Texans protest ahead of tough loss

SEATTLE — All but 10 members of the Houston Texans took a knee during the national anthem yesterday, as the vast majority of the team protested the owner’s “inmates running the prison” comment.

Long before Houston’s players took the

SEAHAWKS TEXANS 41 38

field before a 41-38 loss to the host Seattle Seahawks, the Texans had indicated there would be some type of protest following the comments by owner Bob McNair.

McNair issued two apologies attempting to explain his comments after a story in ESPN The Magazine revealed that he said “we can’t have the inmates running the prison” during a meeting of NFL owners about players protests.

The entire team took the field about 10 minutes before kickoff. When The Star-Spangled Banner started, the majority of the active roster (about 43 players) took a knee.

It appeared that all of the black players on Houston’s roster took a knee, while at least one white player — Ben Heeney — also knelt.

Houston offensive lineman Duane Brown, who ended his holdout and joined the team last week, said he believed there was universal support among the players that stood and those that knelt.

“Some people didn’t feel quite comfortable (kneeling) and some people did, but we all supported each other. That was what was important,” Brown said.

The majority of Seattle’s defensive line continued to sit as it has for most of the season. Before yesterday, very few Texans had been protesting other than on Sept. 24, when 200 players around the league protested following President Donald Trump’s criticism.

Once on the field for yesterday’s game, the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson hit Jimmy Graham for an 18-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left, his second TD catch of the fourth quarter.

Down 38-34 with 1:39 left and out of timeouts, Wilson took Seattle 80 yards in barely a minute. He hit Paul Richardson for 48 yards on a jump ball to start the drive, found Tyler Lockett for 19 yards, and drilled a strike to Graham for the winner.

Wilson finished 26-of41 for a career-high 452 yards and four TDs. He hit Richardson for two TDs and found Graham on a 1-yard TD pass with 5:41 left.

The Texans’ Deshaun Watson threw for 402 yards and four TDs. But the rookie couldn’t come up with a final answer and was intercepted by Richard Sherman with 7 seconds left on a desperation throw.