US National Football League (NFL) players on Sunday sat out, knelt and linked arms during pregame national anthems played across the country and in London, hours after US President Donald Trump called on fans to boycott teams that do not discipline players who protest.
In the first few games since Trump stepped up his criticism of NFL players, dozens of players and coaches of teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars, Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins, did not stand for the US national anthem and took a knee, a gesture that began last year as a protest over police treatment of African-Americans and other minorities.
The Pittsburgh Steelers waited off the field during the anthem before their game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago to avoid “playing politics” in divisive times, coach Mike Tomlin said.
Photo: AFP
In Detroit, several members of the Lions knelt, while singer Rico Lavelle dropped to one knee and pumped a fist in the air at the end of his performance of the national anthem.
In Philadelphia, city police officers joined with Eagles and rival New York Giants players and Eagles team owner Jeffrey Lurie to link arms during the anthem in a sign of solidarity.
Trump made a series of comments over the weekend criticizing players who refuse to stand for the national anthem.
“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday morning. “Fire or suspend!”
In another tweet, Trump, who spent the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, said that the “league should back” NFL fans who are upset about the protests.
The form of protest began last year when then San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick put one knee to the ground during pregame renditions of the Star Spangled Banner. Several players have since made similar gestures.
Kaepernick initially started his protests last year by sitting during the anthem, but when critics said it was a sign of disrespect, he instead took to kneeling.
At a political rally on Friday in support of his favored US Senate candidate in a special election in Alabama, Trump suggested any protesting football player was a “son of a bitch” and should lose his job.
The comments against African-American athletes, who are taking a stand against institutional racism and inequality, stirred up Trump’s conservative base as he grapples with North Korea’s nuclear threats, an investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s US election and ties to Trump associates while also struggling for a legislative win on healthcare in the US Congress.
As the NFL community began to speak out against Trump’s comments on Sunday, including people he considers friends and allies, Trump took to Twitter again on Sunday afternoon.
“Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!” he wrote.
In a follow-up Tweet, Trump announced that the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, which won the Stanley Cup, accepted his invitation to the White House.
“Great team!” he wrote.
On Sunday morning, NFL managers, coaches and owners began to weigh in on the feud, criticizing the US president for calling out players’ political dissent.
New England Patriots chairman and chief executive officer Robert Kraft, who has dined with Trump and who the US president considers a friend, criticized Trump and defended players’ right to protest.
“I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the president on Friday,” Kraft said in a statement.
Kraft said he supports his players’ “right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner they feel is most impactful.”
More than a dozen Patriots players and coaches knelt or linked arms, including quarterback Tom Brady, who Trump had namedropped as a friend when he was on the campaign trail.
Brady placed one hand on his chest and used the other to link arms with his teammates.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan linked arms with team players in solidarity at the game against the Ravens in London’s Wembley Stadium. Khan donated US$1 million to the Trump inauguration fund.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in