NFL orders players to stand for anthem or stay in locker room
LOS ANGELES: National Football League owners own- agreed a new policy on Wednesday that players must stand during the national
they stay in the locker room.
The issue of how to handle player protests of kneeling during the pre-game playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has loomed over the NFL club owners meeting in Atlanta, with the sport anxious to avoid a repeat of the controversy that divided the league last season.
America’s most popular sport found itself at requirement, allowing players who do not wish to stand to remain in the locker room.
the anthems would be required to stand or “This season, all league and team person-
and the anthem,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.
“Personnel who choose not to stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room until after the anthem has been performed.” pass along to kneeling players. -
Goodell told reporters. “The team will have its own rules and make their own decisions.”
Goodell took issue with criticism levied at protesting players being called “unpatriotic.”
- ated a false perception among many that thousands of NFL players were unpatriotic,” Goodell said. “This is not and was never the case.”
Art Rooney II, the president of the Pittsburgh Steelers, said the policy was the result of extensive consultation.
“We’re not forcing anybody to stand who doesn’t feel like it,” Rooney said. “But those that
“We’ve listened to a lot of different viewpoints points including our fans over the past ye year and this policy is an attempt to get to a place where we have respected everybody’s point of view as best as we could.”