COLUMBIA, MO (KOMU/CNN) - A bar is getting criticism for a doormat that's being called racist.
The makeshift mat of NFL jerseys started as a stance against anthem protests.
Jason Burle has been running a Lake Ozark bar for almost two years.
A project that gives a nod to his military roots.
His father served in the Navy from 1969 to 1973 during Vietnam. He, too, served in the military, and now his son.
In the “hallway of heroes” around the corner from the bar, there is a reminder of what the Snafu Bar is really about.
"Mostly it's people that come in here, either customers or family of customers. We have some people's fathers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts," Burle said.
Those pictures, however, aren't the ones getting Snafu Bar attention.
Taylor Sloan saw a makeshift doormat outside the door of Snafu over the weekend, took a picture, and posted it online, eventually getting into a heated argument with Burle on Facebook.
"It just really upsets me when I see people, you know, put kind of a faux patriotism guise on racism," Sloan said.
"It's not a race thing. A lot of people want to twist it around to be a race thing,” Burle said. “They were placed the way they came out of the box. I ordered them together. We pulled them out of the box, taped them down. There was no ill-intent."
Nothing, he said, but distaste for kneeling during the national anthem.
"A lot of us military folks take that personal to heart. I could line this whole sidewalk with NFL players that don't stand for the flag," Burle said. "I commend them for what they're doing, as far as the right goes. I fought for that right. The same thing that gives them that right gives me the right to place these out here."
He insisted the order was an accident, and hoped to switch the narrative, so he can get back to what he started this bar for in the first place.
Sloan said he respects veterans, his father was in Vietnam.
Copyright 2017 KOMU via CNN. All rights reserved.
