A week after NFL owners implemented a policy to keep any national-anthem protesters in the locker room, a few Jets players expressed their dismay with the decision.
“Disappointing,” veteran wide receiver Jermaine Kearse said on Tuesday. “Me personally, I think they’re kind of missing the point. For us, as a team, nobody on our team kneeled. Yet that doesn’t mean we don’t support the causes of why people are kneeling.”
While players were discouraged by the league’s decision, they were happy that Jets CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson publicly said he would not impose punishment on any player who protested, and would pay any fines the Jets, as a team, incurred from the league for their players staging a protest.
“We’ve been actively in conversations with Christopher, on how we can go about it, and other ways to make change,” Kearse said. “I’m very appreciative of him. I think he kind of gets it, the fact that he has taken ownership, to support us and be actively involved.”
Kearse said other owners should look at how Johnson has handled the controversy. Last year, Johnson met with players early in the season after President Trump criticized the NFL players who kneeled during the anthem. The Jets players, coaches and Johnson decided to lock arms during the anthem for the rest of the season as a sign of unity.
“The conversation about whether players were kneeling or not, I felt like that conversation was dying,” Kearse said. “It didn’t get brought up until they decided to make the rule [last week]. I think we’re kind of getting away from the actual cause. I think we’re starting to focus on the kneeling part rather than the cause behind it. I wish [other owners] would be more like Chris and support the players and actively be involved and have those conversations with your players.”
Johnson addressed the Jets players last week about the new rule. He has remained in constant contact with the leaders on the Jets team throughout the process. He addressed the entire team last week.
“He just told us where he stood at,” said tackle Kelvin Beachum, who is part of the Players Coalition that has talked to the league about this issue.
Beachum said he wished the players had been more involved before the league’s decision was made.
“You would hope so,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re paid to play this game. They own the game. And that’s the difference at the end of the day.”
Jets coach Todd Bowles said it is nice to have Johnson’s support, but did not have much to say about the new policy.
“It’s always nice to have the owner have your back,” Bowles said. “It’s about the issues for us. We didn’t have a problem a year ago. We’ll continue to talk as a group, as a team, as an organization and go from there. We try to focus on the issues and do things behind the scenes that make a difference as opposed to sit out here and go tit for tat with a lot of things going on.”
