Alabama Store Refuses To Stock Pepsi Bottles With NFL Logo To Protest Anthem Protests

An Athens, Alabama grocery store stated on Facebook that it will no longer sell Pepsi products that carry the NFL logo; Pepsi is a longtime sponsor of the NFL and uses the league's logo on a number of bottles. But S&Z Grocery made a statement on its Facebook page yesterday that the store will stop carrying the 20-ounce Pepsi bottles that bear the NFL logo because players have been permitted to "disrespect the flag and country that I love."

The statement begins with an acknowledgement that "this may cause me to lose some business," and goes on to state: "I will not bow down in order to the [sic] make a dollar as long as the athletes are allowed to bow down and disrespect the flag and country that I love." The post currently has 295 shares and close to 500 reactions, most of which are positive.

"I pulled them myself, the customers didn't know I was doing this. I sold the product that I had that did not have the logo on it. And I told my rep as well as the delivery guy that I did not want those brought into the store, because I would not sell them," owner Phillip Stewart told news station WAFF 48.

I can see this boycott cutting two ways: Couldn't the grocery store's refusal to stock NFL-logo products just as easily have been a criticism of the league's handling of the anthem protests, and a show of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and others? Whose pockets does this boycott theoretically hurt: Pepsi, for working with the NFL, or the NFL, which "allows" players to "bow down and disrespect the flag?" I guess that's not for me to say.

Anyway, in a related move this August, a Florida restaurant announced it would cancel its expensive DIRECTV NFL Sunday Ticket package "due to [the NFL's] lack of compassion and gratitude for our American service members. " Instead, owners said they would use the money saved to offer 40-percent food discounts to veterans on Sunday game days.