Protests during the playing of the national anthem prior to NFL games, by and large, had waned by the end of last season.
But with the league adopting a new policy last week, some players think their peers might be more inclined to continue their demonstrations or find other avenues to do so, just to defy the new rules.
“I think it could stir things up, which is the problem because you're stirring things up because you've been told to be quiet,” Carolina Panthers wide receiver Torrey Smith said Tuesday morning. “It could've been done together to figure out what we can do to move forward and what would be best for the players. The whole reason guys were protesting was to draw awareness to something. To take that away and be, ‘Hey, don't do that anymore,’ like you're anti-American or something like people try to paint – it is very frustrating to continue to see that false narrative.
“You're going to see reactive things from guys, probably. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But if you do it, you see it, it takes away even further from what the message was, which was against police brutality, which evolved to the criminal justice system and a lot of other inequalities that we have in this country. So it's frustrating to see that the NFL had the opportunity to kind of right the wrongs and change the narrative that's best for everyone – people who are offended by protests and a league that's 70% African-American that understands and lived a lot of these problems that guys are protesting about. So dropped the ball there, but we'll see where it goes.”
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The NFL’s revised policy requires all team personnel who are on the sideline to stand during the anthem.
Though the policy gives players who do not wish to stand an option of remaining in the locker room, any violation of the policy could result in fines to the team. Furthermore, individual franchises will have the power to create their own protocols and levy their own discipline on players.
“You're disappointed but not surprised because, at the end of the day, the league is all about money, it's a business,” Smith added. “But to try to silence guys when they're trying to do the right thing for our country, I mean, I really don't know what to say about it.”
Smith, a member of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles squad from last season, has said he will not visit the White House on June 5, when the team will travel to accept recognition from President Donald Trump.
“Football is what we do, it’s not who we are,” Smith said. “When we’re here, we’re working. When we go home, we have regular lives just like everyone else. I have to hope my four-year-old didn’t pee on the toilet, you know? I have to hope my two-year-old isn’t breaking all the eggs up like he did this past weekend. I mean, we have problems just like everyone else. More importantly, a lot of us come from backgrounds where we know exactly what a lot of people are dealing with. It’s bigger than the game."
Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.
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