NFL teams have shown solidarity with the protesting players before Sunday’s games by kneeling, linking arms or not going in the field during the U.S. national anthem, as a gesture of defiance against the President Donald Trump’s call for club owners to fire those who refuse to stand, Reuters reports.
Along the sidelines of the National Football League games across the country and in London, coaches, support staff, and even some owners decided to join team members in a gesture of silent response to Trump’s weekend denunciation of players who kneel during the anthem as unpatriotic.
In a move that was initiated last season by then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, several NFL players have routinely “taken one knee” during the playing of the anthem. It is intended to call attention to what the protesting players see as a pattern of racism in the treatment of African-Americans by the U.S. police.
In Detroit, several members of the Lions knelt while the singer Rico Lavelle bent down on one knee and pumped a fist in the air at the end of his performance of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
In Philadelphia, the city police officers joined with Eagles and New York Giants players and Eagles team owner Jeffrey Lurie to link arms during the anthem in a sign of solidarity.
While some of the U.S. citizens are sympathetic to the protesters, others see a sign of disrespect in the refusal to stand for the flag and for the members of the military who have sacrificed or died to defend the country.
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