I think fans will begin thinking about who these players are that are protesting the respect of this country. They are all(with few exceptions) black.
The path being taken is when fans, who are overwhelmingly white, begin losing interest in supporting a game where the players cannot be identified with, not only for their poor attitudes for our country, but they simply do not look like those fans. Not a racist thing, just a human trait.
The NBA had the same problem in the 70s with the black power thing and Afros. It took the personalities of Larry Byrd and Magic Johnson, followed by Michael Jordan, to resurrect the league from obscurity.