Here were the quotes that the NY Daily News put in their initial report.
“All of our players will be standing,” Ross told the Daily News Monday at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, where he was honored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation with its ROBIE Lifetime Achievement Award.
But Ross said his feelings changed when he felt the message being sent by players kneeling was a protest against “support of our country or the military.” Ross seemed to give a tacit endorsement of President Trump’s tweets last year, when Trump switched the narrative on the issue by blasting players taking a knee during the anthem because, in Trump’s mind, the players were disrespecting the flag and the country.
“When that message changed, and everybody was interpreting it as that was the reason, then I was against kneeling,” said Ross. “I like Donald (Trump). I don’t support everything that he says. Overall, I think he was trying to make a point, and his message became what kneeling was all about. From that standpoint, that is the way the public is interpreting it. So I think that’s really incumbent upon us to adopt that. That’s how, I think, the country now is interpreting the kneeling issue.”
Ross said he thinks the president “is concentrated on making the country better.”
After getting some backlash especially considering he was receiving an award named after Jackie Robinson tried to backtrack and say he was misconstrued.
Here is what he said through the Dolphins PR.
“I have no intention of forcing our players to stand during the anthem and I regret that my comments have been misconstrued,” Ross said in a statement to the Sun Sentinel. “I’ve shared my opinion with all our players: I’m passionate about the cause of social justice and I feel that kneeling is an ineffective tactic that alienates more people than it enlists.”
The Daily News released the audio and it shows what we already knew that he meant what he said.
Flip the page for the audio.