One week after President Donald Trump criticized NFL players for protesting during the national anthem, Americans say they are paying close attention to the story and are divided in their attitudes about the protests.

The results come from a nationwide online survey of 1,055 adults 18 and older conducted by Global Strategy Group for ESPN. The sampling is representative of country demographics including gender, race, geographic location and political affiliation. The survey included both sports fans and non-sports fans and was conducted from Sept. 26-28. The margin of error for a survey of this sample size is plus or minus 3 percent.

Asked if they approve or disapprove of the recent NFL player protests, 51 percent said they either somewhat or strongly disapprove, compared to 39 percent who did approve. When broken down by race, 72 percent of African-American respondents either strongly approved or somewhat approved of the protests, while 62 percent of whites either somewhat disapproved or strongly disapproved.

Survey respondents that identified themselves as avid NFL fans were split almost evenly on the protests, with 48 percent strongly or somewhat approving and 47 percent strongly or somewhat disapproving.