45 advocates forced ritual in NFL...

[Amarok]

Also love how the Right Wing Knuckle heads are trying to make  Villanueva a hero .when he agrees with the protestors 

But as his anthem appearance became the subject of heated debate on Monday, he spoke to reporters in Pittsburgh and said that he had inadvertently gotten separated from his team.

He said he had intended to stand at the end of the tunnel where no one would see him, and watch from there as the anthem was played. But once he realized he was visibly outside, he decided he could not turn around and go back to where his teammates were standing, a few feet inside the tunnel.

“Do you walk out of the national anthem and join your teammates?” Villanueva said. “That would have looked extremely bad.”

He added: “I never planned to boycott the plan that the Steelers came up with. I just thought that there could be some middle ground where I could stay in the tunnel, nobody would see me.”

In past interviews, Villanueva has expressed solidarity with the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s sideline protests over racism toward African-Americans.  

“Nobody thinks that when you’re taking a knee, you’re offending the flag,” he said. Similarly, he said, “I don’t think anyone standing for the flag is not respecting the fact that there is a lot of injustices and racial divide in our country.”

They have made a hero out of someone who rejects there own position . And might i add that buying merchandise still enriches the team . 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/sport...ml?mcubz=3

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Oh and the Steelers don't regret the protest merely how it was carried out .