evidence: The U.S. women’s national soccer team is denying team members turned their backs on a 98-year-old World War II veteran as he played the national anthem before an exhibition game, claiming that some players were simply looking at the flag at the other end of the stadium. "Get your facts straight before you assume anything," U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd tweeted. Hmm, why would anyone assume that the players were showing disrespect during the playing of our national anthem? Maybe it’s because, long before U.S. track and field athlete Gwen Berry turned her back on the flag while the national anthem played, it was the U.S. national women’s soccer team that was demanding the right to protest the anthem. [...] In a statement, U.S. Soccer said that none of the players "turned their back on WWII Veteran Pete DuPré during tonight’s anthem" adding "the players all love Pete." Note the statement didn’t say the players would never disrespect the American flag — because that would be demonstrably untrue. The team seems most upset at the notion that anyone thought they had shown disrespect to a sweet old man like Pete. What they don’t seem to understand is that when they protest the flag, they show disrespect for Pete and all the veterans who fought under that flag. They show disrespect for all of Pete’s comrades who sacrificed their lives so they could have the freedom to play a kids’ game for a living.