Voters are split down the middle on whether National Football League players should kneel during the national anthem to protest racial disparity in the country, according to a new poll.
Quinnipiac University researchers, in a survey released Thursday, found 47 percent of voters approve of players refusing to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and another 47 percent disapprove. The rest of the poll’s respondents were undecided.
Quinnipiac’s latest figures represent a shift in public opinion toward supporting the protests. A majority of voters disapproved of the demonstrations when a similar study was conducted in November 2017.
Regardless of how voters feel about the protests sparked by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to highlight racial injustice and police brutality, about two-thirds of voters generally back the right of NFL players to demonstrate during the anthem.
The poll comes as only three players from the Miami Dolphins protested by kneeling or sitting during “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the 2018/2019 NFL season’s opening week.
The Quinnipiac study also found that more respondents approve of Nike featuring Kaepernick in its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” advertising campaign. Nike was the subject of boycotts by critics of the NFL player demonstrations, who believe the company’s use of Kaepernick is a slight to the American flag and U.S. military veterans.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,038 voters across the country via landlines and cellphones between Sept. 6 and Sept. 9. The poll’s results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
[Related: Trump spikes Colin Kaepernick campaign: ‘I don’t like what Nike did’]
