Trump Sounds Off Again
Every N.F.L. game today has carried some level of demonstration by players, with some teams going as far as not appearing on the field for the national anthem. But nearly nine hours after the games had begun, President Trump once again took to Twitter to condemn the players who choose not to stand for the anthem, and the league that allows it. It was his 12th sports-related tweet or retweet in a 36-hour period.

In response:

N.F.L. players across the country demonstrated during the national anthem on Sunday in a show of solidarity against President Trump, who scolded the league and players on Twitter this weekend.
■ With the support of owners, some of whom joined their teams on the field, dozens of players knelt in silent protests, while Tom Brady and others opted to stand and lock arms.
■ The Seattle Seahawks and the Tennessee Titans stayed in their locker rooms during the anthem in Nashville. The Pittsburgh Steelers also skipped the anthem in Chicago.
■ After the demonstrations began, Mr. Trump weighed in on Twitter, saying he approved of players locking arms, but declaring that kneeling during the anthem was “not acceptable.”
Raiders and Redskins Put a Nightcap on Day of Protest
The entire offensive line of the Oakland Raiders, the only line in the N.F.L. made up entirely of African-American players, was joined by virtually the entire team in kneeling or sitting during the national anthem before their game against the host Washington Redskins. It was one of the strongest visual displays of the many protests today, and across the field, the Redskins stood with linked arms as some players chose to kneel.
Many fans at FedEx Field could be heard booing the players while they sat.
Michele Tafoya reported that Raiders Coach Jack Del Rio told her the Raiders players would have preferred to stay in the locker room, but because of the demands of prime-time television they would have likely incurred a delay of game penalty.
The protests were part of a massive show of solidarity in the face of harsh criticism by President Trump, who had called for protesting players to be fired. The day’s slate of games started early, with Baltimore and Jacksonville facing off in London, meaning the protests occurred over a span of 11 hours.

Players Explain Why They Made a Statement
Miami Dolphins tight end Julius Thomas, who previously had stood during the anthem, instead knelt on Sunday with three teammates. Asked what had changed for him, he said: “To have the president trying to intimidate people — I wanted to send a message that I don’t condone that. I’m not O.K. with somebody trying to prevent someone from standing up for what they think is important.
“Lots of people don’t have a voice, and I wanted to tell those folks that they’re not alone. I used my position to try to empower everybody who seeks equality.”

LeSean McCoy, a running back for the Buffalo Bills, also addressed the issue following his game against the Denver Broncos.
“I can’t stand and support something where our leader of this country is just acting like a jerk, you know, angry and upset about N.F.L. players protesting in a peaceful manner,” McCoy said.
Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, said: “I disagree with what the president said and how he said it. I think it’s very unbecoming of the office of President of the United States to talk like that to the great people like that. And obviously he’s disappointed a lot of people. But as it pertains to the national anthem, I will always feel that if you are an American that the national anthem is the opportunity for us all to stand up together, to be unified and to show respect for our country.”

Seahawks and Titans Stay in Locker Rooms
Neither the Seattle Seahawks nor the Tennessee Titans took the field for Meghan Linsey’s singing of the national anthem in Nashville.
While the Titans not participating was somewhat of a surprise, the Seahawks had announced in advance that they would not be on the field. Their statement said:
“As a team, we have decided we will not participate in the national anthem. We will not stand for the injustice that has plagued people of color in this country. Out of love for our country and in honor of the sacrifices made on our behalf, we unite to oppose those that would deny our most basic freedoms. We remain committed in continuing to work towards equality and justice for all.
Respectfully, The Players of the Seattle Seahawks.”
The complete absence of players made for a bizarre scene where team mascots and game officials were the only things the television cameras had to focus on besides the flag and Linsey. Unlike at some other stadiums, where fans booed at the protests, the fans in Nashville were eerily quiet during the anthem, and after its conclusion Linsey took a knee on the field.

An N.F.L. executive said teams that did not take the field during the playing of the national anthem, including the Steelers, would not be fined. According to league rules, all teams are required to be on the sideline during the national anthem, though they do not specify whether players must stand.

Trump Says Locking Arms Is Good, Kneeling Isn’t
At 2:20 p.m. Eastern, more than five hours into the slate of games and about eight hours after tweeting that fans should boycott games, Mr. Trump again weighed in on the national anthem demonstrations, issuing his approval for the locking of arms, while still condemning the players who chose to kneel.

The tweet appeared to be Mr. Trump suggesting that the players choosing to lock arms were showing support of the anthem, rather than protesting his remarks.

Odell Beckham Jr. Raises Fist After Touchdown
The protests did not all happen before the games. When the Giants tied the score in the second half of their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Odell Beckham Jr. chose to celebrate by dropping the ball and standing in the end zone with his fist raised above his head in a protest that has been done by black athletes going back to the 1960s. After the brief demonstration, Beckham ran to the sideline to celebrate the score in a more traditional fashion.

