President Trump began Sunday on Twitter calling on NFL fans to boycott the sport to pressure team owners to discipline players who protest during the national anthem in order to draw attention to America’s racial and social issues.
But just hours later, as the “Star Spangled Banner” played at London’s Wembley Stadium, nearly all the players on the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens — joined by Jags owner Shad Khan and former Ravens star Ray Lewis — either locked arms in a show of unity, or knelt like Colin Kaepernick as they joined a growing wave of sports stars to publicly defy the president.
The match was the first in the NFL’s series of international games, meaning an early kickoff. Players in the rest of Sunday’s afternoon games were expected to make similar shows of solidarity.
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The issue of players refusing to stand during the national anthem has been criticized by some people and groups. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the trend last year when he played for the San Francisco 49ers, amid a year that was marked by protests over police shootings of African-Americans.
Kaepernick, who took the Niners to the Super Bowl in 2013, remains an unsigned free agent amid the controversy.
Trump thrust the issue back into the spotlight at a rally on Friday night. In a freewheeling speech in Alabama, the president told the crowd, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired.'”
The comments, allied with Trump’s withdrawal of an invitation to the White House for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, sparked a backlash from some of the biggest names in professional sports.
Trump continued to tweet on the subject throughout the weekend, while a number of NFL owners have now come out to criticize the president’s remarks.