Flight Crew Takes Knee, Strands New Orleans Saints on Runway-Fiction!

A fabricated news story is behind bogus rumors that the New Orleans Saints were stranded on a runway after the flight crew “took a knee” in response to NFL National Anthem protests.
The rumor started with a post appearing at FreedumJunkShun.com under the headline, “Flight Crew Takes A Knee And Walks Off, Leaving New Orleans Saints Stranded On Runway,” in October 2017. The fabricated report begins:

Both the pilot and co-pilot of the Boeing 737 the Saints use to travel are combat-hardened American heroes. They flew sorties over Baghdad with Saddam’s best weapons firing back. They fought with their lives for your freedom and watched many of their friends die. Today they took a stand for those brave souls:
“We couldn’t be a party to the disrespect. We waited until we were cleared and last off the runway for the night , walked out of the cockpit, took a knee and deplaned. They’re not going anywhere until tomorrow.”

The post goes on to describe Saints players as “a group of thugs” who should consider themselves lucky that they’re “able to make millions for playing a game.”
The post was widely shared on social media, and many readers believed that it was true. FreedumJunkShun.com, however, makes clear in a disclaimer appearing at the site that its stories are fabricated:

We believe that there is nothing more precious than the mind of an aging conservative. Here we gather a boatload of bullhonkey, works of pure satirical fiction, to give the fist-shakers of the world a reason to hate. Reality is often in the eye of the beholder. You won’t find any of it here.

Given the website’s lack of credibility, we’re calling this one “fiction.”