Alabama Store Owner Stops Selling Pepsi Drinks With NFL Logo

A store owner has stopped selling Pepsi with the NFL logo because he does not want to support the athletes who he says disrespect the flag with their kneeling protests.

Alabama store owner Phillip Stewart said he believes the wish for justice behind the protests “is just,” but says that there are “other ways to deal with it.”

Stewart said he wasn’t trying to “make a statement” with his decision. “I just don’t want to support anything dealing with the NFL,” he said.

Bottles of Pepsi are displayed on a shelf at a convenience store in San Anselmo, California, on Feb. 13, 2018. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Stewart announced his decision on Facebook on Oct. 10.

“This may cause me to lose some business, but here goes. S&Z supermarket currently will not be selling 20 ounce Pepsi or Diet Pepsi,” he wrote on his Facebook store page. “These two items are currently produced with the NFL logo on them.”

‘This Helps Me Sleep At Night’

Stewart said he would not be stocking the bottles in his store in Athens, Alabama again until the logo was removed after the Superbowl.

“I will not bow down in order to make a dollar as long as the athletes are allowed to bow down and disrespect the flag and country that I love,” he wrote on Facebook.

Starting with then-NFL player Colin Kaepernick in 2016, some players went on to kneel in protest before games while the anthem was playing. An often cited argument for the protests was a perception that people from minority groups are mistreated by the justice system.

Phillip Stewart (R), stands behind the counter in his store in Athens, Alabama, after announcing he would not be stocking Pepsi drinks with the NFL logo on Oct 10, 2018. Fox/Screenshot

Stewart says he understands why the players are protesting, but doesn’t agree with the tactic that he finds to be disrespectful to the flag he was raised to respect as a symbol of his nation.

“The cause is just. I think there are other ways to deal with it. This has brought attention to it, I’m sure there is good that comes from this, I just don’t agree with the tactic,” Stewart told WHNT.

“This helps me sleep at night. I can sleep knowing that I’m not supporting somebody that’s doing something I don’t believe in,” he explained.

Trump Seeks Pardon Recommendations

Stewart said the NFL logo will remain on the bottles through the Superbowl, according to the distributor.

Stewart told WAFF that most of his customers supported his cause but he has received some negative phone calls about the Facebook post.

Store owner Phillip Stewart, who announced he would not be stocking Pepsi drinks with the NFL logo on Oct 10, 2018. Fox/Screenshot

President Trump has previously criticized the players for choosing a form of protest that he says is disrespectful to the country. He even suggested the players should be fired.

In June, Trump asked the protesters to recommend individuals who they felt had been treated unfairly by the system as candidates for a pardon.

“I am gonna ask all of those people to recommend to me, because that’s what they’re protesting, people that they think were unfairly treated by the justice system,” he said. “I understand that. And I’m going to ask them to recommend to me people that were unfairly treated—friends of theirs or people that they know about.

“I’m going to take a look at those applications and if I find, and my committee finds, that they’re unfairly treated then we will pardon them or at least let them out.”

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