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*Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross says has proclaimed that all players on his team will stand for the national anthem beginning next season.
“All of our players will be standing,” Ross told the New York Daily News on Monday.
Three Dolphins knelt during the anthem several times last season. Wide receiver Kenny Stills will likely return this season, but safety Michael Thomas is likely to become a free agent and tight end Julius Thomas is likely to be released, according to ESPN.
“Initially, I totally supported the players in what they were doing,” Ross said. “It’s America, and people should be able to really speak about their choices.”
But Ross told the newspaper he came to see the kneeling as unpatriotic and anti-military, an interpretation that was taken by Donald Trump.
“When that message changed, and everybody was interpreting it as that was the reason, then I was against kneeling,” Ross told the Daily News. “I like Donald [Trump]. I don’t support everything that he says. Overall, I think he was trying to make a point, and his message became what kneeling was all about. From that standpoint, that is the way the public is interpreting it. So I think that’s really incumbent upon us to adopt that. That’s how, I think, the country now is interpreting the kneeling issue.”
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the anthem in the 2016 season. He and other players are kneeling to raise awareness about racial injustice and police brutality.
Ross did not say what the consequences would be if a Dolphins player chose to kneel during the anthem in 2018. Last season, Dolphins coach Adam Gase had established a team rule requiring players to either stand for the anthem or stay in the tunnel but later told players that if they wanted to kneel, they could do it and wouldn’t be punished.
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