A former NFL player and current Republican candidate for Congress in Utah drew positive press from Newsweek magazine Saturday for opposing national anthem protests and for defending an NBA player who refused to kneel. Newsweek's Benjamin Fearnow gave Burgess Owens fair treatment for his remarks on Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac's courageous stand, just days after an ESPN knucklehead delighted in the player's injury. Owens was a safety on the 1981 Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders team, and in June he won the GOP primary for Utah's 4th Congressional District. He told Fox News that Americans should "stand up, man up" for the national anthem and also criticized professional athletes for supporting a "radical left" political agenda. Author of the book "Why I Stand: From Freedom to the Killing Fields of Socialism," Owens appeared on Fox News Saturday to discuss his opposition to the intrusion of social justice into sports. Isaac (in photo above) is a Christian player in the NBA who manned up and became a pariah in the social justice world of pro sports when he honored America by staying on his feet for the national anthem and for not wearing a "Black Lives Matter" t-shirt. When he suffered a knee injury, the ugly Left celebrated. Dan Le Batard of ESPN epitomized the ugliness when he created a Twitter poll asking people to vote on whether it's "funny" that Isaac suffered a gruesome injury. A slight majority of the 9,000 respondents said "no," but many people took that disgusting bait and agreed the injury was both karma and humorous. Le Batard eventually removed the shameful poll. The Newsweek story posted Owens' response to the pathetic behavior of Le Batard and his leftist sycophants: "Jonathan Isaac should be rewarded by Americans because we love courage and at the same time we're seeing what true meanness is. Understand, that what we're seeing with the radical left is true evil ... What we're finding out now is how mean and how angry and how divisive the left is. "We need to stand up and man up for our nation and if we do that the bullies will go away because they don't know how to do well against those who are courageous and fight back." Owens said leftists bullies run and hide when exposed for what they are. It's not just the destructive protesters trying to hurt or kill cops who are radicals, but also those hiding behind the scenes, in colleges and corporate locations. They are people who hate America and its values, Owens said. "As Americans begin to turn off the TV, I'm one of those guys who will not be looking at professional sports until they fire some of these commissioners because at the end of the day they're undermining our culture, they're attacking our kids and they're attacking our American ways. I think we'll find more of that happening as we go forward," Owens remarked. Owens praised Isaac for following his Christian faith, for "doing what Christians do," and for doing "the right thing" by standing for his country. In fact, Isaac told reporters, "I believe that my life has been supported through the Gospel, everyone is made in the image of God." In addition to standing with Isaac, Owens defended President Donald Trump and said: "Because if evil hates [Trump], it means he must be doing something good".  Fearnow wrote, "Owens urged Americans who are weary of Trump's presidency to reconsider voting for him in November because of the sheer number of NBA and NFL players who have stood during the national anthem in protest against police brutality. Trump has repeatedly demanded the leagues end the practice and punish the players."