A demonstration of unity
Cards, Cowboys stage display before Monday evening game
Players, coaches and executives from the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys staged a unity demonstration before the NFL’s showcase game Monday night in at University of Phoenix Stadium, capping days of socialjustice protests and First Amendment concerns that enveloped the nation’s most popular sport.
Anticipation had been high ahead of the game, as players around the league, touched off by President Donald Trump’s latest speech and Twitter barrage, joined a growing movement of kneeling protests during the national anthem.
The Cardinals and Cowboys organizations had been mum about what they might do after Trump called on owners to respond to any player who took a knee by getting “that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. You’re fired.”
It started with the Cowboys, who took the field first as the visiting team. They walked out and stood arm in arm. Just before the anthem was played, they all took a knee, even owner Jerry Jones, who has been a Trump supporter and has said he didn’t think it was appropriate to protest during the anthem.
Some in the crowd booed. But that stopped quickly when the team stood and walked to its sideline before a massive American flag was unfurled. Players lined up alongside those holding the
field-size flag and stood for the singing of the anthem.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, stood arm in arm in the end zone, including team President Michael Bidwill. Two players, Frostee Rucker and Ifeanyi Momah, however, kept their helmets on during the anthem. Rucker, for his part, said it wasn't an act of protest. Momah wasn't immediately available for comment.
Neither Bidwill nor Jones issued a statement immediately after their demonstrations.
The Cardinals public address announcer asked fans to lock arms for the anthem regardless of what jerseys they were wearing.
Most didn’t hear the announcement, but 45-year-old Alex Sevilla of Litchfield Park and 36-year-old Ron Holloway of Scottsdale did.
They said they didn’t know each other before the game, but wanted to join the show of unity.
“It’s all about our country and what we stand for,” Sevilla said. “It’s all about our country and being together.”
The reactions capped a weekend of demonstrations across the NFL after the president gave the movement new life with a speech Friday in Alabama and a subsequent series of tweets saying protesting players were disrespecting the flag and the nation and that they had no place in pro sports.
The president on Monday continued to criticize the NFL over the demonstrations, in part by using a new hashtag, #StandForAnthem, and retweeting an image of Pat Tillman wearing his Army uniform.
Arizona State professor Joe Russomanno, an expert on the First Amendment, said the president’s comments put “a different spin” on the issue, by creating an opening for the argument that the government is seeking to curtail freespeech rights.
The social-justice protests had been scattershot, started by former San Franckisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick last season to draw awareness to heavy-handed police practices in minority communities that led to the deaths of unarmed black men and triggered protests around the nation.
But newly galvanized players, led by immediate pushback on social media from NBA players including LeBron James, protested by the dozens Sunday.
Many locked arms during the anthem, as some stood and others kneeled. Most Raiders players kneeled or sat. Several teams stayed in their locker rooms.