Legendary NFL player and coach Mike Ditka gave his take on the controversy of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem in an interview with Jim Gray on Westwood One Sports.



"I don't care who you are, or how much money you make, if you don't respect our country then you shouldn't in this country playing football. Go to another country and play football. If you had to go to somewhere else and try to play this sport, you wouldn't have a job," 'America's coach' Mike Ditka said on Westwood One Radio prior to Monday Night Football.



"If you can't respect the flag and this country then you don't respect what this is all about. So I would say 'Adios," Ditka said.











"I don’t know what social injustices there's been," Ditka said. "Muhammad Ali rose to the top. Jesse Owens is one of the classiest individuals that ever lived. Is everything based on color? I don’t see it that way. You have to be color blind in this country. You have to look at a person for what he is and what he stands for and how he produces, not by the color of his skin. That has never had anything to do with anything."



"All of a sudden, it has become a big deal now, about oppression. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I'm not watching it as carefully as other people. I think the opportunity is there for everybody -- race, religion, creed, color, nationality," he said.



"If you want to work, if you want to try, if you want to put effort in, you can accomplish anything. And we have watched that throughout our history of our country."