I kept this part in because it looked like Jim really believes in it. I’m the opposite. I’m not looking to get into a fight about it. Hence why I played what he said. I’m under the belief that Colin Kaepernick took a knee to bring awareness to white cops shooting and killing black kids and my thoughts say, ‘Yeah, people need to be aware of it.
“This is a big deal in America. If that’s how they want to protest, you know, it’s not because of the soldiers who have fought or the respect for our country. It’s for these police men murdering black people.’ Now yes, I get it. I understand how people can think there’s disrespect for the flag or for our people over there.
“That’s not the intent. This is my belief; but, if you went over and were in war and your friends died, of course you’d want respect for that flag. So, let’s not get into an argument. I love you. You love me; but, these are my beliefs and those are Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s beliefs. Let’s not separate the wrestling world and let’s all just love each other.”
H/T WrestleZone for the transcriptions
