How will Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott handle the national anthem rule?
Orchard Park, New York – Sean McDermott, like every other NFL coach, must make a decision.
The NFL owners passed a new rule regarding the national anthem this week. All players on the pitch are required to stand during the national anthem. They will be able to stay in the locker room if they so desire. If a player or anyone
else on the team chooses to “not show respect” for the anthem, the NFL will fine the team. While the rule does not specify the amount of the fine or what constitutes a lack of respect, it is in place to prevent players from kneeling, as dozens of players did last season to protest police brutality and racial inequality.
NFL teams must now decide how to handle this situation with their players. Acting New York Jets owner Christopher Johnson has stated that he will not fine players and will pay the fine if they choose to kneel during the national anthem. McDermott said it’s too soon to tell if the Buffalo Bills would do the same.
“Yeah, you know, the news is somewhat fresh,” McDermott explained. “I just finished practice yesterday and came off the pitch, and I had brief conversations with Kim (Pegula).” Those discussions are still in their early stages at this point. That is where we are right now, wanting to fully understand everything. We’ll have those good conversations as time goes on.
NFL teams must now decide how to handle this situation with their players. Acting New York Jets owner Christopher Johnson has stated that he will not fine players and will pay the fine if they choose to kneel during the national anthem. McDermott said it’s too soon to tell if the Buffalo Bills would do the same.
“Yeah, you know, the news is somewhat fresh,” McDermott explained. “I just finished practice yesterday and came off the pitch, and I had brief conversations with Kim (Pegula).” Those discussions are still in their early stages at this point. That is where we are right now, wanting to fully understand everything. We’ll have those good conversations as time goes on.
The NFLPA was not consulted on this rule. But McDermott said he will have conversations with his players.
“Listen, you’ve seen how we handled last year’s situation and that, we felt, worked well in giving our players the dialogue, the respect of the conversation, and some ownership there,” McDermott said. “I anticipate that at some point, just not at this point.”
At this point, the Bills have said a lot of words but not committed to too much. They haven’t taken a hard stance on the rule one way or another other than Pegula calling it a “great compromise.”
“We are proud of the work the league and our players have done over the course of the year to help strengthen our communities, raise awareness on issues of social injustice, and help find solutions,” Pegula said in a statement. “The policy instituted today will have no effect on that whatsoever. Our communication has been strong with the leaders of our team and that will continue. I plan on meeting with Coach McDermott, Brandon and players in the near future to reiterate that.”
Most Bills players toed the company line when asked about the rule on Thursday. They said they will follow McDermott, who has done a fine job navigating this issue over the last year-and-a-half. Lorenzo Alexander said he expects players to continue to do work in the community rather than protesting on Sundays.
“There’s plenty of ways and plenty of different platforms that we have,” Alexander said.
While this issue had started to die down, the NFL put it back at the forefront of the NFL conversation with this rule.
