You tell me how these words were misconstrued.
“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.
“Initially, I totally supported the players in what they were doing,” said Ross.
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). 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’s still in communication with Trump – the two men’s football ties stretch all the way back to the USFL days before that football league folded – and Ross said he thinks the president “is concentrated on making the country better.”
This looks pretty clear to me. How can “All of our players will be standing” be confused in any way?
Flip the page to see Ross backtracking now.
