The NFL has a new policy regarding players wanting to take a knee for the National Anthem. Yes the policy is terrible, but the NFL clearly doesn’t care and will do anything to protect the shield.
The National Football Players Association wants to make sure that the players are heard and have looked into hiring multiple lawyers to fight this new policy. The policy requires all players in the playing area to stand for the anthem, and which requires any player who would protest the anthem to remain in the locker room.
The challenge is of a non-injury grievance. The deadline to file is in July and with that the NFL allowed players to protest previously but has now taken away that right.
In 2009, the NFL gave the players a right to protest according to Profootballtalk, it also noted players to be present on the sideline for the anthem but that makes standing optional. In 2016 when Colin Kaepernick took a knee for social injustice things took a turn and when you have the President calling out athletes for taking a knee, the NFL made a rule change.
Hopefully, the NFLPA can fight this rule change and the NFL would likely lose. Stay tuned for more updates on this ongoing story.