Beckham had been flagged earlier for unsportsmanlike conduct when he celebrated a touchdown by impersonating a dog urinating.
When asked about the celebration and penalty, Beckham told reporters, “I’m a dog, so I acted like a dog.”

How Players and Teams in Other Sports Reacted
■ On Saturday, a rookie catcher with the Oakland Athletics became the first player to demonstrate during the national anthem at a Major League Baseball game. “We have a racial divide that’s being practiced from the highest power we have in this country,” the player, Bruce Maxwell, told The San Francisco Chronicle.
■ On Saturday night, during an appearance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City, the singer Stevie Wonder kneeled in prayer. “Tonight, I’m taking a knee for America. But not just one knee. I’m taking both knees,” he said.
■ On Sunday morning, the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins said in a statement that they would visit the White House. Mr. Trump tweeted his approval, calling the Penguins a “Great team!” (A day earlier, Mr. Trump had tweeted to disinvite the N.B.A.’s Golden State Warriors to the White House because of the star point guard Stephen Curry’s opposition.)

■ On Sunday afternoon, athletes demonstrated ahead of a W.N.B.A. finals game at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The Los Angeles Sparks stayed in their locker room during the national anthem, while the Minnesota Lynx stood with their arms linked together.
■ At a Nascar race in New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, The Associated Press reported that no team members appeared to demonstrate while the anthem played. The Hall of Fame driver Richard Petty said that anyone who does not stand up for the anthem ought to be “out of the country. Period.” He added that anyone at his company who protested the anthem should be fired.
Fans Divided on Player Demonstrations
The New York Times sent several reporters to N.F.L. games to ask fans what they thought of the president’s criticisms and the players’ protests. Perhaps surprising to no one, all sides of the debate still have adherents, even if dozens of prominent athletes and many N.F.L. owners — a deeply conservative group of businessmen — seem to agree on some basic things.
■ Greg Zaccaria, 61, from White Plains, N.Y., has been a Jets season-ticket holder since 1978. He was in the MetLife Stadium parking lot before the Jets played the Dolphins:
“I’m a Republican who voted for him, but I think this is a battle he doesn’t need to get into,” he said about President Trump.
Asked his opinion of the protests, Zaccaria said: “I don’t support it. I understand what they’re trying to get at, I just think there are better ways of expressing yourself. I feel like if the media didn’t make a big deal of it — I remember that for years and years they didn’t show the anthem — and now all of a sudden this is an issue. “I feel like if you just let these guys do their thing and we could all move on.” — Bill Pennington
■ Twin brothers Alex and Jackson Hatch, 12, from Loves Park, Ill., were outside Ford Field in Detroit before the Lions played the Atlanta Falcons:
“I will respect the players more if they do kneel, because they are doing what they feel is right to do,” Alex said. “I know about what Colin Kaepernick is doing, he started kneeling a long time ago. Maybe the others are doing it to be with him too.”
“I do not think it is a bad thing for people to kneel, they are showing what their rights are,” Jackson said. “It might look weird or something during the national anthem but that should be O.K.” — Joanne Gerstner
Kaepernick Offers a Subtle Reminder of Why This All Started
As President Trump, the N.F.L. and the nation waged a fierce debate about the appropriate nature of national anthem protests, the man who started that debate, Colin Kaepernick, was nowhere in sight.
Instead, Kaepernick spent part of his day retweeting messages about the protests and photos of players who warmed up for their games in “#IMWITHKAP” T-shirts. But he also highlighted one that raised a point largely absent in this weekend’s discussion: that Kaepernick’s protests were never about President Trump, but instead an effort to raise the issue of racial injustice.
Kaepernick’s anthem protests began during the 2016 preseason, under a different president and largely unnoticed at first, in the wake of several high-profile incidents in which black Americans were killed during interactions with police officers. Initially, Kaepernick protested by sitting down.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” he told NFL Media at the time.
“To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”
After his seated protests drew scrutiny, Kaepernick began kneeling instead, a change that he said allowed him to show respect while continuing to press his point. Several N.F.L. players joined him in solidarity, as did athletes in other sports and leagues.
Kaepernick, who has not addressed the news media since last season, now focuses his energies, and his time, on education and awareness of causes important to him. John Branch of The Times wrote about that ongoing political awakening this month.
Not Everyone Supports Anthem Demonstrations
The reaction to the N.F.L. anthem demonstrations was sharply divided on social media, with many fans taking the players to task for their perceived disrespect for the flag, and America. Others disagreed with the president’s statements and backed the players.
Steve King, a Republican congressman from Iowa, echoed President Trump by urging owners to fire players who did not stand.

