5-24-18-ERNIE ALLEN’S-TOP STORY-
NFL owners have finally decided on an anthem policy: one that is sure to continue to be polarizing as the league gears up for another season. Without consulting any players or the player’s union, the decision was that players can stay in the locker room while the anthem is being played but should they go onto the field, they must stand.
Predictably, the reason was mixed.
The decision was announced Wednesday by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during the league’s spring meeting in Atlanta.
In a sign that players were not part of the discussions, any violations of the policy would result in fines against the team — not the players. The NFL Players Association said it will challenge any part of the new policy that violates the collective bargaining agreement.
The owners spent several hours addressing the contentious issue — which has reached all the way to the White House.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016, a quiet but powerful protest against police brutality and racial inequities in the justice system.
Other players took up the cause.
Associated Press talked to folks around and associated wit the league to get their reaction:
Arizona Cardinals safety Antoine Bethea says the NFL’s new national anthem policy is “not really a compromise,” as touted by the league.
The 12-year NFL veteran noted that “if you want to use your right of freedom of speech and take a knee, you’re going to get fined. So it’s really not a compromise.”
(In reality, the team, not the player, would be fined.)
Bethean noted that the NFL did give players the option of staying in the locker room while the anthem is played.
“Either it’s going to be a team thing and everybody stays in the locker room or everybody goes out and stands,” Bethea said. “But I think the fine thing is kind of overboard. I really do think fining players for really expressing what they believe, I think that’s kind of overboard.
“It’s a club policy so if the club supports the guys to do as they wish, then that’s fine, too. If the club decides everybody stays in the locker room, that’s a decision every team has to make.”
AP 
