As both the 2018 midterm elections and the NFL season near, a poll finds that most voters still do not approve of the player protests during the national anthem.

The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asked respondents, “When it comes to professional football players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality in the United States, do you consider this to be an appropriate way or not an appropriate way to bring attention to these concerns?”

The poll found 54 percent of the voters polled said that kneeling during the national anthem is inappropriate. Only 44 percent said that they do not mind the kneeling players, the Washington Times reported.

Those who said they no longer follow the NFL also grew ten percent over the last time the poll was taken. The August 18-22 poll found that 31 percent said they don’t follow professional football, up from 21 percent in 2014, the last time the poll was cinducted.

Only 24 percent said they “closely follow” football, down one percent from the 25 percent who responded in 2014.

Even as sports media continues to loudly support the protests and the players insist they have a right to conduct them, it appears they have still failed to convince most Americans that the national anthem is an appropriate time to take a knee in protest against the country.

The poll was conducted among 900 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.27 percentage points.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.