From Vice President Mike Pence’s own protest of national anthem protests – labeled a “PR stunt” by one player – to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ claim he won’t let members of his team play if they “are disrespecting the flag” to retired announcer Brent Musburger’s jab at Colin Kaepernick’s old club, “The Star-Spangled Banner” is somehow STILL a subject of NFL conversation.
Hard to believe, yet here we are, more than two weeks after President Donald Trump brought up the matter out of the blue at a rally in Alabama.
Pence left the Indianapolis Colts’ 26-23 victory over visiting San Francisco on Sunday after about a dozen 49ers players took a knee during the anthem – and Trump tweeted that he told his VP to do that.
San Francisco safety Eric Reid said he thought the whole thing looked phony.
“He knew our team has had the most players protest, he knew that we were probably going to do it again,” Reid said. “This is what systemic oppression looks like: Man with power comes to the game, tweets a couple things out and leaves the game in an attempt to thwart our efforts.”