There's no reason for this whatsoever. Kneeling is in no way disrespectful and
Kaepernick went out of his way to ensure his protest did not come across as anti-American or anti-military. A lot is justifiably said about the free speech ramifications of no-platforming, shouting down and sometimes violent protesting from left-affiliated groups, but this is every bit as much the right policing speech (albeit in a different way). If you've supported the likes of Peterson defending free speech, I see no reason the right to make these sorts of peaceful, harmless protests shouldn't have your support as well.
There's a big difference here and one of them being that one of them is on his job in a private business. Do your work allow you to say or do whatever you want? No, it doesn't, it might let you say a lot or choose to do various things, but it always has to consider if it has negative effects on the company. You can't just act however you want in your workplace. There's still numerous of ways for the players to protest, numerous ways for they to convey the message. Personally the choice of staying in the wardrobe seems more fitting as a protest. Kneeling is a bad symbolic gesture, as it generally is a sign of submission as well. It would be better if they just held a sign, while still standing for the national anthem. That's better than just sitting, which fuels the image of spoiled, out-of-touch apathetic athletes.
Kneeling to the national anthem will be perceived anti-American, that thing is the symbol of over 320 million individuals (the concept of protest is an objection, what does objecting to the national anthem object to?). It's not insightful commentary, it's just attention grabbing. You need to commit to a pretty hard message to use the national anthem as something you protest against, which would either be patriotism itself or just not believing in the concept of America as a nation or viewing it as rotten. Those are legitimate positions to take and the US allows you to take this position, but people can allow you the right to something and still think you're shitty for the way you exercise it. Especially as the concept of the nation isn't necessarily connected to the state and especially not specific actors of the state.
Kaepernick tries to pretend he's not attacking the concept of America, but he is doing this broad statement of
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.". Which would be fine if he committed to it, which would be in fact an attack on the concept of America as a nation, using the national anthem. This makes sense, unlike his rejection of "anti-American" sentiments in it. Flags and anthems are more complicated than states, meaning that not standing for the flag sends a message about the nation and not the state apparatus necessarily.
All of it has basically been a shitshow and since it became one, the company decided that taking attention. Newspapers can still report "team x stayed in the wardrobe during the anthem in protest of y", so it's one of these weird situations where people are just interested in the subject as a cultural war. The current political polarization just turns every minor thing into a big deal and just gives more and more attention to it, which would be akin to the Streisand effect I imagine. Just look at Milo Yiannopoulos, who gained fame for people's inability to deal with him speaking, or this case, which just rose up from outrage.
To get to the point, the protest was fine until it become disruptive to the business, understandably. That's why they've decided to move the attention away from the anthem, allowing other forms of protest. A better the debate would being forced to do an action, like standing for the anthem or doing something that goes against what you believe in, would be ethically right in your line of work based on terms of contract. I also am surprised that a type of protest separated from the anthem wasn't made room for, that'd be a good compromise, allowing attention from camera or even a mic. That'd be the better way to solve this.
