A Beaumont youth football team ended its season early Tuesday following its decision to protest the national anthem before games.

The Beaumont Bulls, a team of 11- and 12-year-old boys, first kneeled during the anthem in protest of what they say is unjust treatment of minorities in the U.S. before a Sept. 10 game, the Beaumont Enterprise reported.

"How can you not feel some kind of way about someone on the news getting shot down by police?" one coach asked during an interview with The Bleacher Report. "How can you be so comfortable with injustice that you don't want to do anything?"

The Beaumont Bulls kneel in protest of unjust treatment of minorities in the U.S. during the national anthem before a game. (Facebook)

After their initial protest, the players and coaches received death threats and hate mail, according to The Bleacher Report. Head coach Rah-Rah Barber told the Enterprise that people told him he should be hanged.

The protest, modeled after 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest, had been approved by the players' parents, Barber said.

The coach was removed from his position by the Bulls' executive board three weeks after disobeying an order to not take a knee. The board said he created a "hostile mood" at a team meeting.

Players then protested the coach's dismissal and did not attend practice until he returned.

They did not practice until Tuesday, when the entire team was disbanded. One parent told the Enterprise the team was dissolved because several players had quit and there weren't enough to form a team. But another said the executive board had canceled the remainder of the season.