During a 2017 campaign event, Corey Stewart, the Republican challenging Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), sounded off on football players, characterizing them in racist stereotypes, according to a Thursday CNN report.

He made the comments during a Facebook Live event about the NFL players’ kneeling during the national anthem.

“A lot of these guys, I mean, they’re thugs, they are beating up their girlfriends and their wives,” Stewart said, “you know, they’ve got, you know, children all over the place that they don’t pay attention to, don’t father, with many different women, they are womanizers. These are not people that we should have our sons, or any of our children look up to. We need to have our children look up to real role models.”

“The men and women who serve in the armed forces are great role models. Not these thugs, ungrateful, uh, you know, guys in the NFL,” he continued. “I mean, we shouldn’t, you know, it’s, it’s so dangerous because they’re just, they’re just awful role models.”

He also joked the the NFL stands for the National Felon League.

In response to CNN’s request for comment, Stewart said: “It’s unsurprising that while Americans and Donald Trump are working to re-establish the rule of law and rebuild civil society in America, CNN once again flies off the handle and tries to make everything about race in order to keep Americans divided.”