Although it’s believed that far fewer players will kneel for the national anthem in Week Four, the early-morning London game commenced with three players taking a knee.
Via Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, receiver Kenny Stills, safety Michael Thomas, and tight end Julius Thomas took a knee during the national anthem.
Stills and Thomas have been at the forefront of the anthem issue. In a feature last week on Football Night in America, recorded before the President took the controversy to unprecedented heights, Stills and Thomas explained to Tony Dungy that they had stopped kneeling in order to ensure that the message sent by the kneeling doesn’t become obscured by the kneeling. Last week, Stills originally planned to stand but decided to kneel. After the game, Thomas became emotional when discussing the issue.
As the league deals with the matter on a franchise-by-franchise basis, it’s no surprise that some players on some teams will kneel, and it’s definitely no surprise that Dolphins players feel comfortable with kneeling.
“I’m not with Trump,” owner Stephen Ross said during the Tuesday meeting in New York among owners and players on the issue, via Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com. “And I don’t mind anyone printing that anywhere.”
Ross also apparently doesn’t mind his players kneeling during the anthem, even though many would disagree.
