A Bar near Lake Ozark made news yesterday for its use of Colin K’s Jersey as a doormat.
Now, of course, many tried to turn this into a race thing. Burle denies this.
KOMU:
A Lake of the Ozarks bar owner was taking heat Tuesday for what at least one passer-by saw as a racist doormat out front.
“It’s not a race thing,” said Jason Burle, who owns the S.N.A.F.U Bar near the Bagnell Dam. “A lot of people want to twist it around to be a race thing.”
Burle said he ordered two NFL jerseys to be used as doormats outside his bar after NFL players started kneeling during the national anthem at football games.
“We pulled them out of the box, taped them down. There was no ill-intent,” Burle said.
Burle used the jerseys of NFL players Marshawn Lynch and Colin Kaepernick. When placed side-by-side, the jerseys read “Lynch” “Kaepernick.”
“If someone thinks that I mean personal harm to someone, they don’t know me,” Burle said.
Burle posted his reasoning behind putting the jerseys as doormats.
Burle told KOMU the doormat is about standing up for himself and his family, many of whom served in the military. Burle spent six years in the Air Force. Seeing NFL players kneel during the national anthem didn’t sit well with him.
“A lot of us military folks take that personal to heart,” Burle said.
Burle started the S.N.A.F.U Bar to honor military veterans.
“It was kind of our way to give back, I guess,” he said. “We give discounts to veterans, we have a hall of heroes inside. We have flags that have flown overseas mounted inside.”
Burle said the “hall of heroes” includes pictures of customers or relatives of customers.
“We have some people’s fathers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts,” he said.
But Sloan doesn’t remember the bar for the pictures of veterans. Instead, he remembers the doormat he saw as racist.
“I thought I needed to document it,” Sloan said.
Burle said, “If he came in and actually told me at that moment or my manager, it would’ve been taken care of that moment exactly.”
This did not sit well with everybody.
“That’s not the Missouri I know,” Sloan said. “It just kind of upset me really bad. Put a bad taste in my mouth.”
Sloan posted on the bar’s Facebook page. He and Burle had a heated exchange online.
Sloan wrote on the page, “You are also expressing hate, violence and continuing American racism under the faux guise of patriotism.”
Burle responded, “It’s funny to me that someone would look that far deeply into it just to find a racist link.”
Burle has since switched the jerseys so it no longer reads “Lynch Kaepernick”.
Although I certainly think it wasn’t the smartest thing to have Lynch’s jersey in front of Kaepernick I’m not going to let it ruin this great story. Burle clearly isn’t a racist and was instead fighting back at the absolute disrespect that these NFL players have shown for our flag, our military, our police officers and above all our country.
