Three Miami Dolphins players – Arian Foster, Kenny Stills and Michael Thomas – knelt during the national anthem on Sunday, days after a local police union attacked their protest. The players were following the lead of the San Francisco 49ers’ Colin Kaepernick, who was the first NFL player to sit out the Star-Spangled Banner in protest at racial inequality in the United States.

The union for Broward County sheriff’s office wants police to stop their protection for Dolphins players after Foster, Stills and Thomas chose to kneel for the national anthem last week - linebacker Jelani Jenkins opted to stand on Sunday. The president of the union, Jeff Bell, also said that NFL players should forfeit their right to free speech while representing their team.

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Bell said the sheriff’s office should no longer escort the Dolphins to the game as a response. “I can only imagine the public outcry if a group of police officers refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or if we turned our back for the American flag for the national anthem. There would be a public outcry and internal affairs complaints a mile long on that,” Bell told the Miami Herald on Friday.

He added that NFL players were under different conditions from other parts of society. “I respect their right to have freedom of speech. However, in certain organizations and certain jobs you give up that right of your freedom of speech [temporarily] while you serve that job or while you play in an NFL game,” Bell said.

Foster has dismissed criticism of the protests. “They say it’s not the time to do this,” Foster said last week. “When is the time? It’s never the time in somebody else’s eye, because they’ll always feel like it’s good enough. And some people don’t. That’s the beautiful thing about this country. If somebody feels it’s not good enough, they have that right. That’s all we’re doing, exercising that right.”

The Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has said he supports his players’ stands. “I don’t think it was any lack of respect. I think everybody here — our team and our whole organization — respects the flag and what it stands for, and the soldiers and everything,” he said. “But these guys are making a conversation of something that’s a very important topic in this country, and I’m 100% supportive of them.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Office have made no comment on the union’s requests but Miami-Dade police, who also provide security at Dolphins games, said they had no intention to change their policies. “[The department] have contractual obligations with Hard Rock Stadium to provide public safety. The safety of our residents and visitors is our primary concern,” it said in a statement.