Wheelchair-Bound Football Player Stands for National Anthem

Instead of sitting for the national anthem, one high school football player is getting praise for standing for it.

An image of the boy getting out of his wheelchair for "The Star-Spangled Banner" has gone viral.

The boy has been identified as Carson Geddes, a 16-year-old junior at Orem High School, in Orem, Utah.

Geddes, a junior defensive end, was confined to a wheelchair after undergoing hernia surgery. Even though he admits "I didn't feel too good," he says he felt compelled to stand:

I'm really patriotic...that's probably the main reason, just because I love my country and I really respect the people who fight to keep our country the way it is, and for our flag, so it's just out of respect for those people," he said. "I just felt, it's just what I do."

Geddes said his actions also had nothing to do with the recent controversy over San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision not to stand for the national anthem. "It's not any of that, they have their rights," he said. "I just hope that people recognize patriotism a little bit more now, and what it means, and what the flag stands for, and the people who defend it."

Geddes' move also comes shortly after a Texas youth football team's decision not to stand for the anthem.