San Francisco 49ers Owner Jed York abstained from the NFL’s recent vote to fine teams if their players protest during the national anthem, and now he says he will close concession stands during the song as well.
While the National Football League reported that the vote to approve the new anthem policy was unanimous, the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders abstained.
York’s team fully supported former quarterback Colin Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid when they first started protesting against the U.S.A. during the Star-Spangled Banner in 2016. But York would not say if he fully supports the league’s latest stance against the player protests.
The 49ers owner would not fully explain his abstention saying only: “I think there are a lot of reasons, and I’m not going to get into all of them. But I think the gist of it is really that we want to make sure that everything we’re doing is to promote progress. And I think we’ve done a good piece of that so far.”
However, York announced a new anthem policy of his own when he said he would close concessions down during the playing of the anthem at this season’s games.
“I don’t think we should profit during the national anthem,” York told the media. “If we’re going to ask people to be respectful, I think that’s something we should do to be successful. We want to make sure we have an all-encompassing sort of solution to how we look at this and not point the finger at one group or another.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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