COLOMA, MI -- For 29 years, Ray Steadmon has thrown a party on Super Bowl Sunday at his small-town Michigan bowling alley where people come to bowl and eat chili while representing their favorite National Football League team.

This year will be different. Steadmon, 60, is fed up with seeing NFL players protest during the national anthem. So instead of a Super Bowl bash, at the urging of his customers, he's holding a "Stars and Stripes" bowling tournament with a patriotic theme Sunday.

The 20 teams of three bowlers each will have names like Seals, Paratroopers and Rangers, instead of NFL-themed names like the Eagles or Patriots.

"I have been a huge NFL football fan all of my life," Steadmon said. "This year when I watch these guys sitting in protest during our national anthem, disrespecting my country, disrespecting my flag, in my opinion, it made me so angry."

Steadmon, a Kalamazoo native who lives in Mattawan, ran several bowling allies locally, including Wayside Lanes and Harpo's before buying the 20-lane Coloma Lanes in 1988. Coloma, a city with a population of just over 1,400, is about 40 miles west of Kalamazoo.

Steadmon is the son of a Korean War veteran and a veteran himself who served with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division in the 1970s. He said he has no problem with people protesting, but disagrees with their platform being the national anthem.

"I had to kind of sit back and say, that's why I was willing to give my life was to give them the right to do that," Steadmon said. "The only thing I had to rebuttal with was I have the right not to support (the NFL)."

Steadmon said he's a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, and has gone to see his favorite team play on Thanksgiving for years with his son, Raymond. He hasn't gone so far as to burn his Lions gear like some have, but he said he is refusing to financially support the organization "until they respect my flag and my national anthem to my country."

Steadmon said that when his customers "freaked out" over him canceling the popular Super Bowl party and bowling tournament, he decided to turn it into the patriotic-themed event instead. Instead of wearing their usual NFL-themed clothing, they are encouraged to wear red, white and blue. Some customers are buying clothes specifically for the party.

"This has caught on fire (in Coloma)," Steadmon said. "It's unreal."

Among the patriotic patrons who will bowl Sunday is Dan Gulliver of Sister Lakes, a longtime customer who has bowled in the football-themed tournament for at least 10 years.

"I just enjoy bowling at Coloma Lanes and I support Ray and whatever he comes up with," Gulliver said.

Steadmon acknowledges he took a risk by taking a political stand as a business owner. He said he believed the community would back him, but had no idea they would to this extent.

"It's not about the money or winning the tournament, it's about this little community coming together and over-the-top support," Steadmon said.