SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - On a day when NFL teams grabbed the nation's attention by co-ordinating demonstrations during the national anthem, a 97-year-old Second World War veteran went viral with a solitary show of support for the protests.

Sunday morning of his grandfather, John Middlemas, kneeling while wearing a veteran's cap. Gilmore wrote: “My grandpa is a 97 year-old WWII vet & Missouri farmer who wanted to join w/ those who #TakeaKnee: 'those kids have every right to protest.â€'

Middlemas is a farmer from Willard, Missouri. He tells the Springfield News-Leader he wanted to communicate “that you have to love everybody.†He adds: “We don't kill people. We want to make people live.â€

The image has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter.