Roy Moore, left, and Doug Jones. (AL.com file photos)

U.S. Senate Republican nominee Roy Moore does not have the moral authority to criticize NFL players for taking a knee during national anthem protests, his opponent Doug Jones said Wednesday.

"I think that he's pretty bold for a guy who has gotten kicked out of office twice for disobeying the law ... a chief justice who gets removed from office twice," said Jones, during a campaign appearance in Mobile. "He does not have the moral authority to talk about anyone breaking the law."

Jones' comments come after Moore, in statements to Time Magazine, accused professional football players of breaking the law by kneeling.

"It's against the law, you know that?" Moore said in the Time interview. "It was an act of Congress that every many stand and put their hand over their heart. That's the law."

As the Time Magazine article points out, the U.S. Code gives guidelines on how a person should behave during the national anthem, but it is not a law. There are also no federal penalties established against a person who does not adhere to the recommended behavior.

Jones' statements were directed at Moore's twice removal from the state bench. He was first removed in 2003 for violating rulings from federal judges after he refused to take down a Ten Commandment monument in the Supreme Court building in Montgomery.

He was then suspended from the bench last year after he ordered probate judges not to follow federal mandates recognizing same-sex marriages. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 majority opinion, legalized same-sex marriages in 2015.

The Moore campaign was not immediately available for comment.

Jones, himself, has not waded into the NFL controversy that has become a heated social debate since President Donald Trump suggested during a Sept. 22 appearance in Huntsville that NFL players should be fired for not standing up during the anthem.

Jones, himself, has opted to focus his campaign issues such as health care, tax reform and the environment. His "pro-choice" stance on abortion, a hot button issue in Alabama, prompted criticism from social conservatives including Democrats.

Moore, whose campaign has focused on religious and social conservative issues, said last week in a statement that kneeling during the protests demonstrates "a lack of patriotism" and a "disrespect for the rule of law." But Moore, at the time, stopped short of calling the protests a crime.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, earlier on Wednesday, said the league will not punish players who refuse to stand. Some sports leagues, such as the NBA, suspend players who do not stand.

Trump's comments drew an immediate response from dozens of players who either kneeled or locked arms during a swath of NFL games on Sept. 24.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the protests last year when he sat down as the Star-Spangled Banner was played during a preseason game. He explained that his gesture was meant to protest police violence.