The incident was the President’s latest salvo in his attack on players taking a knee when the national anthem is played at football games. Back in September, Trump famously asked the crowd at an Alabama rally "wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired?'"

Though there is undoubtedly a long history of activism in professional sports, from Muhammad Ali to LeBron James, the current controversy appears to have begun last season when Colin Kaepernick, then a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, refused to rise for the national anthem at the start of games to highlight police brutality towards and the killing of unarmed African-Americans. Kaepernick has yet to sign with an NFL team after becoming a free agent earlier this year.

In a special one-hour episode of “TrumpWatch,” host Jesse Lent speaks with Dr. Harry Edwards, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, about the role athletes have played in the struggle for civil rights in America.

In addition to being a longtime consultant for the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors, Dr. Edwards organized the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which inspired African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos to each raise a fist in the "Black Power salute" during the playing of the United States national anthem at a medal ceremony during the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City.

In addition to discussing his own interactions with sports icons from Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick, Dr. Edwards will also weigh in on the significance of having a commander-in-chief with a negative view of the type of silent protest Kaepernick and other players have engaged in.