McNair says field is not the place for political stand
Texans owner Bob McNair said NFL playing fields are “not the place for political statements” and that teams must show fans that they “respect our flag and respect our country.”
McNair’s comments to the Washington Post came on the eve of the NFL owners’ spring meetings. Owners are not scheduled to vote on potential changes to the league’s policy on the national anthem.
“I think we all need to respect our flag and respect our country,” McNair told the Post. “I think we’ll figure out a way to make sure that we do that. We’ll have discussions about it.”
Owners are scheduled to meet again in May in Atlanta and a resolution could come then. The current policy says players are required to be on the sideline for the anthem and should stand for the anthem but does not require it.
“We have a policy manual now that says they must be on the sideline and they should stand and hold the helmet in their left hand,” McNair told the Post. “I interpret that to mean that’s what they should be doing.”
McNair was asked whether he believes the wording that players “should” stand for the anthem ought to be changed to say they “must” stand for the anthem.
“The union argues well, if you really meant it, you’d say must,” he said.
“We’re going to deal with it in such a way, I think, that people will understand that we want everybody to respect our country, respect our flag,” McNair said. “And our playing fields, that’s not the place for political statements. That’s not the place for religious statements. That’s the place for football. And that’s what I think we need to be doing.”
President Donald Trump and some fans were sharply critical of the NFL last season for protests by players during the national anthem.
McNair created controversy last October when he was quoted by ESPN as saying at a meeting in New York that owners “can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
McNair issued two public apologies.
“It’s a matter of concern,” McNair said of the protests. “We’ve tried to deal with it. We’ve talked to players and we hear what they said. I can just say in Houston we’ve been doing a number of things and we’ll continue doing a number of things in the community. That didn’t influence us. We were doing it before the anthem issue even came up. But there are fans that are upset about it. Fans are our customers.
“You could replace all the owners and the league would go on. You could replace all the players and the league would go on. The quality of play wouldn’t be as good. But you can’t replace the fans. If you don’t have the fans, you’re dead. So we’ve got to pay attention to them and make sure that they know we respect the flag. We respect our service people. We love our country.”