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Roger Goodell says NFL believes players should stand during national anthem


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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday that team owners will discuss a plan when they meet next week for dealing with the raging national controversy over players’ protests during the national anthem, adding that while the league respects the right of its players to express their opinions, it believes they should stand during the playing of the anthem.

While stopping short of saying the NFL would require its players to stand,  Goodell strongly suggested in a letter to NFL teams that at next week’s meeting the league would propose to owners that players be required to do so, while also providing a platform to recognize their community activism.

“Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the national anthem,” Goodell wrote to NFL club presidents and chief executives. “It is an important moment in our game. We want to honor our flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us. We also care deeply about our players and respect their opinions and concerns about critical social issues. The controversy over the anthem is a barrier to having honest conversations and making real progress on the underlying issues. We need to move past this controversy, and we want to do that together with our players.”

Goodell said the league’s plan would include “an in-season platform to promote the work of players” on social issues, “and that will help to promote positive change in our country.”

Next week’s meeting in New York was previously scheduled, but the ongoing controversy over the national anthem forced the issue to the top of the agenda. “There is no fixed proposal. We will have a discussion around all of these issues,” said one person familiar with the league’s deliberations.

Goodell has had recent discussions with owners and player leaders over the anthem issue. One set of conversations has come with a group of players including Malcolm Jenkins, Anquan Boldin, Michael Bennett and Torrey Smith. Those players have asked for official league support of players’ community activism.

“I expect and look forward to a full and open discussion of these issues when we meet next week in New York,” Goodell wrote. “Everyone involved in the game needs to come together on a path forward to continue to be a force for good within our communities, protect the game, and preserve our relationship with fans throughout the country. The NFL is at its best when we ourselves are unified. In that spirit, let’s resolve that next week we will meet this challenge in a unified and positive way.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, was asked about Goodell’s letter at her daily briefing and said: “We would support the NFL coming out and asking players to stand, as the president has done … Our position hasn’t changed on that front. We’re glad to see NFL taking positive steps in that direction.”

The NFL Players Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Goodell’s memo.

Joe Lockhart, the NFL’s executive vice president of communications and public affairs, declined in a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning to give a direct answer when asked whether the league believes that a team, under current rules, is within its rights to compel its players to stand for the anthem.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Sunday that any Cowboys player who protests during the anthem and, in Jones’s view, thereby shows disrespect to the American flag will be benched and will not play.

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross also has said he expects his team’s players to stand for the anthem. The Dolphins enacted a policy this past weekend by their coach, Adam Gase, in which players must stand for the anthem if on the team’s sideline, but have the option to remain in the locker room or in the tunnel leading to the field for the anthem.

“We’re going to do this together as an ownership group and a league with the players,” Lockhart said Tuesday.

Owners are scheduled to meet next Tuesday and Wednesday in Manhattan. It is their regular fall meeting and was scheduled before the anthem controversy was amplified by recent comments made by President Trump criticizing players for protesting during the national anthem.

“I think everyone at this point is frustrated by this situation,” Lockhart said, and added: “The commissioner and the owners do want the players to stand.”

The owners’ meeting will include “a discussion about the entire issue, including the [anthem] policy,” said Lockhart, who declined to make a prediction about the outcome of those deliberations.

Lockhart said “nothing has changed” regarding the league’s view of enforcing anthem-related guidelines in its game operations manual. That manual, distributed to teams by the league, says that players must be on the sideline for the anthem and should be standing. Failure to be on the sideline could result in discipline being imposed, the manual says. The league has not issued any discipline this season for such violations.

“It doesn’t say the players must stand,” Lockhart said. “It says the players should stand.”

Lockhart said he does not know whether DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFLPA, and other union representatives were told Goodell and New York Giants co-owner John Mara during a meeting last week that players would not face discipline for protests during the anthem, as Smith said Monday.

“Last week both the commissioner and the chair of the NFL Management Council John Mara were clear when they assured our union leaders, in the presence of other owners, that they would respect the Constitutional rights of our members without retribution,” Smith said in a written statement Monday.

Lockhart said he does not believe that any potential changes to the sport’s anthem policies would have to be collectively bargained with the players’ union.

Those guidelines are spelled out in the game operations manual, not the publicly available NFL rule book.

The NFL’s game operations manual says: “The national anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the national anthem.

“During the national anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the national anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”

The Cowboys are on their bye week and do not play this weekend, so their next game will come after the owners’ meeting. The Dolphins play Sunday at Atlanta.

Three Dolphins players last weekend were not on the field for the anthem. Two Cowboys players raised their fists at the conclusion of the anthem Sunday night, but Jones said Sunday night he had not seen that.

Trump has been unyielding. He said he instructed Vice President Pence to leave Sunday’s Colts-49ers game in Indianapolis if players protested during the national anthem, and later praised Pence’s early exit. Trump suggested Tuesday on Twitter that what he described as “massive tax breaks” received by the NFL should be addressed.

“Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag and Country? Change tax law!” Trump wrote.

Lockhart pointed out that the NFL relinquished its tax-exempt status in 2015 and that individual teams were taxed even when the league had that status.

“Even when we had tax exempt status, it did not result in a tax break …. We do not receive any massive tax breaks, none at all,” Lockhart said.

