The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has been very active in the sports world recently. After releasing controversial statements against the players in the NFL, who have been protesting the national anthem, multiple professional sports leagues have all initiated counter-demonstrations.
On Sept. 22, during a speech in Huntsville, Alabama, President Trump said, “’Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now. Out! He’s fired.’” The national anthem protests, sparked by NFL player Colin Kaepernick, began when Kaepernick kneeled or sat during the national anthem. The demonstrations had slowly been dying down, but President Trump’s denunciation of the protests unexpectedly re-energized the anthem demonstrations within the NFL.
The Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens were the first to act on Sept. 24. Players and staff of both teams locked arms during the national anthem, before their game in London. Along with the twenty-seven members of both teams, Jaguar’s owner, Shahid Khan, also took part in the anthem demonstration. The day after, the Tennessee Titans and the Seattle Seahawks both announced that the players would stay in the locker room during the national anthem. Staying true to their statement, not a single player took the field 30 minutes later for the game. The three aforementioned games were only a few of the subsequent national anthem demonstrations throughout the league.