Susan Page and Julia Fair

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Most Americans say the protests by NFL players during the National Anthem are appropriate, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds, and they say, by overwhelming margins, that President Trump's heated criticism of them are not.

Two-thirds in the poll of registered voters, by 68%-27%, say Trump's call for NFL owners to fire the players and fans to boycott their games is inappropriate. That includes a third of Republicans as well as nine of 10 Democrats.

By 51%-42%, those surveyed say the players' protests are appropriate.

"They certainly have the right to express whatever they want," says Ryan Doyle, 19, a college student and Democratic-leaning independent from Manhattan Beach, Calif., who was among those surveyed. "It doesn't call for violence; it doesn't call for pain; it doesn't call for any dramatic act."

He adds: "Free speech is an innately American thing."

But Jim Littlejohn, 73, a retiree who lives in the Phoenix suburb of San Tan Valley, says the president has "done the right thing."

"My attitude towards the NFL is if you cannot respect the flag or the vets or whatever your animosity is, then stay in the locker room," he said in a follow-up interview.

The survey, taken Wednesday through Sunday by landline and cell phone, shows how much attention the silent protest has commanded in recent weeks. Just 8% of those surveyed didn't have an opinion about the players' protests. Even fewer, 5%, were undecided about Trump's criticism of them.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

On Sunday, NFL players across the nation took a knee or linking arms during the National Anthem to demonstrate against Trump's comment that team owners should fire any "son of a bitch" who "disrespects our flag." Some fans booed them.

Read more:

Protests muted week after NFL responds to Trump criticism

Trump tweets it's 'very important' NFL players stand for anthem

Trump on anthem protests: NFL owners 'afraid' of their players

The protests have broadened in recent weeks since quarterback Colin Kaepernick began dropping to one knee during the anthem last year to highlight police brutality and racial discrimination.

Mike Conklin, 49, of Mesa, Arizona, an automotive technician and Trump supporter, scoffs at the idea of highly paid professional athletes spotlighting the issue of police brutality.

"These guys are making millions of dollars, and to say there's inequality with the police department is an absolute joke," he says. "Trump played the NFL like a fiddle and showed what true un-Americans these people are."

A third of those polled, 33%, say the protests make them less likely to attend a game or watch it on TV. Seven percent say it makes them more likely to watch a game, but most, 56%, say it wouldn't have any impact.

Views were sharply divided along partisan and racial lines.

About eight in 10 Democrats saw the players' protests as appropriate; eight in 10 Republicans call them inappropriate. More than nine in 10 Democrats call Trump's comments inappropriate; a 57% majority of Republicans say they are appropriate.

Whites are closely divided on whether the players' protests are appropriate; 44% say they are and 49% disagree. But blacks by a wide margin call them appropriate.

When it comes to the president's remarks, whites call them inappropriate by 2-1. Blacks overwhelmingly hold that view.

Corinthia Morgan, 21, a student and political independent from the Dallas suburb of Lancaster, says Trump should be worried about other issues.

"I think he needs to focus on the people who are dying in Puerto Rico and the Virgin island," she says. "His priorities are messed up right now because, yes, you know, he can feel how passionate he wants to feel about the flag — he's the president, whatever — but right now he needs to send aid to people who need help."