If their employers permit them to protest i’m cool with that. every place i ever worked had rules the employees had to abide by or, if i chose not to obey, which was my right, my boss could fire me, which was his right.
The first amendment gives us the right to say what we want and to protest and demonstrate, against the government, not while we are at our jobs, unless allowed to do so by our employer.
If most of us want to remain gainfully employed, or self employed, their are rules and laws we must obey or their will be consequences.
So we pretty much do have to do whatever someone tells us during our lives whether we are pro athletes, military, miners, doctors, teachers, construction workers or trash collectors.
Freedom doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, else we have chaos and anarchy.
So, the nfl players can totally protest however they want, but not necessarily without penalty of some degree.
It does suck sometimes.