This afternoon, the NFL announced a new behavioral agreement for the entire league and all related personnel in regards to the National Anthem. However, according to ESPN, San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York did not participate in this decision that the NFL says was “unanimous” across the league. The technicality of this term is just that all teams that participated were unanimously in favor, not that all teams were involved.
Reporters asked York why he abstained from the vote and he said:
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.
Jed York has shown his support for social change in standing by the protests of former 49ers players Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid. In his own form of protest to this policy, the team owner says that he may halt concession sales during the National Anthem at 49ers home games:
I don’t think we should be profiting if we’re going to put this type of attention and focus on the field and on the flag.
York also said that he could not vote on something like this without input from the players, with whom the NFL did not discuss this new policy change before putting it into effect. Shady behavior.