New NFL Rule: No Kneeling for Anthem

Starting this fall NFL players, coaches or lockerroom assistants who want to kneel for the United States National Anthem will have to remain in the locker room to do it. Today the NFL owners have unanimously approved a new policy that requires team personnel to stand if they are on the field during the performance of the song.

Any attempts to sit or kneel will subject the team and player to fines from the league. In a statement, Commissioner Goodell said: "This season, all league and team personnel shall stand and show respect for the flag and the Anthem."

After months of discussion and two seasons of diving TV ratings, and cumulative ad revenues for all games and hundreds of thousands of 'no-show's' at the stadiums on game days, the owners vote for approval was 32-0. The owners believe this is a compromise with the players, you can still kneel, just do it in the locker room.

NFL Players Association assistant director of external affairs George Atallah said: "...we are going to do what we always do -- fight anything that encroaches on players' rights to the end."

Colin Kaepernick who originated the protest at the beginning of 2016 along with former 49's safety Eric Reid have both filed collusion cases against the league after failing to find jobs in the NFL as free agents.

Having become accustomed to doing other things on Sunday afternoons and Monday and Thursday nights, this writer wishes the league the best as they sally forth with the new rules and policies vis a vis common sense and basic human respect for the institutions and traditions of the United States which has rewarded them all so well.