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About 100 protest national anthem in loud NFL statement
By David K. Li, Mark Moore and Bruce Golding
September 24, 2017 | 3:42pm
(Hope these guys wind up with mush for brains in their old age. Shouldn't take much. It's not like they're intellectually gifted to begin with.)

About 100 NFL players took a knee during the national anthem at their games Sunday — including for the first time several New York Giants — while scores of other grid stars linked arms with their coaches and even team owners to protest President Trump’s heated opposition to the anti-racism protest.

The stunning league-wide demonstration kicked off in London’s Wembley Stadium ahead of a game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens.

Several Jaguars kneeled on the sideline while others stood arm-in-arm with team owner Shad Khan, who donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

A similar scene unfolded across the field, where Ravens coach John Harbaugh linked arms with a line of standing players. One Ravens teammate — safety Tony Jefferson — knelt while holding his right hand over his heart.

Nine other games kicked off across the United States less than four hours later, with players from virtually every team engaged in some sort of demonstration, including several who knelt while raising their fist.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who voiced support for Trump ahead of last year’s presidential election and stashed a “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker — stood with his right hand over his heart and his left arm entwined with teammate Phillip Dorsett at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

More than a dozen of Brady’s teammates knelt on the sideline ahead of their game against the Houston Texans, while all of the visiting team stood with arms linked.

Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie locked arms with defensive end Brandon Graham ahead of the team’s game against the visiting Giants at Lincoln Financial Field.

At least three Giants — Olivier Vernon, Landon Collins and Damon “Snacks” Harrison — took a knee, marking the first time that any member of Big Blue participated in the protest.

At MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, all the New York Jets — as well as CEO Chris Johnson and GM Mike Maccagnan — linked arms, but no one took a knee, before Gang Green’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

The only team not to take part in an on-field demonstration was the Pittsburgh Steelers, with coach Mike Tomlin saying ahead of time that his players would remain in the visitors’ locker room at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Tomlin said this was to keep his players protected from politics.

Still, a lone Steeler — Alejandro Villanueva, a West Point graduate who served as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan — was later spotted standing near the entrance to the field with his hand over his heart as the “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played.

In Detroit, several Lions knelt as singer Rico Lavelle belted out the anthem. At the end of his rendition, Lavelle himself dropped to his right knee and raised his left hand while pausing between the final words “home of the” and “brave.”

He then lowered his lead and lifted his right hand — still clutching the microphone — in a move reminiscent of the defiant “Black Power” salutes by American track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympic games.

The demonstrations began last year with then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during a pre-season game.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in August 2016.

The widespread demonstrations followed Trump’s remarks Friday in Alabama, where he said: “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. He’s fired!'”

Trump doubled down in a subsequent series of tweets, including one Sunday morning that said: “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!”

Following Sunday’s on-field actions, CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter tweeted that a source in the NFL’s front office had e-mailed him: “If Trump thought he could divide the NFL, he was wrong.”

Additional reporting by Zach Braziller, Brian Costello and Mark Cannizzaro

http://nypost.com/2017/09/24/about-100-protest-national-anthem-in-loud-nfl-statement/