WATCH Bob Costas Explain Patriotism's Different Forms After Trump Blasts NFL

Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas on Monday offered a sharp rebuke to the notion that the American flag should only be viewed as a symbol for the U.S. military. The one minute and 56-second video clip from his interview with CNN's "News Day" quickly made its way through social media, earning a high volume of views and mostly supportive comments.

Costas' comments come amid backlash from those who felt that NFL players were showing a form of disrespect in kneeling and locking arms during the national anthem Sunday. On Monday morning, President Trump posted on Twitter: #StandForOurAnthem and also retweeted a post about former NFL player Pat Tillman, who died in 2004 in Afghanistan.

"Part of what's happened, is that sports and patriotism and the flag have been conflated to such an extent that people can’t separate out any nuance," said Costas. "If you go to see 'Hamilton,' which is about the founding of the republic, nobody says, 'Wait a minute. Don’t raise the curtain until we hear the national anthem.' When you went to see 'Saving Private Ryan,' nobody said, 'Turn off the projector until we've had the national anthem.'
"It’s in sports where this stuff happens — sometimes movingly, sometimes I’d submit cynically. "Because wrapping yourself in the flag and honoring the military is something which nobody is going to object to.
"We all respect their sacrifice. We all honor their sacrifice.
"And yet what it has come to mean, is that the flag is primarily and only about the military. This is no disrespect to the military. It's a huge part of the narrative.

"But Martin Luther King was a patriot. Susan B. Anthony was a patriot. Dissidents are patriots. School teachers and social workers are patriots.

"And yet at Yankee Stadium, if we can shift sports, not only do they play the national anthem before the game, but they play 'God Bless America' at the seventh-inning stretch 81 times a year at home games. And in every case, they say, 'Please rise as the Yankees honor a military guest.' I have no problem with that. I stand every time I'm in the ballpark, no matter what it is, I stand. And I certainly respect the military person they bring out there.

"But there's never a school teacher. There's never a social worker.

"Patriotism comes in many forms and what has happened is it's been conflated with kind of a bumper-sticker-kind-of-flag-waving and with the military only. So that the people cannot see, in his own way, Colin Kaepernick, however imperfectly, is doing a patriotic thing. And so to are some of these other players."

Costas, giving Trump the "extreme benefit of the doubt," said Trump's comments are "insensitive."

Former NFL star Marvin Washington echoed Costas' comments Monday morning on MSNBC, citing civil rights activists Rosa Parks' efforts against the segregated buses.