It was a very divisive week in sports with almost every NFL team doing some kind of demonstration during the national anthem in Sunday’s game.

Some players sat, knelt or stayed in the locker room during the Star Spangled Banner while others players stood and interlocked their arms on the sidelines.

The topic has trickled down to collegiate sports, and Will Muschamp addressed it during the Gamecocks’ Tuesday practice.

“I addressed the team this morning obviously after this weekend. One of the great rights as an American citizen is the freedom of speech,” he said during his weekly press conference. “It’s one of the things that makes the country what it is. Standing up for what you believe, to me, is freedom of speech. That’s a right that every American citizen has, and it’s what makes this country great.”

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Protests during the national anthem started last season with Colin Kaepernick sitting on the bench during pregame before kneeling on the sideline. It escalated this NFL preseason with other players doing the same.

President Donald Trump said before Sunday’s games players who kneel deserved to be fired, sparking the NFL’s league-wide shows of unity.

Muschamp said one of his points of emphasis while talking about this sensitive subject was to remind his players that while they may not agree with someone else’s opinions, it doesn’t mean the other person is wrong.

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He believes strongly in the First Amendment and said taking a stand for what you believe in is something that makes America great.

“I talked to our team about the people that stood up for what they believed in along time ago about this country, and that’s why where we are today,” he said. “We can agree to disagree. At the end of the day that’s one of my favorite sayings. We don’t have to agree. It doesn’t make someone right; it doesn’t make somebody else wrong. But certainly standing up for what you believe in is extremely important to me, and I addressed that to our team today.”

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In college football, players are not on the field for the national anthem and could not kneel or make any other kind of protest during that time like their professional counterparts.