The Tennessee Titans announced that any player who chooses to remain in the locker room for the national anthem, will have the “entire organization’s support.”
As teams begin to take stock of the NFL’s new rule about players taking a knee and protesting during the song, Titans coach Mike Vrabel said they met as a team, made sure everyone understood the rules, and affirmed ownership’s support for any player deciding to stay in the locker room, the Tennessean reported.
It remains to be seen how fans in the deep red state of Tennessee will view the public statement of support for those declining to show respect for the flag and anthem.
Vrabel noted during a May 31 press conference that the team is fully supported by the organization.
“We talked about the policy,” Vrabel said, “we wanted to make sure everybody understood the policy, it had just come out. As coaches and players and everybody in the organization were fully aware of what the policy is.” He went on to say that the team’s owner and front office have given the players full support to make a decision on what they should do.
The question came at about 2:00 in the video below:
Vrabel said that the team would continue to address the issue going forward. He also noted that as a coach he continues to try to counsel the players.
“Whether that be our conduct off the field, how we treat women, the decisions that we make when we’re out at restaurants and bars and clubs, to not get in an automobile and drive. I try to just teach them every chance I get,” Vrabel said. “If there’s things that are on my mind and I don’t sleep at night, I usually come in and talk to them about them. Every day there’s a situation with workplace misconduct or some mistreatment of a female. So I try to remind our guys that we want to stay away from those types of situations.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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