❝ N.F.L. players across the country demonstrated during the national anthem on Sunday in a show of solidarity against President Trump, who scolded the league and players on Twitter this weekend. With the support of team owners, some of whom joined their teams on the field, dozens of players knelt in silent protests, while Tom Brady and others opted to stand and lock arms.
❝ The Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans both stayed in their respective locker rooms prior to their matchup in Nashville.
The young woman who sang the national anthem for their match – also took a knee in solidaruity.
Eideard 
“Trump’s problem isn’t with athletes being political. It’s with athletes speaking out against racism.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/25/trumps-problem-isnt-with-athletes-being-political-its-with-athletes-speaking-out-against-racism/
“NFL’s $205 Million Man Is Hated by Everyone But Those Who Matter : Anthem-protest ruckus a sideshow in Goodell’s contract talks” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-23/nfl-s-205-million-man-is-hated-by-everyone-but-those-who-matter The ruckus over whether players should — or should be allowed to — protest racial injustice during the national anthem is, without question, dragging on at an awkward time for Goodell. His contract with the NFL, which paid him more than $205 million between 2008 and 2015 (the last year that was made public), expires in 2019. A proposed five-year extension is before league officials. They’re discussing it against furious background noise and a lot of people calling for the commissioner’s head. He hasn’t managed to tamp it down.
Fans have burned jerseys and boycotted games. The media have been relentless, with Townhall.com Editor Katie Pavlich blasting Goodell as a “coward,” Breitbart News labeling him a “protester PR hack” and Fox Business anchor Lou Dobbs referring to him as “gutless Goodell.” League officials and Goodell didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The commissioner, though, isn’t beholden to pundits or the droves of angry people on Twitter, even the one who lives in the White House. The faith of team owners is all that really matters. This has long been a fact of widespread misunderstanding. As Fay Vincent, the former head of Major League Baseball, once explained to Bloomberg News, “The great myth that you have to deal with is that the commissioner is a public servant.”
With the exception of the Green Bay Packers, the league is a collection of private businesses, run by a small pack of billionaires. And since becoming commissioner in 2006 — 24 years after he started working at the NFL as an intern — Goodell, 58, has made them gobs of money.”
“Researchers have found that damage to white matter in the brains of former college and professional football players due to recurrent head impacts can be related to playing position and career duration, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.” https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/rson-fpa102417.php “Most previous research on head impacts in football has focused on cognitively impaired former football players. This is the first neuroimaging study to compare former football players with no evidence of cognitive impairment to analyze the effects of different playing histories and concussion exposure.”
“As Papa John’s evaluates NFL sponsorship, chain tells racists: Don’t buy our pizza” (11/4/17) http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article182822756.html “After the CEO of Papa John’s blamed NFL player protests for poor profits this week, the pizza chain was slammed on social media by consumers and even rival pizza-makers for the quality of its pizza – the true reason for suffering sales, those critics claim.”
The white supremacist website the Daily Stormer announced Thursday that Papa John’s pizza is the official pie of the alt-right, posting a picture of a pizza with a swastika fashioned from pepperoni slices. The caption reads, “Papa John: Official pizza of the alt-right?” https://dstormer6em3i4km.onion.link/papa-johns-pizzas-disgusted-with-anti-white-nfl-pulls-ads/
“…Meanwhile, some liberals have threatened to boycott Papa John’s and take their pie-buying business to competitor Little Caesars, whose founder Mike Ilitch reportedly paid for civil rights figure Rosa Parks’ housing for the last 11 years of her life, according to a Sports Business Daily story from 2014.” http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/02/24/Champions/Ilitch-Rosa-Parks.aspx
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, about two months after he publicly criticized the NFL leadership over national anthem protests by football players — comments for which the company later apologized. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-papa-johns-founder-out-20171221-story.html “Shares of Papa John’s are down about 13 percent since the day before the NFL comments were made, reducing the value of Schnatter’s stake in the company by nearly $84 million. Schnatter owns nearly 9.5 million shares of Papa John’s International Inc., and his total stake was valued at more than $560 million on Thursday, according to FactSet. The company’s stock is down 30 percent since the beginning of the year.”
A man is facing an assault charge after Montana authorities say he threw a 13-year-old boy to the ground at a rodeo [headfirst] because the teenager didn’t remove his hat when the national anthem was played. The boy was taken to a hospital in Spokane, Washington, but details about his condition were not released. Court documents filed by Mineral County Attorney said the boy was flown to the hospital for a possible concussion and fractured skull.
The alleged assailant is a registered violent offender after being convicted of a 2010 charge of assault with a weapon, for which he received a 10-year suspended sentence.
https://www.apnews.com/4393258ad7e546369420a71798d4874a
Conduct during the playing of the national anthem has been an issue in recent years, with some NFL players kneeling to protest police brutality. President Donald Trump once called for NFL owners to fire players who kneel or engage in other acts of protest during the anthem.
The U.S. flag code says people should face the flag during the national anthem. Military members in uniform should salute while those out of uniform may do so. Men not in uniform should remove their hats and civilians should put their right hand over their heart, according to the code.
There was no indication the boy in this case was protesting in any way.