Last week, 13 current and former NFL players met with 11 NFL owners at league headquarters in New York City to discuss the ongoing national anthem protests, which resulted in the league and the NFLPA agreeing to work together on how to move forward, according to ESPN.
In a piece for ESPN The Magazine, Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. revealed the complex details inside the NFL owners meeting with the players, including some comments made from owners such as the Houston Texans' Bob McNair, Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, and Washington Redskins' Dan Snyder.
According to the report, Jerry Jones asked fellow owners to seriously consider the impact that anthem protests were having on the league's bottom line, and seemed to support a rule that would require players to stand. Wickersham and Van Natta note, as Jones made his case, Redskins owner Dan Snyder said, "See, Jones gets it -- 96 percent of Americans are for guys standing."
In regards to the players protesting during the national anthem Texans owner Bob McNair reportedly added, "We can't have the inmates running the prison."
Per ESPN,
"That statement stunned some in the room. Then Kraft, who is close friends with Trump, politely rebuked the hardliners, saying that he supported the league's marketing proposal and predicted the issue would work itself out over time. This argument seemed to find a receptive audience in the room. An unofficial count had only nine owners in favor of a mandate, though the reasons for the opposition varied: Some owners had tired of Jones always commandeering such meetings; some were jealous of his power and eager to see him go down; some saw the players-must-stand mandate as bad policy to invoke in the middle of the season; some owners were angry with Jones' hard-line public stance on kneeling, feeling that it had backed them all into a corner."
Former NFL player Troy Vincent, now the NFL's Executive Vice President of Football Operations then stood up and told the group he was offended. According to Wickersham and Van Natta, "Vincent said that in all his years of playing in the NFL -- during which, he said, he had been called every name in the book, including the N-word -- he never felt like an 'inmate.'"
According to ESPN, McNair later spoke with Vincent aside and apologized, explaining his words weren't meant to be taken literally. Vincent reportedly accepted the apology. McNair also released a statement saying he regretted using that expression.
The next owners and players meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, October 31st.
