BREAKING: NFL Fines Pittsburgh Steelers $1m Each For Skipping National Anthem
Donald Trump must have really gotten through to the NFL! After he tweeted on Sunday shaming owners for catering to PC culture while allowing players to disrespect our flag, our country, and our national anthem, everyone fell in line.
The Pittsburgh Steelers thought it would be safe to take “taking a knee” to a whole new level by hiding in the locker room while the National Anthem played and everyone elseABC showed reverence for OUR country but they didn’t count on it being extremely costly. reports that:
The entire Pittsburgh Steelers team did not participate in the national anthem ceremony prior to their game with the Chicago Bears this afternoon.
As the “Star-Spangled Banner” played at Soldier Field in Chicago at the start of the game at noon local time, the Steelers’ sideline was virtually empty.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told a CBS Sports reporter that his team would stay in the locker room during the anthem.
“We’re not participating in the anthem today,” Tomlin said, adding that the action was “not to be disrespectful to the anthem” but to remove the team “from this circumstance.”
“People shouldn’t have to choose” whether to kneel or stand during the anthem, he said. “If a guy feels a need to do something he should not be separated from his teammate who chooses not to.”
“So we’re not participating today,” he said. “That’s our decision.”
It was a bad decision. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who donated to Donald Trump’s election campaign, announced shortly after the game began that every player who “protested” the National Anthem and showed “immense disrespect to our nation” would be fined a cool million dollars.
“It’s one thing to protest, it’s another thing to be blatantly disrespectful to those who have served our country,” Goodell said, noting that “this absolutely should not have happened on Veteran Appreciation Day at Heinz Field.”
Goodell says that going forward, the National Anthem will be “a time of reverence, and players will be required to treat it as such.”
The NFL has acted disgracefully recently, but as usual Donald Trump (and America) wins.