Some owners seem wary of the business implications of the anthem controversy and the public feud with the White House. To this point, there has been no indication of any major sponsors dropping the NFL. The league has disputed a link between the protests and sagging TV ratings. But the NFL has acknowledged that it knows many fans are angry and sponsors are wary of the league engaging in a very heated and public political debate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/10/10/nfl-owners-will-decide-whether-a-team-can-force-its-players-to-stand-for-the-national-anthem/

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I am glad you posted this.  Reaction started coming out this morning on ESPN, where they were playing the race card, making out like white men are oppressing black players.  Rush Limbaugh was talking about the change in direction by the NFL.  It is obvious the backlash from fans have had an effect.  It will take the NFL demanding the players stand for the National Anthem to satisfy me, but if the league does that, I will consider it a major victory, and there will be no need to continue boycotting NFL products. 

Jerry Jones seemed to be leading the charge by threatening to bench players that didn't stand.  I have never been a Jones fan, but this action by the Dallas owner is something I appreciate him doing, and it makes my view of him a lot better.  Thank you Jerry Jones.  Now we wait to see if the NFL does the right thing and makes the players stand for the National Anthem going forward.    

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I am disappointed in the NFL.  Now our president will feel even more emboldened to stick his nose where it does not belong.   Start of a very slippery and dangerous slope. 

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1 hour ago, Butero said:

I am glad you posted this.  Reaction started coming out this morning on ESPN, where they were playing the race card, making out like white men are oppressing black players.  Rush Limbaugh was talking about the change in direction by the NFL.  It is obvious the backlash from fans have had an effect.  It will take the NFL demanding the players stand for the National Anthem to satisfy me, but if the league does that, I will consider it a major victory, and there will be no need to continue boycotting NFL products. 

Jerry Jones seemed to be leading the charge by threatening to bench players that didn't stand.  I have never been a Jones fan, but this action by the Dallas owner is something I appreciate him doing, and it makes my view of him a lot better.  Thank you Jerry Jones.  Now we wait to see if the NFL does the right thing and makes the players stand for the National Anthem going forward.    

Yeah, no doubt, this is probably about to be a straight cave in to the demands of the fans and the president on the part of the nfl. Jerry Jones probably set the template when he set his team rule on this. My guess is that they were seeing it actually cut into revenue or something along those lines, because just a week or so ago they were doing a lot of self-back-patting about how awesome they were for being tolerant.

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1 hour ago, Running Gator said:

I am disappointed in the NFL.  Now our president will feel even more emboldened to stick his nose where it does not belong.   Start of a very slippery and dangerous slope. 

I doubt the nfl starting down this road had as much to do with trump as it does with the fans, but, trump casting even broader light on it probably hurt. He's definitely going to claim it as a victory though and, politically, he should. 

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2 hours ago, Running Gator said:

I am disappointed in the NFL.  Now our president will feel even more emboldened to stick his nose where it does not belong.   Start of a very slippery and dangerous slope. 

I hope he feels much more emboldened.  I welcome him sticking his nose in things such as this, and I applaud Jerry Jones and the NFL for finally coming to their senses.  If the NFL does make it a rule that the players must stand for the National Anthem, I will stop asking people to boycott them.  I might even go out of my way to support them to say thank you.  I especially want to thank our wonderful President, Donald Trump for standing up for America.  Thank you Mr. President for helping get these anti-American players in line.  

By the way, in all seriousness, I think this is far more about outrage from the fans than the power of the Presidency.  From the very start, the fans were letting them know how they felt by booing the players, and it was even beginning to effect attendance.  Rush Limbaugh is right when he said that the NFL was beginning to realize who their audience is.  

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1 hour ago, Steve_S said:

I doubt the nfl starting down this road had as much to do with trump as it does with the fans, but, trump casting even broader light on it probably hurt. He's definitely going to claim it as a victory though and, politically, he should. 

This is a huge victory for Trump.  Even those who don't like what happened at ESPN admitted that.  

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49 minutes ago, Cobalt1959 said:

I highly doubt you are disappointed about this because of Trump.

No, it is 100% because of the president.  The president stuck his nose into a private business where it does not belong.  But you are right I guess that it is not because of Trump but because of the president, any president that would do such a thing. 

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43 minutes ago, Cletus said:

Trumps just trying to make america great again.  and it wont if such disdain is tolerated.  I think it was trumps duty to say something.  anything less would be un-american.   I mean do we really want a leader to ignore something as this?  i dont.  I think Trump represented the american people in this.  if he said nothing, i would say thats cowardice, which is not a good trait for a leader.

The president of the United States, no matter who it is, has no business sticking his nose into a workplace matter.  He needs to leave private business alone and quit with the vendettas against people/companies he does not like. 

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3 hours ago, shiloh357 said:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday that team owners will discuss a plan when they meet next week for dealing with the raging national controversy over players’ protests during the national anthem, adding that while the league respects the right of its players to express their opinions, it believes they should stand during the playing of the anthem.

While stopping short of saying the NFL would require its players to stand,  Goodell strongly suggested in a letter to NFL teams that at next week’s meeting the league would propose to owners that players be required to do so....

This would be problematic to enforce, especially after the following "revelation."

"You may have seen it in comment sections across social media Sunday. The so-called 'rule' forcing all NFL players to be on the sidelines for the national anthem spread like wildfire.

"On Sunday, many social media users posted the following text:

'The specific NFL rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem.

'During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition.

'It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.'

"However, nowhere in the NFL's 2017 Official Playing Rules does the organization mention the national anthem. And pages 62 and 63 contain information on the enforcement of fouls...."

http://q13fox.com/2017/09/24/do-nfl-rules-say-players-must-stand-during-the-anthem/

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