Two NFL team owners with hard-line stances on protests during the national anthem appear to be maintaining their positions.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told the New York Daily News on Monday that his players will stand for the anthem, while Texans owner Bob McNair has made it clear that his management team not add players who have knelt, or might kneel, for the anthem, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Texans P.R. director Amy Palcic responded to the Chronicle report and claimed it is "categorically false and without merit".
In response to inaccurate reports regarding potential free agent signings... pic.twitter.com/CvI67Y91Uo
— Amy Palcic (@amypalcic) March 6, 2018
Ross told the Daily News he was for kneeling before he was against it, and that he flopped after tweets last year by President Donald Trump convinced people the protests were attacks on the U.S. flag and military rather than statements against police brutality. Trump called for kneeling players to be "fired."
STEELE: McNair, Texans change protest game for good
"Overall, I think [Trump] was trying to make a point, and his message became what kneeling was all about. From that standpoint, that is the way the public is interpreting it. So I think that's really incumbent upon us to adopt that," said Ross, who was in New York to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. "That's how, I think, the country now is interpreting the kneeling issue."
McNair's current stance isn't as clear as Ross's — the Chronicle cited two player agents who were third-hand sources — but an unwillingness by the Texans to add such players would be in line with McNair's actions last year.
McNair created a firestorm by saying at an owners meeting the league could not afford having "inmates running the prison." The remark was considered as being racist toward black players; McNair denied such intent. Texans players knelt for the anthem prior to a game in Seattle in protest after meeting with McNair.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who also demands that players stand for the anthem, tried to help McNair by saying McNair wasn't referring to players. Jones took a knee with his players prior to a Week 3 Monday night game in Arizona, but he did so before the anthem.