The former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said on Fox News, “I wish that some of these players who get on one knee would get on both knees and thank God they live in the United States.”
Eric H. Holder Jr., a former U.S. Attorney General, provided a history lesson:

Clay Travis, a Fox Sports contributor, tweeted: “Sports media’s outraged over Trump NFL anthem comments. Yet vast majority of fans agree. Huge disconnect in sports between fans/media.”
Others, without the platform of public office or celebrity status, also criticized the players who demonstrated:

Tom Brady Stands With Patriots
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who is friends with Mr. Trump and whose politics have been a cause of much speculation, joined his teammates in locking arms during the anthem before their game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. Brady, who has yet to address Trump’s recent criticisms, also put his hand over his heart. While Brady and teammate Phillip Dorsett locked arms, several other Patriots took a knee.
Bill Belichick, the Patriots coach, stood next to Brady during the anthem with his arms crossed.
Earlier in the day, the Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft issued a statement condemning Trump’s attack on the league, saying he was “deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday.”
National Anthem Singer Takes a Knee
In a first for anthem demonstrations in the N.F.L., Rico Lavelle, who sang the anthem in Detroit for the Lions-Falcons game, sank to one knee and raised a fist at the conclusion.

Steelers Don’t Participate in Anthem
The Steelers did not emerge from the locker room in Chicago during the national anthem before their game against the Bears. Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said the team would be unified in their actions, and the empty Pittsburgh bench was a stark image of the team’s unity.
“We’re not going to play politics,” Coach Mike Tomlin told CBS before the game. “We’re football players, we’re football coaches. We’re not participating in the anthem today. Not to be disrespectful to the anthem, but to remove ourselves from this circumstance. People shouldn’t have to choose. If a guy wants to go about his normal business and participate in the anthem, he shouldn’t have to be forced to choose sides. If a guy feels the need to do something, he shouldn’t be separated from his teammate who chooses not to. So we’re not participating today.”

Tomlin came out alone for the anthem and stood at midfield with his hands behind his back. Steelers offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva, a captain in the U.S. Army, stood by the tunnel entrance with his hand over his heart during the ceremony.
Rex Ryan Regrets Supporting Trump
Rex Ryan, the former Jets and Bills coach who once introduced then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Buffalo, expressed his regret on the morning show “Sunday N.F.L. Countdown.”
“Everyone’s always been united. Yeah, the views are different but let me tell you: I’m pissed off,” said Ryan, who now works as an ESPN commentator. “I’ll be honest with you. Because I supported Donald Trump. When he asked me to introduce him at a rally in Buffalo, I did that. But I’m reading these comments and it’s appalling to me and I’m sure it’s appalling to almost any citizen in our country. It should be.”

Jaguars and Ravens Kneel and Lock Arms During Anthem
In a pointed rebuke of President Trump’s call for N.F.L. owners to fire players who protest during the national anthem, Shahid Khan, the only Muslim owner in the league, locked arms with his Jacksonville Jaguars players on Sunday before their game in London.
During the national anthem, Khan locked arms with tight end Marcedes Lewis and linebacker Telvin Smith, both of whom are black, on the sideline to show unity with his players, who are trying to highlight social injustice and police brutality against African-Americans.

While the N.F.L. and several owners issued statements on Saturday saying they supported the players’ protests and were unhappy with the president’s comments, Khan was the first owner to stand with his players.
Khan is a Republican who contributed money to the president’s inauguration, and he has said he supports the president’s economic policies.
But he is also an immigrant and a Muslim, two groups that the president has routinely attacked. In February, Khan, who is Pakistani-American, said he opposed the president’s attempt to bar people from some predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
Khan’s actions will put the spotlight on other team owners. Owners of the Bills, Lions, Dolphins, Falcons, Rams and Giants were among those who issued statements opposing the president’s comments. But many prominent owners, including Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Woody Johnson of the Jets, were silent.
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Condemns Trump’s Criticism
President Trump doubled down on his criticism of N.F.L. players who take a knee during the national anthem, saying fans should boycott games unless the players are fired or suspended.

Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the Patriots and a longtime friend of the president’s, was among the first to reply, saying in a statement:
“I am deeply disappointed by the tone of the comments made by the President on Friday. I am proud to be associated with so many players who make such tremendous contributions in positively impacting our communities. Their efforts, both on and off the field, help bring people together and make our community stronger. There is no greater unifier in this country than sports, and unfortunately, nothing more divisive than politics.”
N.F.L. Owners Add Their Voices to the Chorus
N.F.L. owners, most of them conservative and many of them large donors to President Trump, joined with Kraft and backed their players’ rights to protest during the national anthem and condemned Trump’s criticism.
The Colts owner Jim Irsay said, “I am troubled by the president’s recent comments about our league and our players.”
The Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said, “I support them as they take their courage, character and commitment into our communities to make them better or to call attention to injustice.”
The Chargers owner Dean Spanos said, “The N.F.L. and its players, more than anything, have been a force for good.”
From Jimmy Haslam, owner of the Cleveland Browns:
“We must not let misguided, uninformed and divisive comments from the President or anyone else deter us from our efforts to unify.”
The Bears chairman George H. McCaskey said in a statement that “what makes this the greatest country in the world are the liberties it was founded upon and the freedom to express oneself in a respectful and peaceful manner.”
He said the franchise was unified by “this divisive political situation.”

By New York Times