evidence: Were NFL referees given authority to disqualify football players who kneeled during the U.S. national anthem? No, that's not true: The claim is from a satirical website whose articles Lead Stories has debunked before. Lead Stories found no actual news articles mentioning such change to the authority of NFL referees. [...] NFL Referees were given the authority to disqualify players for anthem kneeling.So far they've tossed five of them.'The league isn't tolerating it anymore.'Full story in comment 👇 [...] A reverse image search (archived here) of the image in the claim led us to news articles from October 9, 2022, about a Buffalo Bills player ejected from a game for elbowing a referee.