5 NFL Teams Stay Inside During Anthem — Others Kneel, Raise Fists

13 Sep 2020 by Tommy Beer

Topline

Five NFL teams remained in their locker rooms during the national anthem Sunday, on the first full day of game play in the 2020-2021 football season, as all eyes watched how the league — where Colin Kaepernick started the kneeling protests in 2016 to career-ending effect— would handle the growing protests over police brutality and systemic racism in the United States.

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f5e741d15643deb17586841/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=4866&cropY1=208&cropY2=2945 — Mykal Walker #43 of the Atlanta Falcons reacts as the Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks kneel after ... [+] the opening kickoff at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 13, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)Getty Images

Key Facts

The New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills all remained in their respective locker rooms during the playing of the national anthem on Sunday afternoon, following this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests over the death of George Floyd and the abrupt reversal of the league’s attitude toward the protests.

On Thursday, in the NFL's official season-opening game, the Houston Texans became the first team to stay in the locker room during the anthem. The Miami Dolphins also announced on Thursday their decision to remain in the locker room on Sunday, releasing a 2-minute, 17-second video featuring several players criticizing the NFL’s attempts at “empty gestures” like including "Lift Every Voice and Sing," popularly called the Black national anthem, as a nod to black players.

"This attempt to unify only creates more divide. So we'll skip this song and dance, and as a team we'll stay inside," several Dolphins players combined to say. "We need changed hearts, not just a response to pressure. Enough, no more fluff and empty gestures. We need owners with influence and pockets bigger than ours to call up officials and flex political power."

In addition to the entire team-wide decisions by the Jets, Packers, Jags, Bills and Dolphins, many other individuals players on various other teams chose to stay in the locker room as well.

In Detroit, Lions starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is white, kneeled during the anthem before Detroit's season opener and was joined by several teammates and, in Baltimore, Ravens players Marlon Humphrey and Matthew Judon also kneeled during the anthem.

Key Background:

It's been four years since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sparked a firestorm by kneeling during the national anthem. "To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way," Kaepernick said in August of 2016. "There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." In 2018, the NFL announced that teams would be fined if players knelt during the playing of the anthem to protest racial injustice, claiming at the time, that "protests created a false perception among many that thousands of NFL players were unpatriotic." This past June, more than a dozen NFL stars took to social media to send a passionate message to the league about racial inequality amid nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd. A day later, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued an apology, saying in a video message, "We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest."

Tangent:

The Buffalo Bills announced Saturday that the names of unarmed Black men and women who were killed by police officers will be featured as decals on their helmets. Both the Seahawks and Falcons wore white armbands on Sunday featuring the initials of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement.

Chief Critic:

President Donald Trump has been an outspoken critic of players kneeling during the anthem. He has claimed that NFL players who did so were "disrespecting our Country & our Flag." Earlier this summer, the president said he would not watch NFL games if players chose to kneel.

Critical Quote:

"OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high... We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag - NO KNEELING!" Trump tweeted in June.