A "Stand for the National Anthem" petition has now been started by President Donald Trump as he continues to apply pressure on NFL players who take a knee in protest during the song’s playing before football games.
The protests started last season with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who both sat and took a knee during the anthem, saying he was protesting police brutality of African-Americans, and this season the displays have spread, including to other causes, while Kaepernick, now a free agent, remains unsigned by an NFL team.
The protests reached an apex when Trump suggested in September that NFL owners fire players who did not stand during the anthem. The Sunday after Trump's comments, more than 200 players took a knee during the national anthem.
"The President has asked for a list of supporters who stand for the National Anthem," the Trump/Pence campaign website said on Thursday. "Add your name below to show your patriotism and support."
Earlier this week, NFL owners met with players and their union during the annual owners meeting to discuss the controversy, but the issue wasn’t resolved.
Later, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell repeated his stand that he wants players to stand during the national anthem, but no rule forcing them would be created and the league would not issue punishments for not doing so.
"We just had two days of conversations with our owners of which this was a fair amount of the conversation and I think our clubs all see this the same way," Goodell said on Wednesday, USA Today reported. "We want our players to stand. We're going to continue to encourage them to stand. And we're going to continue to work on these issues within the community.”
"I can't deal with hypotheticals right now. We'll deal with these issues as they come up, but for right now, that's our focus."
That brought a terse response from Trump on Twitter.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.