EBENSBURG, Pa. (WJAC) - At the Pittsburgh Gift Shop on U.S. Route 22 in Ebensburg, the day before and the day after a Pittsburgh Steelers home game are always busy.
People from around the country and around the state stop by the store on their way to and from games.
The store noticed a bit of a slowdown in business after controversy flared over NFL players kneeling during the playing of the national anthem. The original intent of the protest was to raise awareness of police brutality against people of color.
Football fans at the store had an array of opinions.
"It's a shame ... It's just a shame," said Mike Wilson of the protests.
Wilson, a veteran, said he took offense to players taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem, which he saw as an affront to those serving in the military.
Debbe Taylor, another fan, remembered when the Steelers players, save one, stayed in the tunnel before the game instead of coming out for the anthem, an attempt to save the team from the political controversy over the anthem that would end up pulling them deeper into it.
"I wasn't happy about it, but what could I do?" Taylor said. "If I was younger, I'd probably be out there protesting."
Latresa Johnson and her husband, Paul, were visiting Pittsburgh from California, part of a trip around the Northeast that included New York City and Niagara Falls.
It was part of a lifelong dream for Paul, who has loved the Steelers ever since his dad watched them when Johnson was growing up in Alabama.
On Sunday, during Johnson's first-ever Steelers home game, the protests were in the back of his mind.
"When they started last year, I understand the protests," Johnson, who is black, said. "Speaking from personal experience, I have looked down the barrels of police guns twice."
Both times, he said, he was doing nothing wrong. One of the times, he was on his way to work to pick up his child.
Johnson said he thinks the original message of the protests has been lost in the controversy that President Donald Trump has repeatedly gotten himself involved with.
Even some of the most die-hard Steelers fans have problems with the protests and the Steelers' decision last month to stay in the tunnel.
Lorraine Berezansky, perhaps better known as the "Steelers Lady," a name she uses in local commercials for her in-home Steelers merchandise store, said her business has dwindled and hasn't recovered. Customers, including some close friends, have called her to tell her why.
"It's not you, you know. We love you," she said they told her. "But we're not buying no more Steelers stuff."
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