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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has admitted that they were wrong in the way they handled Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality of black people, which ultimately led to the quarterback to be without a club. The NFL has been locked in an ongoing debate with players over kneeling protests during the national anthem before the start of games, a practice popularised by quarterback Kaepernick in 2016 to protest racial injustice and police brutality. Kaepernick filed a grievance against the league in 2017, claiming collusion as no teams signed him after he parted ways with the San Francisco 49ers. The NFL...

Five Democrat senators knelt during a moment of silence for George Floyd — a black man who recently died in police custody in Minneapolis — on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon. Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO) knelt during the tribute, which lasted for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time that video showed fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died. Chauvin faces a second-degree murder charge over the incident.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees continues to stand against players kneeling during the national anthem when the season starts, and on Wednesday he told Yahoo Finance that he would never agree with the gesture. “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country. Let me just tell you what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States,” Brees said. After receiving backlash about his comments, Brees reiterated his stance later to ESPN saying that he...

Proud, flag-loving patriots who hate seeing the American flag be disrespected may have no other option but to tune out of the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. The show has been mired in controversy ...

Miami Dolphins defensive end Robert Quinn lashed out at the media for not paying enough attention to his national anthem protests, which he said are supposed to shine a light on racial problems in America. “Y’all ignore it,” he said during a press conference Thursday, The Miami Herald reported. “Because when I gave my first message on trying to bring unity, y’all swept it under the rug.” Mr. Quinn has been raising a fist during the national anthem since he joined the Dolphins in the offseason. The Miami Herald suggested that kneeling during the anthem in protest is “radioactive to...

NFL LIVE THREAD Week 5 THURSDAY, OCT 4, 2018 (All Times Eastern) Indianapolis at New England 8:20 pm NFLN/Fox Gillette Stadium SUNDAY, OCT 7, 2018 Miami at Cincinnati 1:00 pm CBS Paul Brown Stadium Atlanta at Pittsburgh 1:00 pm FOX Heinz Field Baltimore at Cleveland 1:00 pm CBS FirstEnergy Stadium Denver at N.Y. Jets 1:00 pm CBS MetLife Stadium Green Bay at Detroit 1:00 pm FOX Ford Field Jacksonville at Kansas City 1:00 pm CBS Arrowhead Stadium N.Y. Giants at Carolina 1:00 pm FOX Bank of America Stadium Tennessee at Buffalo 1:00 pm CBS New Era Field Oakland at L.A....

As the NFL kicks off its regular season, some sports teams are experimenting with a secret ingredient to help reverse declining attendance: cheaper food. Recently, the Detroit Lions announced concession discounts for the first hour after gates open at the stadium, with $5 beers and lower-priced meal combos available at certain stands throughout the rest of the game. Lions Team President Rod Wood explained in a statement that the team’s program aims to serve fans “without hurting the quality or speed of service.” To be sure, concession sales are relatively inconsequential to an athletic team’s overall revenue, experts say. Still,...

An American football star who sparked a furore by kneeling during the national anthem has been unveiled as the new face of a major advertising campaign. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick will front Nike's "Just Do It" 30th anniversary campaign, reports said. In 2016 Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem in protest at police violence against African-Americans. Many other players followed suit but the protest has divided the country. President Donald Trump has called players who "disrespect" the US flag "sons of bitches" and called for them to be sacked. The Nike adverts show Kaepernick with the...

Two elementary school students kneeled on the field during the pregame national anthem ceremony at a Seattle Mariners game.

Papa John's founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players — comments for which the company later apologized.

All but 10 members of the Houston Texans took a knee during the national anthem Sunday, as the vast majority of the team protested the owner’s “inmates running the prison” comment... It appeared that all of the black players on Houston’s roster took a knee, while at least one white player — Ben Heeney — also knelt... The majority of Seattle’s defensive line continued to sit as it has for most of the season. Before Sunday, very few Texans had been protesting other than on Sept. 24, when 200 players around the league protested following President Donald Trump’s criticism.

Houston Texans players are planning to protest as a unit before Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks in the wake of team owner Bob McNair's controversial "inmates running the prison" comment, a league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter. The Texans held a players meeting Saturday in Seattle to decide how to handle Sunday after McNair's comments surfaced, the source said. Texans left tackle Duane Brown told ESPN's Josina Anderson on Sunday morning that he anticipates that "up to 65 to 70 percent" of the team's players could kneel. He said the players would not remove the team's decals from their...

The NFL's once-golden network TV numbers continue to drop. NFL games averaged 15.1 million viewers through Week 7, according to Nielsen data obtained by Sporting News. That's down 5.1 percent from 15.87 million viewers during the same period last season and off 18.7 percent from 18.35 million viewers during the same period in 2015. Viewership numbers are lagging for a variety of reasons, not least the ongoing protests during the national anthem that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began in 2016. Fans are still angry about Kaepernick’s continued unemployment as well as what's seen as the growing politicization of the...

It was a good night for California teams as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs to move on to the World Series and the Oakland Raiders pulled off a last minute comeback over the Kansas City Chiefs to win at home. Ending a four-game losing streak for the Bay Area team, that 31-30 victory on Thursday Night Football also came as Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch was booted out of the game for bumping hard into a line judge. In the first NFL game since the league issued its non-rule on whether players would be made to stand...

Four members of the Ann Arbor city council mimicked the NFL protests and took a knee for the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance during Monday’s meeting. According to Mlive.com, Chip Smith, 5th ward; Chuck Warpehoski, 5th ward; Sumi Kailasapathy, 1st ward; and Jason Frenzel, 1st ward were the four kneelers. "I can't speak to what is in each person's heart, but for me to 'take a knee' is an act of attention, of concern, and of respect," Councilman Warpehoski explained on his website. Warpehoski elaborated at the meeting: "And it is in that spirit that I take a knee...

You've probably heard many misinformed reasons online why the NFL owners are squishy on allowing players to protest during the playing of our national anthem. Aside from the unpredictable, mediocre play coming from players who have yet one more unrelated distraction occupying valuable time during the week all the way up to kickoff, it comes down to two reasons....

NFL player protests during the national anthem continued this week, defying pleas by Commissioner Roger Goodell and some team owners to have everyone stand for the song. While fewer teams had mass protests this week than in the early games, some players still kneeled, while others stayed in the locker room for the pre-game national anthem. The prior protests have sparked fan outrage and might have hurt television ratings, with some angry observers and at least one sponsor vowing to boycott the league in a counter-protest. A meeting is set this coming week between NFL management, ownership, and the NFL...

Inside sources say that the Oakland Raiders offensive line threw the game against the Redskins after QB Derek Carr refused to kneel for the National Anthem.

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews was one of many NFL players who felt personally attacked by President Donald Trump's comments over the weekend against the NFL and its protesting players, most notably the "son of a bitch" reference, and Matthews plans to use his platform to advance the protest. "I plan to kneel until the president apologizes for the comments that he made, because I felt like those were very disrespectful comments that he made," Matthews said on ESPN's NFL Live on Tuesday. "The league is made up of, I think, ... over 70 percent African-Americans, so the people...

The Star Spangled Banner As MOST - especially the kneelers - have never heard it. The actual history behind the words to our National Anthem....our song, as an American. And, why - as George Washington declared - 'we (the American Christian) will die on our feet, before we live on our knees'. We will never capitulate and lay down the colors of 'that flag'.