Photo: Hal Yeager/ Getty Images

Mike Pence, a cauliflower that was once victimized by the movie Mulan, claimed that he walked out of today’s 49ers-Colts game, because the players supposedly disrespected the troops during the rote nationalistic pre-game ceremony. While the Colts stood arm-in-arm during the anthem, a reported 23 members of the 49ers took a knee.



While national anthem demonstrations have been intended to protest police violence, which disproportionately affects black Americans, Pence has said that there is “too much of this talk of institutional bias or racism in law enforcement.”

Update (2:26 p.m. ET): Donald Trump, who was probably feeling cranky that his VP was getting more attention than him, claims that actually, this was his idea, and he told Pence to leave the football game if any players kneeled for the anthem. Is this more or less childish if it were true?

Update (6:11 p.m. ET): 49ers safety Eric Reid had some smart insight on this whole stupid charade: