Flight crew leave New Orleans Saints stranded on runway? Fact Check

Rumours are spreading online assert a flight crew for a flight carrying the New Orleans Saints football team “took a knee” and walked off, leaving the team stranded on the runway.

The rumours spread online amidst controversial protests by many NFL players who have taken to kneeling during the National Anthem played before games, protesting police brutality and racial oppression.

The rumours seem to link back to an article originally published on the site FreedumJunkshun.com that reads in part –

Flight Crew Takes A Knee And Walks Off, Leaving New Orleans Saints Stranded On Runway

“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.”
Looks like the group of thugs should have just considered themselves lucky they’re allowed to make millions for playing a game and stood with respect like they’re told to do in the league rulebook.
This week was the worst week in NFL history for ratings. Next week will be worse.
The New Orleans Saints made the mistake of once again disrespecting our veterans, our country and our flag. After an embarrassing opening to a game with the worst ratings in Saints’ history, the players and coaches learned that their actions have consequences.
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:

However the story is completely fake. Freedum Junkshun.com is a fake news site that belongs to a notorious hoaxer called Christopher Blair. He operates a number of other fake news sites that post stories targeting conservative readers.

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He recently posted a similar a similar story on another fake news site – thelastlineofdefense.org – claiming Gordon Ramsay’s waiting staff refused to serve NFL players and “took a knee” instead.

The site includes a disclaimer on the bottom of its article that reads –

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.

As such the story should not be circulated as true.