MLB player says he was denied service at a restaurant for kneeling during the anthem

An Oakland Athletics player says he was denied service at an Alabama restaurant for kneeling during the national anthem at a game earlier this month.

Bruce Maxwell, a catcher for the Athletics, was dining with Huntsville city Councilman Devyn Keith, when the waiter declined to serve them after seeing Maxwell’s ID and recognizing him as “the guy who took a knee,” Keith told The Washington Post.

“I believe in the fact that this was an idiot doing a stupid thing than a small business doing something wrong,” the councilman said.

Maxwell was the first MLB player to kneel during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality and police brutality, a movement that has swept professional sports and drawn ire from President Trump and many of his supporters. Trump has called for NFL owners to fire any “son of a b—-” who kneels during the anthem.

Maxwell told TMZ Sports that the waiter boasted that he voted for President Trump and “stands for everything he stands for.” 

“I’m really over that happening and it’s BS,” Maxwell told The Washington Post.

{mosads}Maxwell did not identify the waiter when sharing the experience with press, but Huntsville’s WZDX-TV identified him as Matthew Henry, but did not name the restaurant.

Henry came forward to deny the incident, calling Maxwell’s account “an absolute lie.” He said that he declined to serve alcohol to a third member of the party because of an invalid ID, not because of political motives.

“I would like a public apology from Mr. Bruce Maxwell,” Henry said. “And I would like one for all the folks I work with. He represents Huntsville, Alabama, whether he likes it or not, and we’re not the kind of people who would do that kind of thing.”