Cleveland Browns players stood with arms locked together during the national anthem Saturday after Hall of Famer Jim Brown criticized protesting during the song like some players did during last week's exhibition game.
The Browns were in Tampa on Saturday for an exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In a home game on Aug. 21, Isaiah Crowell, Duke Johnson, Jabrill Peppers, Christian Kirksey, Seth DeValve, Jamie Collins, Kenny Britt, Ricardo Louis and Jamar Taylor were among the players who knelt and huddled behind the team near the bench during the national anthem at a game against the New York Giants, wrote Cleveland.com.
On Saturday, though, a large group of players, including many of those involved in the protest five days earlier, stood for the anthem, but locked their arms together, Cleveland.com said.
Brown, the legendary Cleveland running back and longtime special adviser to the football team, met with the players during the week about the protest, per Cleveland.com. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the national anthem protests during NFL games last year to protest alleged police brutality against African-Americans.
On the The Post Game website, Brown denounced protests during the national anthem.
"I'm going to give you the real deal: I'm an American," Brown, who was known for his work in the African-American community during and after his career, told the website. "I don't desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I'm not gonna do anything against the flag and national anthem. I'm going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I'll work out the problems, but I'll do it in an intelligent manner.
"If you have a cause, I think you should organize it, present it in a manner where it's not only you standing or sitting on one knee, but a lot of people that is gonna get behind each other and do something about it. If I ask you one question: Who is Colin calling on to follow what he's talking about?" Brown continued.
Browns cornerback Jason McCourty told Cleveland.com that Brown talked with the players but did not tell them not to kneel during the anthem.
"We're just trying to figure out the best way that we can go about our responsibilities and the things that we can do to try to impact the change," McCourty told the website. "... we knew we wanted to change it up a little bit and we know we want to try to continue to get bigger numbers involved on our team of guys that are willing to do stuff and be a part of it."
Kirksey, who was involved in the original protest on Aug. 21, told Cleveland.com that protesting players were "just trying to do something different. Just wanted to make sure we're still getting the message across."