So what would happen when an NFL player protested the American flag and national anthem for the first time during the 2016 regular season? And how would the TV network covering the controversy react?
The answer came quickly during Thursday night's opener between the Super Bowl champion Broncos and Panthers. During the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall took a knee. He was the only player on either sideline to do so.
WEEK 1 PICKS: Straight up | Against the spread
The low-key way NBC Sports covered it likely will be the gameplan NFL broadcast partners implement if more players follow the example of Colin Kaepernick.
NBC didn't clutch its pearls and faint like Miss Pittypatt in "Gone with the Wind." The sky didn't fall. The world didn't end. The U.S. Marines standing at attention at midfield didn't charge Marshall with bayonets. The fighter jet streaking overhead didn't strafe him while he was on one knee.
NBC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels simply reported that Marshall (a college teammate/fraternity brother of Kaepernick's at Nevada) appeared to be the only player on either sideline not standing for the anthem.
"Well, the national anthem has become the big story. You saw all of the Panthers standing. And except for Marshall, Brandon Marshall the linebacker who was down on one knee, the rest of the Broncos were standing," Michaels said. "That is the national anthem post-script in Denver tonight."
And that was it. Michaels and analyst Cris Collinsworth quickly turned back to the kickoff, the game and the football storylines.
MORE: NFL keeps head in the clouds with Cam Newton hits
I wished sideline reporter Michele Tafyoya had tried to grab Marshall for an interview. She's one of the best in the business. I thought that was the gameplan when I watched an NBC cameraman sneaking in behind the kneeling Marshall.
Instead, when Michaels threw it to Tafoya on the sideline, she talked about DeMarcus Ware's offseason rehab from a lingering back injury.
After kickoff, NBC wisely focused on the game and not the protest. Even when Marshall left the field for a possible concussion, Michaels, Collinsworth and Tafoya only discussed his concussion history. They didn't rehash the kneel down during the "Star-Spangled Banner."
In other words, NBC played it strictly down the middle.
MORE: Collinsworth fears for Kaepernick's career
They didn't ignore the news of Marshall's protest. Not showing Marshall kneeling for the anthem would have made the network look like total propaganda tools for the NFL.
But NBC didn't get hysterical, either. By not dwelling, they satisfied the millions of TV viewers who see Marshall and Kaepernick's protest as an insult to the flag, police and the U.S. military.
Don't forget — most of the Week 1 games will kick off Sunday on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that slaughtered thousands of U.S. citizens, firefighters, police and military.
Emotions are still raw regarding Kaepernick's protest, as well as the pro athletes who have followed his lead such as Marshall and soccer star Megan Rapinoe.
When I noted on Twitter that NBC showed Marshall taking the knee, my feed lit up. Some celebrated when Marshall was forced to the locker room due to a possible concussion.
Patrons need to stop spending money on @nfl. Football should not be used to disrespect America @TimHHeaton @MilamBill @MMcCarthyREV @Broncos
— ن Deb ن (@deblessings) September 9, 2016
Time to boycott NFL https://t.co/o0FpCb4mH7
— Tim Heaton (@TimHHeaton) September 9, 2016
@MMcCarthyREV @KirkAndCallahan @Broncos aaaaaannnnndddd he's out...karma is a woman and she's a bitch!
— patsfanmom (@MomztltCarolyn) September 9, 2016
In the end, I liked NBC's approach. It was a compromise between covering legit news and not letting it overwhelm the game.
I think you'll see CBS Sports, Fox Sports and ESPN follow NBC's lead on covering in-game protests during NFL game telecasts this season.
MORE: Understanding Kaepernick's true message
Some other quick-hitters on NBC's Broncos/Panthers coverage Thursday night:
Best Interview: Cam tells Tirico he cried like a baby after Super Bowl 50 loss
Despite the NFL insisting that Michaels, not Mike Tirico, call the network's Thursday Night/Sunday Night games this season, the former play-by-play analyst for ESPN's "Monday Night Football" was a big force during NBC's pregame coverage.
Tirico had a great interview with reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton of the Panthers where he asked the Panthers quarterback's pouty press conference after Super Bowl 50.
Mike Tirico: How’d you sleep the night after the Super Bowl?
Cam Newton: “Felt like a baby, crying…a lot of tears. I think this whole process has just made me realize that I’m human. You know, after the Super Bowl, I was distraught. I felt down, I felt bad. I cried because that’s the emotions that I had. I wasn’t doing it for the cameras. I really felt as if we had our opportunities and we didn’t maximize it.”
Tirico on Newton’s Super Bowl 50 post-game press conference: “Any regrets about the two and a half minutes, the thirteen questions and what people said afterwards?
Newton: “No regrets…I don’t want to have a sob story to say, ‘Well, I shouldn’t have done that.’ I wouldn’t be in the position I am right now if I would not have done the things I’ve done.”
Tirico: “But Cam, don’t you understand that some people see you after you lose, which you didn’t do a lot of last year, and they say, ‘Where’s the guy who was doing this (gestures) and the dabbin’ and all of that – don’t you have to take the bad with the good, and be better about how you take the bad?”
Newton: “Yes, that’s why I’m embracing this whole process.”
Tirico: “You went the summer without watching the Super Bowl. Why?”
Newton: “Because I didn’t want that feeling to come back until now. It’s not a good feeling. You know I was watching and Dancing with the Stars and certain people there that I’m fans of…(Newton was referring to Broncos linebacker Vonn Miller).
Tirico: “So that got under your skin – you see him doing the victory tour…not disrespecting him, but it just bothered you that it wasn’t you doing all this?”
Newton: “No that’s not it. It’s just...he can do whatever he wants, but I just know that his team defeated my team. Just seeing him on TV is just what reminded me like, God, he got the better end of the stick.”
