Restaurant Owner Refuses To Show NFL, Shocked To See Who Walks Through Doors

A Marine veteran and owner of an Ohio sports restaurant chose to boycott the NFL due to recent national anthem protests by players. What happened next left him shocked.

Bill DeFries, the owner of the sports restaurant Beef O’Brady’s, decided after witnessing the “disrespect” shown by professional football players in their protests during the national anthem at recent games that he no longer wanted to show NFL games at his Beavercreek restaurant.

DeFries met with his leadership team to discuss cutting off the NFL from the restaurant’s televisions. He knew that he had seen enough to convince him to boycott the league.

“It started a while ago, but it really was the effect of seeing what the players did [two Sundays ago],” DeFries told Fox Business, according to Independent Journal Review. “I have to tell you as a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, I served to defend our country’s Constitution and free speech, and while I defend the right of every American to express their views and voice this freely, the actions demonstrated by the NFL players during the country’s national anthem — it was offensive and disrespectful to me as a proud veteran and all my fellow veterans.”

The business owner said he expected that the restaurant may take a financial hit from boycotting the NFL, but that he felt compelled to boycott anyway.

“We are a family restaurant, and we have been for 13 years,” he said. “And our customers are from the community. They come in here to relax and enjoy a meal and be entertained, in particular by the NFL on Sundays. But we also serve a lot of local military families and veterans, many of whom share my view on the NFL players’ actions during the national anthem. Before making this decision, I met with the leadership team to ensure we were all aligned on the issue, and we were. We knew that our sales would be negatively impacted.”

DeFries called DirecTV to cancel his NFL package, but was informed he would not be able to receive a refund because he had a business account.

The restaurant’s leadership began to worry after the cable TV cancelation cost the business $6,000. However, things took a turn that nobody saw coming.

“Every day our sales have been up between 200 and 300 percent,” DeFries told the Dayton Daily News.

When the word got out about the restaurant’s boycott of the NFL, others who supported the cause wanted to help support the restaurant for taking a stand.

“People we have never seen before are driving hours to support us and the employees,” DeFries said. “We have received heart-warming and supportive phone calls, emails and direct messages from people all over the United States thanking us.”

He added: “It turns out the enormous amount of pride and reverence that we have for the national anthem and everything that it means to us as a free people … is shared by the vast majority of Americans.”

Sources: IJ Review, Dayton Daily News / Featured Image: Ed!/Wikimedia Commons / Embedded Images: BillDeFries/Twitter via IJ Review, Stephen Brashear/AP via CNN